not sure about legalities but would it not be good to have a site where bad tenants could be named and shamed (and indeed landlords!)
i have just had a very unfortunate experience with a tenant and would not wish anyone else to fall for this plausible person. i received a text message from her stating heating not working - sent up the plumber within the hour - received a call from plumber (also a friend) stating house was filthy and stunk - decided to pay a visit - only to find a strange man who stated he was renting a room. the house was indeed filthy and left a taste in the back of my throat for hours afterwards. she had stripped a room of wallpaper, leaving chunks in the wall - the house was used as a dossing place - just mattressess and heaps of clothes and junk on the floor, bathroom was rancid. days later the tenant finally made contact and it was arranged that both she and her sub tenant vacate the property - i was left to clear all her junk - including LAST year's xmas tree which had been left rotting, and pile of cat pooh - no landlord deserves this person - i hope the inconsiderate bitch reads this - she will know who she is.

For several years I was a landlord, basically renting my house out as I was working out of Sheffield. I thought long and hard about this venture and decided a 'bond' was a must even though I knew my first tennant quite well. My second tennant two years later was an unknown but I asked for letters of recommendation from her previous landlord and also from some-one who had known her for a while and was prepared to give me a land line phone number.
Even then I was mildly worried so popped in every six months or so just to ask if everything was okay.

Sorry for your bad experience with the dodgy tenant, it amazes me that some people dont have the common courteousy to respect anothers property.

I really dont blame you for wanting to name and shame, I would be really tempted myself.

How people can live in dirty, smelly and filthy conditions is beyond me.

Did you get her to compensate you for any damage?

Its people like your dodgy tenant that give us all a bad name but I can assure you that not all tenants are that low, I myself am a council tenant and plan to look for private rented accomodation in Sheffield for me, my partner and 6 year old son around March time, so I would only be too grateful to find a decent and fair Landlord.

I hope you manage to get your property back to the standard it was before.

Regards

Joanne

i have a private landlord, and i pay my rent on time too, never had any bother wi him or him wi me.
found him nearly 3 yrs ago, after we were evicted due to some guy who lived abroad, we were renting his house, and the money we payed monthly was supposed to be used to pay the mortgage repayments, unbeknowst to us it was nt done so, so the abbey decided to repossess the house, and cos we were only tenants we didnt have a leg to stand on, so we found our present landlord thru the star newspaper, rented out a flat to us, sold on the property 2 yrs later, new landlords served us with a possession notice after 2 weeks, gave us a month to go, and our landlord gave us this place, mind you i did put a nail thru a water pipe within the first 24 hrs!!!!ooopps

didnt you notice anything about her when she came to look round? i would of thought you could spot a weirdo like that a mile off

Finding a decent landlord can be so hard, I find.

So many people buy property to let, with any clue on what your obligations are as a landlord. My current landlord's solution to everything is that my boyfriend and I should have a go at fixing anything that breaks ourselves! I mean, we are good tenants, and if anything breaks, which is outside our experience to fix, we call her. The other week the light in the kitchen went (not the bulb) and the landladys solution? Get the screwdriver out and have alook myself!

I think too many landlords out there look at the rent coming in as money in their pocket, rather than using it as an investment in the property. Which leaves the poor tenants living in substandard conditions...

this tenant came across as being a nice person, hence we did not inspect the property as we should have done as we wanted it to feel like it was her home - a warning to other landlords never to take people on face value! Quite clearly the way she looked did not reflect the way she lived - how anyone could live in such filth is beyond me.
the first time anything went wrong (the heating) we had the plumber out within the hour (who was the person who informed us of the filthy conditions!) - the reason the pilot went out on the gas boiler? - she had not paid her gas baill, had had a prepayment meter installed (without permission) and had run out of money, hence the pilot light went out!

Originally posted by sally_sheff
this tenant came across as being a nice person, hence we did not inspect the property as we should have done as we wanted it to feel like it was her home - a warning to other landlords never to take people on face value! Quite clearly the way she looked did not reflect the way she lived - how anyone could live in such filth is beyond me.
the first time anything went wrong (the heating) we had the plumber out within the hour (who was the person who informed us of the filthy conditions!) - the reason the pilot went out on the gas boiler? - she had not paid her gas baill, had had a prepayment meter installed (without permission) and had run out of money, hence the pilot light went out!

And it's people like this, as I'm sure someone has said already, who give decent tenants a bad name!

Oh, if only the nice landlords and the good tenants could get together, and leave the rest of the scumbags to rot...

yes i agree, if ever we had a problem we rang our landlord and tried to get it sorted.
doesnt seem to be a problem in our new place as its fairly new.
(except for a nail thru a waterpipe the day b4 we were due to fly abroad), but he got it sorted whilst we were away, had even solved the original problem i tried to fix which created the bust pipe to start with!!

i think it is such a shame that some landlords (myself excluded) cannot appreciate that tenants have the right to a decent standard of living for which they are paying for and i think it is right that property should be maintained to a standard that they themsleves would expect to live in.

I think it is also a shame that there are such bad tenants around such as I have just had that do not respect the property they are in - i cannot believe that anyone can live in such squalor - perhaps it is tenants such as this that do not give a landlord the incentive to spend on their property just to have it wrecked

I rent a really nice flat from my landlord who is a very nice, honest and caring landlord.

