Landlord Blues: Renting out the house from hell

I relayed the conversation then to Okie, pointing out how Jason was refusing to leave and we couldn't make him. A text correspondence was then struck up

Me (14.20):
I've spoken to the police. They need to know if you were a witness to the damage of the door – i.e. who did it? And also, has  Jason made any specific threats towards you? It is also worth thinking whether you think anything he has done to you is racist as that would also be a crime. He wasn’t in when we went earlier but has ‘phoned since and indicated he will probably not leave today as he has nowhere to go. We will be coming around this evening to see him and urge him to leave.
Okie (15.57):
Ok. Thanks. He has his cousins place to go to so he has no excuse really. The damage of the door – I and him live in the same house and it’s not me that did it so that leaves him.  Jason hasn’t made any specific threats towards me, but he moved around with the kitchen knife in the house and he is perpetually drunk and on drugs. He could use it on me any time as am the only one in the house.
Okie (16.01):
I will simply go on Twitter and express my frustrations of the police on Twitter so if anything happens to me, at least the public will know I made mention of it. The door and the whole damage in the house was done by  Jason – a police shouldn’t expect me to capture him on video or something while he is doing such. Peter was much better as he only drinks.  Jason drinks and takes drugs and carries a knife.
Okie (16.04):
Sorry for the late reply. I’ve been at work. 
Me (16.06):
Okie. The only reason the police wondered about the door was because  Jason said he had friends around who got out of hand, so he might say it was one of them who did it. The police would obviously like to speak to you and have suggested we could meet them not at the house so that you could speak openly to them. They said an officer will ring me in 24-48 hours, but that if anything threatening happens we should ring 999 immediately. Thanks for the info about the cousin. I didn’t know about him/her. Are you back at the house now?
Okie (19.05):
I am not back in the house till late. Am finishing late from work. Am having an important career meeting tomorrow which I have to prepare for. May sleep somewhere else because I am really worried living in the same house with him. If Peter was there it would be better, but it’s just me and him.
Me (19.41):
We just went to the house.  Jason says he’s got nowhere to go. We’ve told him we will be coming back with the police. It will be a lot easier to get him out if you are willing to talk to the police as well. We’ll keep trying to get him out asap. He was quite calm when we went to the house and was vacuuming. We cleaned the kitchen earlier. We will keep you informed regarding the police.
Okie (20.46):
I will be around from 3pm tomorrow. And yes, I can speak to the police then. He’s got his friends’ place to go and some place he stays out in the weekends. He was calm when you were there, but when he takes his drugs and drinks, it’s a nightmare. I literally lock myself in my room or go to church or stay late at work. The destruction he did yesterday, he can do worse. I’ll speak to the cops tomorrow.
Okie (20.43):
Thank you
Okie (21.59):
I am home now and so so frightened. If anything happens to me, at least I’ve made the reason public to you a long time ago.
I didn’t like that last one. He had never said anything about feeling threatened by  Jason before now. He had been annoyed at his smoking because of his asthma and we’d given  Jason a final warning on that and he had gone on and on about the vacuum cleaner, while we tried to get  Jason to replace it. Now, we were somehow to blame for Jason’s behaviour. There was the implication that we could somehow be ‘got’ for all of this or that we would be responsible for his death. Actually, no-one was forcing him to stay; he could move out whenever he wanted, but he didn’t want to, because although  Jason was a pain, Okie liked the cheap rent. That proved that he hadn't been living in constant fear… I considered delivering a riposte, but Adrian advised against. Okie then rang just after 10pm, whispering rather dramatically that he was home and couldn’t find the kitchen knife. He thought Jason had left the bread-knife in the bathroom, as a message to him. That's why we’d left it on the toilet floor for the police to see if they came, I told Okie. ‘Oh, I’ll look for it now and text you,’ he replied.
Okie (22.05): 
Seen it.
By then, I’d switched the ‘phone off. We were trying to watch ‘Inspector Montalbano,’ and I was worried sick about a member of my family, who seemed to be having some sort of meltdown. It was time to turn my attention back to my family. So I got the ast message the following morning.
I was also worried about Adrian; he was really put out. Luckily, the next day, he went off for his acupuncture at 2pm. I thought that might calm him down a bit. On the other hand, it would probably be wasted as he would get worked up again later when we had to go back to Hill View. Earlier in the day he had also rung  Jason’s sister, Melanie, about it all and she said she’d washed her hands of him, too. She told  Adrian: ‘I said to him, you’d better behave yourself. You’re never going to get a landlord as good as  Adrian again. And now he’s blown it. Well, if I was you I would get the police. I wouldn’t stand for it either, wrecking your house.’

