Updating post from Reddit.
Hi all, hoping to get some advice and offer a warning to other landlords.
I've had a rental property for 10 years without any issues, but the latest tenants have caused me an absolute nightmare. I use an established rental agency who did all the proper referencing, passed credit checks, employment references were fine (worked for the NHS and referencing company confirmed references came from an NHS IP address), paid the deposit and first month's rent then moved in last November.
Things quickly went downhill as he didn't pay the second month (or rather paid £10 to restart the 2 months arrears), and hasn't paid since. The rental agency tried numerous times to inspect the property but it quickly became clear he changed the locks, and over the following months denied any access to inspect the property or carry out any maintenance (gas, electrics, etc).
We applied for a section 8 as soon as we were legally able, and were waiting for a court date to gain possession when my rental agency got a call from Eon, concerned that no-one had used any electricity for a few weeks. They went again with the intention of putting up an abandonment notice, but then found the front door had been left unlocked, and going in quickly realised it had been used as a cannabis farm. The police were called and said there's nothing left of any evidentiary value, so they handed it back to us where we changed the locks to secure the house. Still wanting the follow protocol my rental agency sent a message to the tenant about the abandonment, and he had the gall to respond with "thanks I have now left".
So insurance was called who inspected the house, various malicious damage issues investigated like missing bricks, floorboards torn up, plaster removed to run new electric cables, etc, all seemed straight forward and they said they'd get back to me. Over the next month the kept asking for more and more information, all of which we provided including the many attempts at inspection and all the correspondence with tenants around it, but it seemed very clear by their drip feeding of asking for more random documents that they were trying to worm out of it.
Lo and behold they have now denied the claim saying we have 'breached conditions' by not carrying out inspections on the property. I tried to explain rental laws give us no legal access to the property without consent, and as they had changed the locks the only way to carry out an inspection would have been to illegally break in.
We did everything by the book, but there is a clear contradiction here that we had no legal way of carrying out inspections, and because we didn't break the law to do so the insurance is now invalid. I'm also fairly confident that had we actually accessed the property illegally for an inspection there still would have been a clause making the insurance invalid as well.
I'm trying to escalate this at the moment with the insurance company, but I wanted to reach out here to see if anyone has been through something similar or can offer any advice? It feels like despite paying a policy for 10 years without any claims, there was no way for the insurance to be valid in situations like this no matter what we did.
Have you made a complaint and tried taking it to the ombudsman?
Dear ombudsman, I didn’t read my policy documents, can you investigate
That’s not how it works. T&C’s are unlawful if they themselves require you to break the law.
That is what insurance companies do: find a way not to pay.
You need to decide if the cost (£) of pursuing it is worth engaging professionals to make the claim, which may end up in a hearing.
However, caution is given to others reading this. A lot of you won't even have insurance against Cannabis growing, it's often an optional add-on!!!!!!!
Please tell us the name of the insurance company.
Heres an explainer about ‘malicious damage’ that this would come under. It will also help as you negotiate with your insurers as to what your policy does and doesnt cover. Good luck.
https://www.nrla.org.uk/news/the-complete-guide-to-protecting-your-property-from-malicious-damage
I read your link which had a photo of cannabis plants at the top. By the end, I get that you probably need an extension on your policy to cover for this kind of damage, even if it's a proper landlord policy. Ours does not cover for things like that, but we have flats and live in the same building.
I wonder if he can make a claim against the agent for not taking proper action to get access. Changing locks alone would violate the lease. If they had gone in earlier, some of the damage might have been mitigated as the police would then have been notified. Of course the plants and equipment would have been taken for evidence in case of arrests, but it might have been done in a less destructive way. But again, is there a case against the agentfor not having performed duties in their contract with the landlord? Or is there a 'get out' clause in the contract that absolves them of malicious damage caused by tenants AND guests who were permitted access to the property (the growers).
