Friday, November 18, 2011
Do you really want to be a landlord?
Tenant from hell trashed home leaving landlord with £20,000 clean-up bill... but won't have to pay a penny
A teenager who smashed windows and doors, ripped off the bannister and threw paint on the walls of the house he was renting has been told he won’t have to pay anything towards the cleaning bill. Lee Davis, 18, trashed the four-bedroom property he was renting, causing damage costing £20,000 to repair. But when he was finally taken to court, Judge Howard Crowson told Davis he wanted to make him foot the bill, but it was impossible because he has no money.
Posted by mark @ 02:49 PM (1499 views)
6 thoughts on “Do you really want to be a landlord?”
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hpwatcher says:
This is rather an extreme story, but properties getting a bit trashed seems to be the experience for the majority of landlords.
The option for the tenant seems to be:-
Lose your deposit over a very, very small amount of wear or damage
OR
Have a few great parties and completely trash the place and lose your deposit
S2r2005 says:
How was an 18 year old renting a 4 bed house?
drewster says:
That’s the risk you take when you rent to benefits claimants. He got 300 hours of community service. He’d presumably get the same punishment if he trashed a £20,000 car or caused £20,000 worth of damage to commercial property.
“The landlord’s insurance company quoted a further £18,500….”
So he’s insured. Problem solved. Sensible landlord (though obviously a poor judge of character).
Paul Fay says:
Whether or not an insurance company pays out will be dependent upon the policy wording. Some will cover this type of malicious damage and others won’t.
Garf says:
Meh. It was probably a slummy flat to start with. The yob probably did a little damage to an already run down property and the landlord is getting a stack of redecorating done on the insurance. Lovely jubbly.
Beasterdale says:
Isn’t the taxpayer the real victim here? Why were we paying for this idiot to stay in a 4 bedroom house for goodness sake????