In just ten years, more than a fifth of British families will be renting the house that they live in from a private landlord. So, as Jonathan Maitland discovered, the problem of nightmare tenants is not going to go away.

The number of private landlords rocketed with the boom in buy-to-let. And many of the newcomers were ordinary working people with just a few properties to their name; providing a modest extra income and a nest egg for their retirement.

So for them, the latest figures on rent arrears make frightening reading. A survey by the National Landlords Association revealed that 43% of landlords were owed money by tenants… that means over 400,000 private landlords wondering how to get their money back.

The bubble was burst by the recession, as Paul Shamplina from Landlord Action explains. His company helps landlords through the repossession process that can sometimes end in eviction.

“Last year we did over two thousand instructions on behalf of landlords. The main reason is that we hit recession,” Paul said.

“There are many, many more landlords in the marketplace that are renting properties out, and part of the mistake is that a lot of them are amateur landlords so they get caught. But there are tenants that are definitely milking and playing the system and staying as long as possible rent free and just moving on.“ 

In many cases, the debts are just a few thousand. But one landlord was owed over £80,000.

A businessman signed the lease for Vanessa Hedley’s luxury apartment in a block by the side of the Thames. He should have been paying £6,000 a month, but he only made one payment.

“It’s deeply unfair. What right minded person rents a beautiful apartment when they don’t feel like paying the monthly rent?” she said.

The tenant has now been evicted. And the courts have ordered him to pay the money… but it’s uncertain if that will ever happen.

But the stories of nightmare tenants go way beyond rent arrears.

The programme heard a string of tales from landlords whose properties were damaged, and who had lengthy battles to evict problem tenants.

Steve and Maxine Tempest rented out one of their five properties to a French tenant, who let wild pigeons live in the house. When the rent dried up, they insisted on checking inside.

“The first image I got was pigeon dirt all over the kitchen floor. It was in the lounge, it was over the curtains, it was on the walls. It was all over the cooker, and the boiler. There were feathers upstairs,” said Steve.

And Maxine added: “The whole place stank. She had two children and we just can’t believe that she let them live in a state like that. It made me shake because the shock was just so massive.”

But a bad situation got worse when they tried to get the tenant out. The process took over a year, and the tenant was able to go to court 15 times.

“I was successful every time,” Steve said. “But all the time she was allowed to appeal. And she appeals and appeals ad infinitum. If you can imagine somebody every single month reaching it to your pocket and pulling out £500, nobody can cope with that sort of financial pressure on you. And the court process was allowing this to happen.”

Nightmare tenants make up only a small proportion of people renting in the private sector. And there are a number of ways that landlords can reduce the risks.

Nicola Millner is a Blackpool landlord who started buying-to-let ten years ago, when she was a nurse. Now she has 49 properties, but she has never had to evict a tenant.

Her recipe for success is choosing the right tenant. All of them have to fill in a detailed three-page application form, and they have to pass Nicola’s home visit.

“I actually go to the property where they are living at the moment,” she said. “Obviously that is the best indication of how that tenant is going to live within your property so I always, always do that.”

And if a tenant falls behind with the rent, Nicola will give them the chance to repay the debt over a period of time.

“The majority of tenants are in arrears possibly through no fault of their own. They don’t want to be in arrears and you just have to find a way out” she added.   

The Building and Social Housing Foundation predicts that a fifth of British families will live in private rented homes by 2020, if current trends continue.

The most recent survey by the National Landlords Association revealed that 43.5% of landlords had experienced rent arrears in the last three months… a record number. However, the average amount of outstanding rent arrears has dropped significantly from £978 in the previous quarter to £799.

Building and Social Housing Foundation report

http://www.bshf.org/published-information/publication_download.cfm?lang=00&thePubID=46C4A5EA-15C5-F4C0-99C662FE48B048B9

Landlord Action

www.landlordaction.co.uk

National Landlords Association

www.landlords.org.uk

Residential Landlords Association

www.rla.org.uk/

Citizens Advice Bureau

www.citizensadvice.org.uk

Shelter

http://england.shelter.org.uk

Government advice for Landlords and Tenants

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/rentingandletting