Tenant horrors including building an extension without permission, highlighted by property landlords

A litany of damage, disastrous decorating and petty theft stories are revealed in the survey of UK inventory clerks compiled by The Video Inventory Agency.
 
Its top ten worse incidents include a tenant who caused structural damage to a ceiling when installing a pole dancing studio in her front room in Birmingham and another who built a two storey extension without the landlord’s knowledge or planning permission.
 
 An inventory clerk went to a supposedly empty property to find the tenants had moved back in and a doctor who had several cannabis plants growing in a cupboard claimed they were for ‘medicinal purposes’.
 
Also included is tenants who tried to bribe an inventory clerk not to report damages, a tenant who left a decorative whip and other sex toys in a city centre flat apologised and said they were for horse riding, and some trainee medical students who claimed doctors were exempt from having to tidy up after themselves when the state of the flat was queried.
 
A female tenant who objected when the inventory clerk claimed the carpet was dirty denied it needed vacuuming and said; Why does it need cleaning, I’ve only been here for six months?’
 
Then there was a tenant who stole a 10 year old cherry tree from the back garden having lived in the property for six months because he claimed he had planted it himself and an interim inspection which revealed several illegal immigrant families were living in a two bedroom property, including one in the attic.
 
Landlord and property investor Frazer Fearnhead, who founded TVIA last year, said that whilst these cases aren’t common, there is no doubt that the problems caused by a few rogue tenants can have major financial ramifications for landlords. ‘It’s important, therefore, to ensure inventories are watertight so there is no room to refute a claim for damages, neglect or blatant vandalism,’ he said.
 
Launched in 2009, TVIA offers state-of-the-art video inventories that have been designed to protect landlords’ interests. Using similar practices to police standard operating procedures for filming crime scenes, each inventory produced by TVIA is supported by high definition video evidence that has been designed to stand up in court.
 
‘When landlords hand over the keys to a property, they are completely reliant on inventories to protect their assets and many old fashioned inventories just don’t cut it. Video inventory evidence is the only way you can be sure your claim will stand up in court,’ he added.