In the meantime, I was undertaking a text correspondence with Okie. He had been moaning about various things - for example, implying we were incompetent in not having managed to evict Jason and asking us to pay him for food that had gone missing in the house - and I was starting to lose my temper:
Me to Okie (10.43am, 10th September):
We are dealing with  Jason’s eviction and will do everything we legally can to speed this up. In the meantime you must pay your rent, which is three days late. If you refuse to do so, you will receive your notice. Given your unhappiness with the house we are also willing to release you immediately from your contract. We will not be paying ‘compensation’ for things another tenant does to you. You must take that up either with him or with the police. As it is we are going to be left footing the bill for damage to our house for which we are not to blame. Rebecca and  Adrian. 
Okie (10.47am):
Paying my rent hasn’t been a problem to me. When I moved in, Rebecca didn’t tell me I had a psychopath as a flatmate. If I call the police, I would live in fear as he can easily prop up and stab me, knowing I reported him to the police. The only person that can do that is you, as you don’t live here. I’ve complained about  Jason for a year – it is on record in my messages to you, if you had evicted him by that time, he wouldn’t be here.
Okie (11am):
Releasing me from my contract does not make immediate sense, as I am not at fault in any case with someone who could stab me or burgle my room at any time. If you would have done the same check you did on me, done the same check on him, I don’t think we would have the situation we are having now. It is unfair really. When is he supposed to be officially leaving?
By now,  Adrian was ranting in the kitchen, shouting towards me: ‘He can get out now!’ and Ruby, our poor black Labrador, jumped out of her basket to leave the kitchen. ‘No, Ruby, not you,’  Adrian said.
Me (11.04am):
Okie. We have no information on  Jason’s past but understand you are afraid of him. Criminal checks are not part of the vetting procedure on tenants and we made no such checks on you either. We are going to try and get him to leave by 4.30, but we have to act within the law.  Adrian has told him that if he does not leave today we will call the police. We are going to the house this morning and will return later to see if he has gone.
Okie (11.16): I wish he can leave and hope he does. If we had acted since I reported him to you last year, we would not have been having this. He keeps the kitchen knife in his room and today I found it in the toilet. I am scared to go home as I am an easy target when he is drunk.
Okie (11.17): If you come to the house you will be shocked at the state of it. I left it exactly as I saw it.
So, off we went to the house and  Jason wasn't there. We also couldn’t get into his room as he'd changed the lock (breaching the tenancy agreement and possibly the law). As we walked through the front door we saw what looked like snow everywhere. This was the powder which he or his friends had discharged from the fire extinguishers. We were probably now in contravention of fire regulations and if there was a fire we would probably be sued (or the insurance could be invalid). 
Downstairs there was just a twelve by four inch piece of wood left dangling from a doorway, where once the door had been. There was rotting meat in the bathroom bin and a stinking, rancid kitchen. Okie ’s food was dolloped on the floor like a cow had been sick there. I got on the rubber gloves, unblocked the sink with Harpic and cleaned the pink plastic drainer, which was too foul to put clean dishes on. I then cleaned the dirty plates, cutlery and pots that were lying around and placed them on the now-clean drainer. Then, I scrubbed all the work-surfaces.  
Adrian emptied bins and mopped the kitchen and the wooden staircase. We only spent half an hour there, but it made a difference. Later, we would take photos of the powdery carpets before bringing up a vacuum cleaner and vacuuming it all. While we were cleaning  Adrian was uttering a continual stream of expletives; he apologised to me but, as I said, swearwords don’t bother me, not even the ‘c’ word, unless they’re directed at me.
Later, back at our house,  Adrian only wanted a banana and a yogurt for lunch, having lost his appetite. A Housing Advice Officer rang  Adrian then, saying she had  Jason in her office and pointing out to us that we had no right to insist that he ‘leave today.’ ‘That’s right,’  Adrian replied, ‘but if he doesn’t, we will be calling the police to report him for criminal damage.’  
Jason then came on the ‘phone, talking in a quiet, victim-like voice in an attempt to placate  Adrian. 
‘I am furious with you,’  Adrian started, ‘you have used up every bit of goodwill I had towards you. I was already fed up, but this is the limit now. I want you out. You’re wrecking my house and we couldn’t even clean up after you because you’ve also broken our vacuum cleaner. That cost me £110!’ 
‘But I’ve got nowhere to go,’  Jason whined. 
‘And that’s your problem,’  Adrian said. ‘You had £17,000 when your father died and you’ve spent the whole lot on drink and drugs.’ 
‘That’s a fair point,’  Jason replied. 
‘Well, I’ve had enough now. If you’re not gone by tonight I’m getting the police.’ And he hung up. 
It was then my job to ring the police and go through the whole story with them. It wasn’t going to be easy to get a case against him. 

