Bad experience with long term rental

I had a really bad experience with renting my villa to a family.The villa was left in a filthy mess with damage to furniture ,blocked drains ,stolen telephones and beds even the gas bottles were taken, plus unpaid bills.  What can I do about this.The guy who rented my house is a local estate agent in Playa flamenca who makes his living renting property and  selling the odd one too.I need to know if the police or guardia would help me.

Kevin

Have a check through your contract and the T&C of the management company and see if there is any breach. Make sure the agency blacklists the tenants, too few agencies dont bother to do this which doesnt help when checking out potential tenants.

If there is theft from the property then would have though you can report it as you will need a crime report or similar for insurance.

Can understand your frustration and anger as had a bad experience before.

Hi

Im going through the same thing,  BRITISH Tenants walked out and left apt filthy even to effect the people who have gone in have been biten by cat fleas..  I have been informed apt is discusting and things damaged etc etc

The UK couple have moved to Belamadena and work for a tourist company, i hear is some sort of time share..

I have been informed to go down this route,  check out this web site

http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/judicialatlascivil/html/rc_formseeo_1_en.jsp?countrySession=3&txtPageBack=rc_forms_es_en.htm

These are the 3rd tenants to do this,  2 Brits and 1 Australian couple,  shocking,  some people have no respect.

Rob

i think its a disgrace that people leave rental properties in this condition.

my husband was in the army for 17 years and we always had to do a "march out" before leaving the property and any damage or breakages were charged to us. its a shame there is not a strickter system in place in "civi street"

on a purely selfish note i think it people like that ruin it for those of us who NEED to rent long term until we found somewhere we want to be permanantly.  What happened to the saying "treat people whow you want to be treated"  should apply to property too!!

i am not long term renting yet as we still haveour house on the market but when i do i will definately treat my rental as if it were my own home!!!

Good luck with your next tenants-hope you have better luck 

Hi Infra

This is a quite regular thing with renters here and across the world. Did you not take a security deposit and if you did,was it not enough to cover the damages. The standard here is tenents must pay 1 month rent, 1 month security and sometimes 1 month commision to the agent.  I moved into an apartment with my husband and baby which I had to clean before I moved in, once we were living there we found that both toilets had been blocked by the last tenants and flies were everywhere! The agent did nothing for 4 weeks and when my husband finally did it himself and handed them the bill they were outraged!!!

All I am saying is, if you are not here to see it all for yourself, dont trust an agent as sometimes they work on their own behalf. Could they be trying to get money out of you or keep the deposit when there is no need....... I have lived here a long time now and I dont believe I have ever heard of anyone getting a security deposit back. Agents seem to always find some reason not to!

Secuurity depsoits go to the owner so the agent cant keep it anyway..

Yes i kept the deposit but had no rent for June, depsoit gone, paid the agent a months money,  no return and have bills outstanding, fingers crossed the tenant said they will pay final bills..

I agree it happens everywhere but i rent while working away and treat it like its my home..

@ Emerald Property Management

With all due respect are you not being a little harsh on agents or is it because you are no longer trading as you used to be an agent yourself.

Did you never return security deposits?

While this story is awful for robmct & infrapower and as I previously said I can sympathise with him not everyone is a crook.

I do agree that some agents are a little unprofessional maybe, for example there are various types of Insurance available to owners which the tenant pays which would cover for a variety of incidents but of course it should be up to the agent to arrange all this.

Dear all

What really gets me mad about these people who do this is they say ,It was A1 condition when I left ,whats the problem ,as I have no rent,, you can keep that as the bond and we are straight.The problem is the water was cut off ,the villa has taken five weeks to clean and re decorate ,not to mention hours spent replacing all the stolen items .I Wish I could tell everyone in my area what this family are about as they have an estate agency and lettings office in Punta Prima near Torrevieja .I think people need to be warned about this guy,he  knows all the tricks .He even changed the Iberdrola contract without my concent to pay monthly at 100€ when his bills could reach anything up to 650€ ,the lady at Iberdrola said I own the house so if at the end of the year the 100€ direct debit is not enough to cover the dept I have to pay the difference ,is this guy crafty or what .I could have been left with huge depts and not realised untill the end of the 12 month contract.He even managed to block the toilet ,the plumber said it was the worst he has seen in 25 years ,I think he must have had nappies filled with cement.

Infrapower

Kevin

Hi Kevin

People just don't get it,  they need it to happen to them and they would understand.. 

I got the ' apt was left in better condition than you gave it ' - hmm thats why its needs a 10 hour clean, cat fleas everywhere as i now here they took in 2 strays, cat litter down the drain on terrace, now its blocked..Kitchen glass door smashed, walls damaged, beds, bedding ruined etc etc etc

I don't know how they  lived like it.. then again just watch ' how clean is your house ' scary. 

I work abroad and they have it down to a T here,  3 months deposit, goes into special bank account,   tenants pay the management fee's, water +  heating payment taken monthly in rent then 1 year later readings taken and a final bill is issued and refund given if due, Electric is a set fee twice a month, then same as water/heating..  Any problem, management company sort it out straight away.  Now is the killer, when you leave they expect you to get a cleaning company in to clean apt,  even pipes are checked to make sure nothing blocked,  the cleaning companies charge around £600 - £1000 for a 1 bed apt and guarantee the work,  so you then get your deposit back in full.. Next person then get s spotless apt.  I pay £1200 a month for 1 bed apt,  so when i get 600 euros for a 3 bed penthouse and its left in a state it makes my blood boil...

