Landlord Blues: Renting out the house from hell

While we were having all the trouble with Simon, one of the other housemates, Nigel, had seemed to be a model tenant. When you’re very focused on one bad tenant, it’s easy to ignore issues that are developing with others. When Nigel moved in, he said he was unemployed but looking for work and he let us see bank statements showing that he had in excess of £13,000, so the rent wouldn’t be a problem. The first year of his tenancy passed without incident. When I met him for the first time one day, we had a pleasant chat about cooking as he was attending a cookery evening class. He also said that he spent Sundays helping out the market-trader, Gerald, who occupied the room next to him, and who took his t-shirts and sporting memorabilia to car boot sales to boost his income. Nigel had a car and would drive Gerald to these sales.

So, it was a bit of a surprise when Nigel started under-paying the rent by £20 every month. This £20 was supposed to cover his share of the council tax; we had taken on the management of this as the tenants were incapable of sorting it out. He would promise to make up these £20 payments but make us wait for months. After five months of underpaying, he would pay £100 in one lump sum, so we weren’t too concerned. However, eventually, he stopped paying anything at all and when Adrian confronted him at the house he said that he hadn’t answered, when we were chasing the rent because he doesn’t ‘do’ texts.

Adrian said, ‘Well, in that case why haven’t you answered either the letter I sent you, or the note that I pushed under your door?’ The ‘phone not working and the ‘no credit on the ‘phone’ were common excuses, as was the letter that never arrived. We always got a proof of postage for important letters; this is free, just a pain because you have to queue at the post office.

By January of his second year at the house, things had deteriorated and one morning I ‘phoned him regarding the fact that he’d stopped paying his rent apart from £40 out of the £200 due the previous month, and nothing yet for the current month; he now owed a total of £520. The reason, according to him was that he had his money in savings that were tied up until the end of the month. I said surely it would be preferable to stomach a penalty on his savings (£50? £100?), rather than risk losing his accommodation and being taken to court over £500? I persisted.

‘Look, Nigel. We need a substantial payment within the next two weeks.’

‘Mmm, I could pay you maybe £45 a week. I think I could manage that,’ he replied.

‘But that’s not even going to cover your current rent, never mind pay anything off the arrears.’

‘Well, I am sorry I haven’t paid in anything recently, but I’ve had a cold.’

I said: ‘Yes, Adrian’s been ill too, but we’ve still had to pay our mortgage and the mortgage on Hill View.’

‘I’ll definitely pay £50 later,’ he promised. When I checked the bank later, he had paid £45. Paying slightly less than promised is a common part of the game. After I hung up, I posted his 14-day notice, as he was more than two months in arrears.

The following week, I rang him again. By this time, he would have received his 14-day notice, but it is rare for tenants to leave when they receive this notice, not least because, according to the law we have to serve them a notice which informs them of all their rights and tells them that they don’t have to move out. We would now have to issue court papers on the 25^{th if he hadn’t paid up (we had sent the notice on the 8th and we allowed three days for the post, to be on the safe side with the judge).}

^{During my next conversation with him he said, ‘I paid £45 in last week,’ and, ‘no, I haven’t seen the letter giving me my notice, because I’ve been up a friend’s, ill. You can probably still hear it in my voice that I’m not yet fully over it; probably the swine flu, I think.’}

^{It was like an old record; the person has been in arrears for three months, and the reason is that they’ve been ill for the last two weeks, and instead of me laying the law down, I should slip into nurse/social worker mode, whilst also paying to keep a roof over their heads; even in his case where he reckoned he had plenty of money in the bank.}

^{I had actually thought he was a nice bloke, albeit a bit of a saddo as they always were in that house; we had talked about how he was making a new meal every week in his cookery class. Despite not having a lot of work on, he had mostly paid his rent (minus his council tax). Then he suddenly decided he wasn’t going to pay any more. Once more, a seemingly good tenant, who has paid on time for a few years even, just stops. They decide they’re willing to move out or be moved out, and want to save up as much money as they possibly can before being made to leave. Around this time, my sister asked how we felt about having to be tough with tenants whom we liked. Adrian put her in the picture immediately, saying: ‘Nice is as nice does.’}