It was now  the last week of August and Adrian was back in Wales. He had been working non-stop over the summer, although keeping fairly civilised hours. It was a case of walking the dog between 9am and 10am, then a bit of paperwork, followed by a coffee whilst he caught up on texts in the ‘Cafe Cwtch’ or a Greek-Cypriot café he liked in Cardiff. One afternoon, he had the pleasure of also dropping into Hill View, where the conversation went like this:
Jason: ‘I’m heavily sedated. I’m sleeping all the time.'
Adrian: ‘Look at this mess at the back of the house.’
Jason: ‘Uh, I paid Peter to clean it up. I gave him four cans. I ain’t doing it after paying four cans.’
Miraculously, the laundry room had been tidied.
Adrian: ‘What about the vacuum cleaner? You said you were going to get a replacement?’
Jason: ‘Yeah, it’s up my mate’s house.’
Adrian: ‘Well, get it here then.’ 
A couple of days later the conversation continued via text.
Adrian (7.63am, 27 August):
Jason. Can you confirm you have replaced the vacuum cleaner as promised. 
Jason (10.02am, 2 September):
Ive got a new vacation for u. im picking it up tonight so it will be in the house in the morning. Sorry for any inconvenience.  Jason. 7
Adrian (12.09, 2 September):
Ok  Jason. Okie keeps texting me about a replacement so please make sure u do as u say.
Jason (12.15, 2 September):
I promise. Ive already got it but its up my g.f.s house im going up there this afternoon to collect it. It’s a good one 2. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Jason (15.45, 6 September):
Im off down my m8s tonight to get a lift to collect the vacume cleaner and put my printer on amazon to pay off my dues. Sorry for the delay.  Jason.
Adrian (10.49am, 7 September):
Jason. It has taken u 3 weeks. Have u done it yet? Also I will speak to u next week about your progress in moving out. I need to get house sorted.
When he eventually brought the cleaner, it didn’t have any attachments, just the long pipe. Apparently it did suck but it was out of the ark. 
Adrian's verdict: 'As usual with  Jason it's rubbish, like he is. That’s the story of his life.'
On 10 September, once more, the place was in turmoil. We had 16 missed calls from Okie between 8.40am and 9.25am. They were missed because we assumed he wanted to moan about the vacuum cleaner. In the end he texted to say the house had been wrecked during the night.
Adrian rang  Jason. 
‘Okie ’s been in touch and said you’ve trashed the house. What have you done?’  
Jason said, ‘I had some mates around at the weekend and it got a bit out of control.’ 
‘Well, I’ve had a gutsful of you and I want you out by the end of today or I’ll be getting the police involved,’  Adrian replied.  Jason then started to speak but  Adrian didn’t know what he said because he was too angry to listen. 
‘Get out!’ he repeated, ‘or I’ll get you for criminal damage. I’m coming up.’

