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Having Landlord or Tenant Troubles? Our Tenancy Dispute Solicitors Have You Covered
Our tenancy dispute solicitors in London and Brighton commonly receive cases regarding unacceptable landlords and out of control tenants. As you can imagine, putting an uncaring landlord or tenant in the equation will often result in an explosive dispute.
Landlord and tenant disputes are amongst the most typical of case types that we see coming through our doors outside of a global pandemic. Therefore, you can imagine as a result of lockdown, when people were restricted from leaving the house and earning money, the number of landlord and tenant disputes we’re now receiving are skyrocketing.
Due to the current prevalence of the topic, our tenancy solicitors in Brighton thought they’d look at five of the most extreme cases of landlord and tenant disputes.
Luckily, for people going through landlord and tenant disputes in and around the Brighton area, we offer highly qualified tenancy dispute resolution services. If you’re a landlord or a tenant and involved in a tenancy dispute, don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our solicitors through our contact us page or call us directly on 020 3007 5500.
5. Corpse in The Bedroom
This particular landlord in Bristol has solidly earned his place on this list of the most unbelievable landlord and tenant disputes. His property had no working toilets, no working sinks, a leaking roof and was full of mould. These defects aren’t the end of the world – they can be fixed, right?
Well, yes. But there was also a decaying dead resident in one of the rooms.
The landlord is thought to have hidden his criminal activities under a mask of respectability. This specific landlord had supposedly set up a housing charity to help vulnerable tenants. Following this, there were numerous claimed visits to the property from housing inspectors. Miraculously, no one picked up on the fact there was a dead body decaying in one of the rooms for several weeks. The suffocating stench of raw sewage with the house successfully covered up the smell of the body for several weeks. It was only after suspicions were raised that the property was being used as a tax evasion front under the guise of a charity, that the landlord was rumbled.
The charity commission has opened up a legal enquiry against the landlord in this case and they are currently awaiting trial.
4. 31 People and 4 Beds
Overcrowding in rented houses can be common as it’s a way for landlords to squeeze more money out of their property as every head is another paying tenant. In a recent case, a landlord in Wembley took cramming in tenants to another level. The four-bed property was licensed to house seven people but ended up as a home for a mere 31 people.
The living environment was forcing the tenants to sleep in shifts to ensure everyone had a bed to sleep in. The tenants even went to the extent of only applying for jobs that fit their sleeping shift hours. Therefore, the house became split between day workers and night workers.
The house became so crammed that the tenants began expanding out of the house. One tenant was notably forced to sleep in a garden shed that had no electricity or heating. The landlord was making a considerable profit out of this house as he was charging each fortunate tenant £65 a bed a week. Shockingly, the landlord was making an estimated £112k a year on the back of this house alone.
Inevitably, the landlord was finally taken to court for what he was doing and fined a total of £250k alongside a confiscation order. A confiscation order is an act of taking or seizing someone’s property with authority.
3. Mountains of Faeces
One tenant celebrated finally getting his horrifying tenant out of his property. However, the celebrations were brought to an abrupt halt when the landlord finally re-entered his property to inspect the condition.
The landlord described his experience of walking around his property as deeply upsetting and stomach-churning. To his shock, one of the rooms was piled high with used toilet paper. It was clear to the landlord that room was the designated dog room. The pungent smell hit your nostrils before even entering the doorway. Inside the room, dog poo littered the floor to the extent the carpet underneath was barely visible.
This landlord thought things couldn’t get any worse. But then he entered the kitchen, which was full with rotten food, dirty utensils, and rubbish all over the worktop and floor making it a mission to walk around the room.
2. My House is a Drug Den
For a respectable landlord, there is nothing worse than knowing your prized property is now a well-known drug den. In this specific case in Newcastle, the landlord couldn’t believe his lousy luck when finding out what his tenant was doing in his house. The tenant of the property became well-known in the local areas for his criminal behaviour. The neighbours reported feeling as though they were living in hell. The drug den a few doors down was bringing an array of unwanted individuals to the neighbourhood.
The landlord filed numerous complaints to the police but could not get the nightmare tenant out for months. He needed to put together evidence against the tenant. Once he had the evidence, the tenant didn’t have a leg to stand on and the landlord evicted him.
Following the final eviction of the tenant, the street put together a celebration party to celebrate feeling safe in their homes again.
1. Landlords Out to Kill
In 2005, a couple bought an apartment building in San Francisco to renovate the building and turn a profit. Unfortunately for the couple, they soon realised they legally couldn’t evict the tenants.
The couple agreed to try and remove the current tenants by any means necessary. For 17 months they terrorised their renters as much as physically possible to try and push them out.
The couple took some noticeably extreme measures. They changed the locks, boarded up windows, cut telephone lines, and shut off gas and power. The couple even stole from the tenants and doused their belongings in ammonia (which if breathed in can become fatal). The tenants were appalled with their treatment and decided to seek legal action.
This reaction from the tenants didn’t sit well with the couple. The couple sent a threat to the solicitor. This stated that if he got involved, they would kidnap his children and dismember them.
Scott Morrow (one of the tenants) still refused to leave following this event and to his surprise one day became a witness to a saw popping out of the floorboard beneath him as his landlords tried to remove the floor from underneath him.
The landlord couple realised Scott wasn’t going to leave the building voluntarily. The landlord couple took it to the next level by hiring a contract worker to remove the footing beams of the building. This left the tenants with no choice but to evacuate.
Currently, we’re happy to announce that the couple didn’t get away with their crimes and after going on the run for three years they were finally brought back to America and given prison sentences of 4 years each.
How can Britton and Time Solicitors help?
The cases highlighted in this article are extreme cases of landlord and tenant disputes. However, the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1985 protects any landlord or tenant who feels mistreated. If you do feel this way, we strongly urge you to seek legal advice from one of our highly qualified tenancy dispute solicitors in London and Brighton as it’s likely you have a case, and there are things you can do. That’s why our initial consultations with our solicitors offer you:
- Unlimited time to go through the details of your case and ask any questions you may have
- An overview of your legal standpoint and your available options
- A precise time and fee estimate for your case
To arrange your initial consultation with one of our solicitors, simply call us on 020 3007 5500.
Avoid such disputes and protect yourself today with a highly comprehensive Check-In Report or Check-Out Report that clearly captures the condition of a property before, during and at the end of a tenancy, alleviating the concern of appropriate liability at the end of the tenancy.
Find out today how you can avoid such disputes by acquiring an Inspection Report that legal bodies and tenancy deposit schemes can rely on simplifying the process in its entirety.