People say its normal in Spain at mo,  well unless people make a stand it will just carry on, amazing how they say you cant name these people, why ??  -  they just move on and do it else where... amazing the law seems to protect tenants more than landlords..

As for insurance,  well i got the run around and basically they just changed the goal post, but like when people tried to claim for the ' Ash Cloud ' delays,  insurance didnt pay a thing.. 

So keeping a 600 euros deospit is nothing compared to the 1000's lost in rent, bills and repairs..

I decided against renting out my house due to a similar experience in UK.  We rented our house out for 5 years when I was posted to Cyprus and Germany.  On coming back, the kitchen was disgusting and the oven door fell off.  The tenants had "decorated" and used battleship grey gloss paint over the wallpaper (even painting "around" the wardrobes).  My lovely wooden window frames had rotted through as they had had no attention whatsover.  They must have had a leak in the bath as the kitchen ceiling below had a big damp patch and they must have ripped the bath surround off (never bothered to unscrew the panel).  In all, I paid almost 40,000 pounds to replace the windows, completely gut and refit both the bathroom and kitchen and completely redecorate and replace the carpets.  God knows what they did to the carpets but they were sticky (yeuch!) and horrible throughout.  When I complained to the agents (who had taken 12.5% off the rental) about it, the attitude was simply "you got your rent on time and we rented it out for the whole period you were away".  When I complained about the state of the gardens, they said I should have left a lawn mower for the tenants.  Funny that, we left one in garage and one in the shed along with a full complement of tools.  Never again.

Oh, and luvspain-dp, I don't think a full "march-out" would be on the cards.  I well remember taking out all the screws on the oven and polishing them, filling picture hook holes with toothpaste and painting over them, completely scrubbing every nook and cranny and "bulling" the saucepans up with brillo.  The rotten estate wardens always managed to find one little mark somewhere to charge you for.  On the other hand, maybe it would be a good idea...................but I refuse to wire brush the inside of the toilets - Domestos will have to do.

"amazing how they say you cant name these people, why ??  -  they just move on and do it else where... amazing the law seems to protect tenants more than landlords."

The law did change in 2009 to help landlords more and as for naming the bad tenants well this is another problem with some agencies putting profit before, there are places to blacklist and check on bad tenants.

"As for insurance,  well i got the run around and basically they just changed the goal post,"

did you use a broker?

"but like when people tried to claim for the ' Ash Cloud ' delays,  insurance didnt pay a thing.. "

People never read the small print or if they do and dont understand it they never ask.

3 months deposit is very good as we were instructed to charge equivalent of one months rent for deposit.

"People just don't get it,  they need it to happen to them and they would understand.."

You are very right, unfortunately I dont think it is just Spain though that has bad tenants. Its a gamble we take, of course it shouldnt be though if we trust someone to look after the property.

3 months deposit you did well there as we were instructed that deposit to be equivalent to one months rent.

luvspain-dp - have sent a pm

3 months deposit, thats what i have to pay, im renting while working abroad... 

All u get in Spain is 1 month and that money goes to agent anyway, they dont really care who they put in,  no credit checks done ec etc . no bank details or proof of work,  etc etc

Hammer

No, I am not saying these things because I am no longer trading. When we decided to start our company it was because of all the other firms ripping people off,we wanted to be true and do what we said. Unfortunately things didnt work out for me and I was trying to advise others. I did not intend to be attacked and I have too many other issues so I will not get involved again. I was just giving my view.

BECAUSE there is always such an issue getting deposits back, people tend to see out the final month without paying rent and say we are even. This is not the owners fault but the fault of agents screwing people over so often.

Anyway, good luck you guys. I wish it to work out for you

Vicci

Good luck to you too Vicci :-)

If anyone from a TV company is reading this then 'Tenants from Hell' like Homes  from hell and Holiday from Hell would make a very good programme.

I cannot believe how even a week's holiday let can be left in such a mess.......... Do people really think it is not mine so why should I care............  

We do not do long term lets on our property but even the holiday lets are giving me cause for concern.......... Maybe people from the UK on holiday like to live like pigs...........

I think these people should be named and shamed.................

My Mrs works for a guy who owns 13 Villas and rents them out privately for both long and short term lets. They have a roughly third equal split between French / Spanish / UK clients. She is constantly amazed at how clean the French generally leave their villas  - often giving each one a complete clean inside and out before leaving - even though a cleaning fee is added onto the cost of their stay. Maybe it's just an English thing.

I have just been ripped of by a couple from UK and trashed apt, even after i had it fully painted for them..

The cleaning bill came to over 300 euros,  damage repairs 350 euros and im still to be 2 new headboard and matresses, they put them in a damp store room to make way for there flea ridden cats ( i didnt know they had them ) to have there own room.

They owe 500 euros in bills and did a runner in June costing me a fortune,  i cant rent it out again until i get over to sort out final things,  long term rent, never again...

** EDITED - Against forum rules **

Infrapower  

I agree

My agent even had his own apt kitchen burned down by a drunk brit deciding to cook, he did a runner and is know where to be found.

I went long term as i thought it more secure but now i wish i went holiday rentals as apt is checked on people leaving..also id have more say in who rents it.

worse thing i ever did buying in Spain.