Landlords cannot enter a let property without the tenants permission, irrespective of whats written in an AST. Tenants can change locks, as long as theyre changed back at the end of their tenancy. Yes of course you can pursue a breach of the tenancy contract. OP and their agent issued a Section 8 as soon as they were legally able to……for a breach of contract, whether thats access refusal, lock changes or non oayment of rent. Doesnt matter. They acted as soon as they were legally allowed to do.
An insurance coy cannot claim ‘no inspection!’ where the tenant is refusing access. Thats what bad tenants do, and thats what LL insurance is for.
OPs main issue here is criminal and malicious damage.
Also log a formal complaint not just you want to Complain. They are different processes. If still no joy get a deadlock letter and refer to ombudsman who will take some time but will deal with it.
Also I am surprised they passed referencing so would also complain to the agent re that.
Small claims court is the next step if they passed referencing as it means they actually have something to loose. Hopefully get a ccj but not the money owed.
What a terrible thing to happen, I am so sorry!
If your landlord's insurance says it covers 'malicious mischief', I have read on the Landlord Zone that they will say you, or your agent, should have done an early inspection, so it would have been caught. Our agent does a 3 months and a 6 months inspection to be sure they are caring for the property and to report to us any maintenance issues. After that it goes annual if the same people stay in.
Prevention is the only way it seems, right from the beginning. A cannabis operation won't rent from you if they know there will be inspections.
If the people who were the signed-on tenants were 'trafficked' to be the renters and look after the plants, is that how they fooled a Keysafe type ref checking/bank checking service? Again, I am really sorry you are going through this.
You should post this under an insurance sub reddit along with your policy wording. Who was the insurer and what policy wording? Did the wording require you to do a periodic inspection? Did you try and do a periodic inspection, and the tenant prevented you? A useful hint, upload your policy wording and scenario into chat gpt and ask it to determine whether you think you have a valid claim.
No. Chat GPT just makes shit up.
This is probably the best argument I’ve heard for legalisation. The cannabis industry needs to be taken away from criminals, licensed and taxed so we can all benefit from the money made. I used to run a property management company and this was a fairly common occurrence. Probably best to warn problem tenants that you’ll report a suspected cannabis grow if they don’t allow the inspection. Then follow through and allow the police to gain entry.
I mean you did have a method available to gain access legally. You/estate agents just didn’t apply for an access injunction that would allow you to secure entry to inspect the property.
Timely, no, costly yes. But to say you had no legal way to get access is wrong. It’s likely the insurance company are looking at it from that point of view.
Thank you everyone for your comments. I'm in the process of making a formal complaint which I'm doubtful will go anywhere, then I'll be going to the Ombudsman who I'm hoping will be more helpful.
I managed to get a bit more info from the letting agent, apparently a gas check and inspection was carried out about a month after moving in with no obvious issues, and it was straight after this that the locks were changed. An injunction wasn't possible because I'm told you can only get one if they outright refuse access, whereas my tenant just didn't answer the door at the agreed times or kept cancelling at the last minute. Even if we could an injunction can take weeks or even months to get, so probably wouldn't made a difference to the insurance company, and by that point we were already in the section 8 process anyway. With that and paying £10 on the second month to restart the full two months arrears I'm certain they knew what they were doing.
I firmly believe we did everything we could to legally comply with the conditions of the insurance policy, and it still wasn't enough. Cannabis issues aside, the wider issue is that any tenant being difficult with access for inspections will put any landlord at risk if there are damages later, as I'm sure most insurance policies will have similar wording, and there is no legal route where you're able to keep your insurance valid as we cannot force our way into these properties. This just isn't right and that's what I want to go to the Ombudsman with.
Don't give up the fight! Best of luck.
Whoever told you that you couldn’t get an injunction was wrong.
You’re obliged to provide 24 hours notice, so you do several appointments and if no access is provided then you make your application.
You required to inspect the property just as they are required to provide access.
Why on earth are you talking to your insurance company
I thought you used a management firm, this is their problem that's why you pay them
If not then why in earth are you paying them