One morning while Adrian was away, I spent two hours in Starbucks. The aim was to work on my book, a la J K Rowling. I started my writing, only to be constantly interrupted and/or remember there was something I had to do.

Firstly, I texted one of our nightmare tenants, Amanda, about whom I was to write an entire book (the second in my series). I reminded her I hadn’t forgotten her and would follow her to the end of the universe etc. (for the two and a half thousand pounds she owed us), I texted Adrian to reassure him that the stifling bureaucracy and anti-business attitude he was encountering that week in Spain in his dealings with the electricity company go back at least to the year 1500 according to a Spanish history book I'd been reading, I answered calls from two student tenants with problems, I set up appointments, including one with our painter, Alan, I ‘phoned my teenage son, Tom, to check he was okay at my mother's and I BBMed my daughter, Avril, with instructions and arrangements for the afternoon.

My routine was being thoroughly disrupted; that afternoon I also had to go to a student house to deliver keys, the next day I had to go down to where the painter was, to give him instructions, Thursday I had to move people into another house and organise tenancy agreements and I had to put out the rubbish which was not my job, but Adrian would wipe the floor with me if I forgot and he came back from Spain to full bins.

On the whole, I’d been tackling just a couple of the things that Adrian usually had to deal with… combined with my usual motherly role and my writing. It was easy to see how Adrian got ratty, because it was not an easy business, and while I was keeping things afloat in Wales, he was having to deal with some of the even more annoying nonsense in Spain.

Still in Starbucks, I also answered a call from our electrician Paul regarding sockets in another house and while he had me on the 'phone he asked for my advice on whether to ignore a 300 euro speeding fine that his son's friend had been issued with after a trip to Spain…

As I wasn't sure about the best course of action, I later went on the site, EyeOnSpain, to find out what others thought. It was the first time I'd posted anything on the site and I was met with some advice, coupled with a torrent of personal abuse by idiots who hadn't even read my post properly. A couple even told me I was a shameful and disgusting mother for trying to get my son to not pay a fine...

I couldn't believe the venom in some of the posts. The EyeOnSpain team had to censor a lot of it, because several posters were complete misogynists. The thread was put on the weekly Digest, read by thousands and so over that sunny weekend, I'd be walking the dog and keep hearing a ping, whenever another of these foul missives had been sent. It was a real eye-opener and gave me an insight into how you feel when you are anonymously bullied on the internet by shameless and ignorant cowards.

A week after the attempted suicide by Peter, I was relating the story to our friend Ian when he said: ‘So you’re not worried about AIDS?’

I hadn’t even thought of it. We don't work in that field and we're not trained in the latest health and safety precautions. It’s another reason why we don’t want these sorts of tenants; to think we could get AIDS from their mess. I was picking up bloody, broken glass and could have got cut in the process. Ian thought that Peter’s friend had maybe been reluctant to help because of the possibility of Peter having AIDS, whereas we just assumed he hadn’t wanted to get blood on his nice t-shirt.

'Christ,' I replied. 'Who knows if he's bloody got it? He's mad and unbalanced enough to do anything or take anything offered to him, including a syringe full of heroin.'

'So now I've got to read up on AIDS,' I moaned to Adrian on the 'phone (he was working in Spain that week). 'l'll have to, to put my mind at rest.'

'Or get yourself more worried,' was Adrian's reply.

'Well, I'm pretty sure I didn’t cut myself and neither did you,' I said, 'and neither of us had any open wounds.' So I was 90% confident, but being 10% worried you might have contracted AIDS is still not good. My internet trawl did the trick and I couldn't see how we got have got infected. I slept okay that night.

The next day I went to Argos to buy the cheapest vacuum cleaner for Hill View that was humanly possible (the place was a money pit). Apparently it had been deliberately broken in an act of sabotage by Jason, because he's been given his notice. We suspected that more damage would follow during the statutory couple of months notice that we'd had to give him. The new vacuum cleaner would stay in Okie ’s room as Adrian said he was the only person who vacuumed.

