Landlord Action’s founder, Paul Shamplina, will be heavily appearing on ITV’s “Tonight” programme ‘Nightmare Tenants’ on Thursday 26th August at 7.30pm.
Paul will not only be commenting on a number of ongoing cases where landlords are owed thousands of pounds relating to unpaid rent but will also be trying to expose these ‘rogue’ tenants in front of the camera to the nation.
The programme is set to highlight some of the financial issues that landlords can experience when they rent their property out to a nightmare tenant, and will be mainly doing so by using three cases that Landlord Action are currently acting on, including their biggest rent arrears case to date.
With rent arrears exceeding £85,000, Landlord Action started the eviction process on behalf of landlady Vanessa Rhodes back in April to ensure tenants were vacated from her property in Putney Wharf.
Having been through the correct procedures, Landlord Action received a seven day possession order and had applied for an eviction date, which was set for the 6th August. With the client now in possession of the property, on filming Paul is shown serving the court order and bankruptcy documents.
Of any calculation, rent arrears are an increasingly common problem for Landlord Action. Paul comments: “From dealing with thousands of cases over our ten years of trading we have seen a huge increase in the last 18 months of landlords instructing us to carry out an eviction on their tenants who have not been paying the rent.
This is mainly due to the recession as we have seen more amateur landlords enter the market who may not have the knowledge about buy-to-let and have therefore not done their tenant checks properly, opening themselves up to these potential problems.”
As well as this, Paul says that there are problems with regards to the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) system with tenants keeping the rent. “Under current laws payments are made direct to the tenant and we have also seen a rise in possession actions against tenants who have withheld rent and not passed it on to the landlord.”
Paul has therefore also been filmed undertaking two evictions on LHA tenants who owe thousands of pounds. The first eviction was for landlord Mr Parmar on his property in Mitcham, Surrey. Paul is shown along with a professional locksmith and a bailiff being interviewed outside the residence before trying to undertake procedures.
However, wise to the fact that something was going on the tenant had left the property the day before. Exposed on the next eviction though is a tenant who is still in the property. On arrival, although the tenant wouldn’t leave at first they were eventually talked out by the bailiffs only to up and flee, leaving all personal belongings behind. “Unfortunately, some cases can be an example of a tenant having their own problems and it can be upsetting to see, as was the situation with this last case.” says Paul.
The programme also draws attention to a closed case where after the landlord had taken back possession of their property they discovered that the tenant had actually stolen the conservatory. This is to underline an extraordinary situation that has happened to one innocent landlord.
Landlord Action is a UK based organisation helping landlords and property professionals deal with problem tenants.
Founded in 1999 as the first ever fixed-fee tenant eviction specialist, they revolutionised this area of legal practice. They have acted in over 16,000 problem tenant cases and are considered the authority in this field. Unlike solicitors, Landlord Action will not act for tenants, only landlords.
Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action and has more than 20 years experience in the legal field, originally working as a clerk, private investigator, debt collector and certified bailiff. He has appeared regularly on TV and radio and travels the country speaking, giving advice and presenting “How to avoid a bad tenant” seminars. He believes passionately in the rights of the landlord and is always available for comment on any landlord/tenant related matters.
Landlord Action run a free advice line to help landlords and property professionals understand their rights: 0845 881 0011 www.LandlordAction.co.uk
This is fine as long as there is a reciprocal programme highlighting nightmare landlords.
Comment by Sharon — 17/8/2010 #
I thought Grant Shapps was stopping benefit payments being paid direct to tenants ?
Comment by peter cookson — 17/8/2010 #
Can’t wait to see this programme. LHA tenant did ‘a flit’ from one of our properties a few months ago, apparently because child protection social workers caught up with her. She’d been in the property for two years, left it completely trashed, upvc front door kicked in, rotten food everywhere – no needles, but spoons with burn marks throughout the house. Rubbish/broken furniture and old clothes everywhere and the smell was unbearable. It cost us over £1,000 just to get the rubbish cleared out, and over £5,000 to put the damage right. We pride ourselves on being particularly good and understanding landlords and didn’t deserve this. Bad news is, because of this one bad tenant we are now in trouble with the bank and, in the worse case scenario, could lose our own home. It’s OK to talk about ‘greedy’ or ‘bad’ landlords, but this tenant was scum and she’s now probably doing the same thing to another unsuspecting landlord, with her rent still being paid by LHA – and yes, we did have references, tenants like her know how to work the system. Fortunately, the rest of our tenants are absolutely great. I wouldn’t wish this on any landlord, but must admit it is somewhat comforting to know we aren’t alone in this.
Comment by Kay — 19/8/2010 #
As long as social housing orgs are selecting the better tenants private landlords will be left with the worse choice which includes all the ones the social housing have evicted etc, the market is skewed and private landlords are being used as a free sponge by the councils/govt to house the aforesaid at the cost of the private landlord.
Comment by tzipi — 19/8/2010 #
Have a look at http:\\www.letshare.info. It’s a confidential landlord-to-landlord information-sharing site which helps you warn others about your nightmare tenants they may be about to take on.
It is set up to help all of us stop them getting away with it. Oh, and it’s completely free to use as well. You just put in all the details you have on them and the system will match those details to those being entered by another site user. Once matched, an email is generated putting you both in touch with each other. Compare notes in total confidence and take it from there!
All details are encrypted (“hashed” in the jargon) so there’s no way that anyone can see what information you store there – not even the site’s own administrators.
Check it out!
JR
Comment by John Roberts — 5/9/2010 #
Thanks JR, I will be using this site you have mentioned. Re one of our rouge tenants.
We are from West London and looking for a tried and tester lawyer.
I have a good friend who’s parents are very mature who need to obtain possession of their flat which was unfairly taken over by a rouge American over 15 yrs ago as a holiday let and then wouldn’t leave, the belief is he does not live there as all regular rent checks come from America. My friends parents have not been able to view the property for the 15yrs he has had as he has also changed the locks.Their daughter would like to be housed there.
So that is why I would be grateful for any feedback re this. Advice, suggestions.
my e-mail address is mirnas@hotmail.co.uk
Comment by mirna — 8/9/2010 #