If I ever have any trouble I call him and although he is quite forgetful he never gets annoyed if I have to remind him and he gets it sorted asap.

He had developed the properties himself from a less than pretty flat to a nice clean and trendy pad. I respect this and in turn keep his place clean and tidy and have even done a spot of decorating myself.

I guess we are the lucky ones...

I let very simple furnished nice clean flats.

Its hard work but I get excellent tenants.

Its a business but I like to rent to people who are willing to treat my homes with respect, I find these people are great tenants and they know if they have problems I will do my best to sort them out quickly.

Thanks to all my nice Tenants.

Landlords a mixed bag.
1. The really overly friendly ones at the viewing can often lay it on a bit thick and they can be a nightmare.

2. Incredibly rude, arrogant and ignorant ones from the start. I had the misfortune to encounter one today. Astonishingly rude. I am only glad he outed himself so early. May you get cat lady next time.

3. The normal people ones, who are just making a living and just expect you to be reasonable and vice versa. Please can we have more. I have met a few of these.

4. The foreign landlords who seem a bit strange, but are actually pretty friendly and ok. I had one of these several years ago for 3 years and he was great. You couldn't get him to do much and you felt as though if you made the place nicer hed want to increase the rent, but overall he was a nice man and I never had any problem. I wouldnt try=ust him to service the gas fire though as he had a mate who came round and did it. I just didnt use the fire. Rent always paid way in advance.

I think that an independent forum on the internet where both parties could vet each other before entering into a contract...unfortunatly I'm not sure of the legalities of what one would have to put in writing about the parties concerned.

I had a great landlord when I was at uni. Despite the fact that she and her husband were retired, they fixed what broke and gave us the respect that you'd expect in return for a house not abused and neighbours not ****** off.

When I came back to Sheffield I encountered a string of scumbags who seemed to think that their tennants were nothing more than cash-cows who should pay up and shut up.

Other friends have had better experiences with landlords in Sheffield, but for some reason I've never come across an honest landlord in the city that rented to students.

If you are a Landlord and you have some bad tenants, visit www.mybadtenants.co.uk where landlords can exchange details of their nightmare tenant experiences.:thumbsup:

I rented for the first time a few years ago when I took a new apartment in Essex. The landlord seemed like a nice bloke, took a bond and a contract, the rent was fair, the apartment immaculate. Repairs were done promptly. My only gripe? He insisted on the rent in cash and on collecting it in person on the premises. So once a month he would come for the rent (a large amount bearing in mind the new apartment and the location) in cash and stride around the apartment, obviously inspecting. We didnt feel as if we could say anything to him about this, but it felt very intrusive.

It was obvious to us after a bit why he wanted cash and we got used to the two visits to the bank to draw out enough cash ... but the monthly inspection was too much! It was good to rent off a housing association after that, it now actually feels like our home!

There's a site, I think it's called Agentwatch, where you can report bad letting agents... Don't know if you can mention bad tennants though.

Tapton Estates were appalling when we rented from them and I moved out 6 months before the end of my contract. I found a suitable replacement tenant etc. but am still waiting for my deposit back... I guess it's £250 I'll not see again.

Renting from an independant landlord at the minute and everything is going well so far - he's even offered to replace lightbulbs in the shared areas (kitchen, hallway, bathroom etc) when they blow which not many will do :) He can't really escape though - he owns/works in the shop below the flat ;)

Don't bother renting - buy as soon as you can and stay healthy.

not sure about legalities but would it not be good to have a site where bad tenants could be named and shamed (and indeed landlords!)
i have just had a very unfortunate experience with a tenant and would not wish anyone else to fall for this plausible person. i received a text message from her stating heating not working - sent up the plumber within the hour - received a call from plumber (also a friend) stating house was filthy and stunk - decided to pay a visit - only to find a strange man who stated he was renting a room. the house was indeed filthy and left a taste in the back of my throat for hours afterwards. she had stripped a room of wallpaper, leaving chunks in the wall - the house was used as a dossing place - just mattressess and heaps of clothes and junk on the floor, bathroom was rancid. days later the tenant finally made contact and it was arranged that both she and her sub tenant vacate the property - i was left to clear all her junk - including LAST year's xmas tree which had been left rotting, and pile of cat pooh - no landlord deserves this person - i hope the inconsiderate bitch reads this - she will know who she is.
Just out of curiosity - and NOT that it implies anything...was the person a 'professional person' or a HB claimant?

Just out of curiosity - and NOT that it implies anything...was the person a 'professional person' or a HB claimant?


it doesn't really matter if they was hb claimant i am and i am very clean thankyou just cause there on hb doesn't mean there scruffy the ones that look clean aren't always. my previous landlord had a proffessional couple before me and they wrecked his house i lokked after it the whole 18mths i was there i only left cause he had house for sale

it doesn't really matter if they was hb claimant i am and i am very clean thankyou just cause there on hb doesn't mean there scruffy the ones that look clean aren't always. my previous landlord had a proffessional couple before me and they wrecked his house i lokked after it the whole 18mths i was there i only left cause he had house for sale
As I said, it didn't imply anything. I have a feeling that the person was NOT a HB claimant.

But even if they were, it doesn't mean anything - as most students aren't HB claimants but I hear landlords complaining about how bad they are.

Don't assume I'm knocking HB claimants - I am one.