This is the "disgusting" state a tenant left the home they'd been living in, after they were evicted earlier this week. The landlords of the property, located in the close-knit community of Tylorstown in the Rhondda valley, claim the tenant "refused to pay rent" for more than two years - and said they left so much filth, litter and damage that professional cleaners are going to have to be brought in to fumigate and clean the property and try and salvage as many fixtures as they can.
The landlords, who have asked to be anonymous but gave WalesOnline permission to share their video, say the tenant began renting their property in January 2020 and paid their rent on time for the first couple of months. After that, unfortunately, they claim the tenant's behaviour quickly went downhill.
As well as refusing to pay rent, the tenant and her family allegedly refused to let the landlords check the home, when they became concerned about its cleanliness, and damaged windows, doors and walls in the property. They also filled the back garden with black bags of household rubbish - and have left food waste and other rubbish all around the home, as well as piles of mud and animal faeces. For more stories about homes and property, go here.
Read more: What your landlord has to do to make sure your home is fit for human habitation
"It's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen or smelled in my life," one of the landlords told WalesOnline. "I've never seen anything like it. There's mud and faeces all around the house, the windows have been smashed and there's been egg on the front windows for two years - since kids threw eggs - that they [the tenant] never bothered to clean. There's cans in the bedroom that are filled with pee and the back garden is full of black bags [of rubbish]."
"What's worse is [my family member who owns the home] is nearly at retirement age but has had to take another job to pay for the mortgage - as the tenant hasn't paid rent," they added. "It was quite affordable, it was about £380 a month [for a few months] and then £420 a month - but they haven't paid for nearly three years so we're owed around £11,000."
The landlords are further frustrated by how difficult they found it to evict the tenant, her adult daughter and mother who had moved in with her. "They lived there for nearly three years, at the beginning they paid for the first one or two months then they stopped paying the rent," one landlord explained. "They refused to let us visit, they said it was to do with their mental health and obviously during Covid we couldn't visit either.... It went to court, they were told to leave but they didn't - the court had to send the bailiffs to get them out."
Calling for better protection for landlords whose tenants refuse to pay rent, the landlord added: "It's ridiculous, they owe us about £11,000. There's all these new laws to protect tenants, but there's nothing to protect landlords. Some good landlords are ten, eleven, twelve thousand pounds out of pocket and there's no protection."
What does the law say?
Officially, landlords can give tenants either two months or 14 days notice that they're being evicted if they've done something wrong, such as having not paid their rent. Alternatively, if a tenant has caused a "nuisance" or been convicted of certain offense, a landlord can give notice for the tenant to leave immediately.
If a tenant is being evicted for any other reason, the minimum notice period is currently two months. However, there's very little landlords can do if the evicted tenant refuses to leave. Some landlords feel they are not fairly protected from poor tenants who overstay their welcome - or wreak havoc in their home.
The Renting Homes Act is coming into effect from December 1, 2022. Welsh Government says it will "improve how we rent, manage, and live in rented homes in Wales".
Under the new law, tenants and licensees will become "contract-holders". Tenancy agreements will be replaced with "occupation contracts". The new law will make renting easier and provide greater security, Welsh Government claims.
Among the changes, "contract-holders" will:
- receive a written contract setting out their rights and responsibilities
- benefit in an increase in the 'no fault' notice period from two to six months
- gain greater protection from eviction
- see improved succession rights (the rules that set out who has a right to continue to live in a dwelling, for example after the current tenant dies)
- see more flexible arrangements for joint contract-holders (which aims to make it easier to add or remove others to an occupation contract)
And for landlords, the new law will mean:
- A simpler system (according to the Welsh Government), with two types of contract: "Secure" for the social rented sector and "standard" for the private rented sector.
- Ensuring homes are fit for human habitation (FFHH). This will include, electrical safety testing and ensuring working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are fitted.
- Abandoned properties can be repossessed without needing a court order.
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