Despite the sabotage, Jason was still trying to turn on the charm.

Jason (14 August): Thanks for all youve done for me. Please send me thebill and i will setle up. Im not a problem in this house. Ask Okinawa.

Jason (4.26pm): im in hospital with seriouse condition so I wont be there for a while. I started on the back ill do the attic when I get out. Jason.

Adrian (4.27pm): Jason. Sorry to hear that. Hope u are better soon. Adrian.

Jason (4.35pm) Ive been in n out of hospital for a couple of weeks now for ingections but my i.n.r. has droped so they gona operate so i dont have to come to hospital 5 days a week for the rest of my life.

Thanks. I got a hereditry condition called factor 5 laiden. Same thing my father died of. They want to operate n put n umbrella in me so the blood clot doesnt travel to my heart n lungs n kill me.

We then heard from Peter that he was going on a drug whereby if he drank alcohol he would be violently sick. We were praying he would keep a bucket near him (pity our carpet and mattress).

Jason also admitted now that he'd broken the hoover. Adrian went up to see both of them. The house was in a state once more. Adrian had taken up a cheap hoover but it was cutting out after ten minutes’ use; we didn’t want to get our usual, good £100 one while Jason and Peter were still there. I suggested Okie might deign to use a dustpan and brush to supplement the cheap hoover, although God knew how often he did this alleged cleaning; there was no evidence of it.

I was getting fed up as usual about the way the bad tenants could get everyone running around to help them. So two days later, when I found out the Welsh Assembly was introducing yet more regulations and compulsory fees for landlords whilst, as usual, doing nothing to help us deal with rogue tenants, I decided to let off steam by writing them a letter:

Dear Sir/Madam

We are landlords and members of the Landlord Forum. We have attached our response to the Welsh Government’s Proposal for a Better Private Rented Sector in Wales. We would like to draw attention to the fact that the legislation is already in place to monitor landlords’ behaviour and professional practices and we, personally, see this as a cynical attempt to get vast sums of money from us (as we have a large portfolio).

We have faced numerous problems with some dreadful tenants over the years and continue to face all manner of problems, with non-paying tenants, tenants who damage our houses, tenants who make us take them to court and end owing us thousands of pounds. Indeed we have lost tens of thousands of pounds over the years in this manner, all the time never getting any help from the authorities, indeed other factors, such as court waiting times conspire to make us lose much more money than necessary.

We have several registered HMOs [Houses of Multiple Occupation] already and have had inspectors say: ‘Oh, you get £1,000 per month for that property and thus can easily afford the £500 licensing fee.'

In fact, the licence fee is the least of the expense as they then always suggest thousands of pounds worth of ‘improvements.'

My husband has had to point out to these non-business people that we are also paying mortgages, maintenance, furniture renewals, regular redecoration, insurance, gas safety fees, letting fees and so on and in the summer only receive half-rents. There have been many times when the profit margin has been about £100 per month of that "£1,000" rent and all of this in a market where our houses are worth less each year. It is thus with some indignation that we hear these false assumptions being made about us, by people who have no idea of the reality of what it means to be a landlord in a society which holds considerable disdain for us as a profession, but at the same time relies on us to provide a service.

Clearly, landlords such as ourselves will try and get out of this field when the market improves (we have several houses in negative equity and it would, in any case, be extremely difficult to sell our heavily-mortgaged houses at the moment), as we feel so unsupported in our role. We could make a lot of further points, but to save time you can read about them as Dr Rebecca Lynch has written two books on the subject of tenants from hell, which refer to the bureaucratic and regulatory nightmare of being a landlord as well as the emotional and psychological toll which this work has taken on us.

The current proposals will make things much worse and lead to many landlords leaving the market. This will create more homelessness and this will all be caused by regulations being proposed by people who are not business people and have no idea what is going on in this field.

I urge you to reconsider.

Kind regards.