Hi Guildy
I live abroad so an unable to visit my ‘ HMO property” in Southwest London my helper has been their and reports to me that the place is becoming run down, unkept, not cleaned and very dirty. They use to keep it clean & tidy in the past but their has been a part turnaround of tenants, my helper suspects their may be some adversity amongst the tenants in that they may now not be getting on together as before. so not cooperating in cleaning schedule as required, its hard to say as we can only do a passing visit from time to time. they are on tenancy builder AST. hoping for a few suggestions in dealing with this issue, what can I do to try to resolve this please, Guildy, Thankyou.
3 Comments
This must be a worry especially as you’re unable to even visit the property.
As to what you and your helper can do depends on whether the tenants let by the room or if they are all on one joint AST – your comment suggests they let by the room.
If the tenants let by the room, the landlord retains control over the shared space, so if warning the tenants and perhaps bribes to the tenants to clean up have been ignored, you could arrange for your own cleaner to go in say once a week or once a fortnight. Some tenants might resist this claiming it’s their home and visitors can only enter with their permission, but in that scenario that only applies to the tenant’s room – they have no right to stop their landlord or anyone acting on the landlord’s behalf from entering the common area, provided that person does not cause unreasonable interference with the tenants’ use of the property and observes COVID protocols.
If, however, they are joint tenants, they have full control over the whole property and you can only ask them to clean up and if that doesn’t work, your only option then is to start possession proceedings. If the property is handed back in a lessor state of cleanliness than at the start of the tenancy, you may be able to claim for reasonable professional cleaning costs from the deposit.
Great advice, thank you.
and yes you where right tenants all on seperate AST, let by the room.