Dealing with difficult tenants

As a landlord, you are bound to come across a challenging tenant situation at some point or another, no matter how rigorous your screening process is. Dealing with difficult tenants can be a result of various reasons, such as late rent payment, continuous noise, or property damage. If you decide to react emotionally, you’ll escalate the situation to a situation of conflict, which will jeopardise your case. 

Here, we’ll go through the ways of dealing with difficult tenants using professionalism and meticulous documentation of each individual situation, giving you tips on how to handle conflict in an appropriate way to help protect your investment. 

Dealing with difficult tenants in the right way

Before reacting to any situation with difficult tenants, remember that you are running a business and that remaining professional and calm will always be in your best interest. 

De-escalation

The best way to deal with conflict is to try to de-escalate it first. The best way to do this is to avoid personal language and focus your attention on the breach of the lease agreement, not the personality of the tenant or any personal feelings you may have towards them. 

Documentation

The one thing you’ll always need to keep in the back of your mind is that if it is not documented anywhere, it didn’t happen. So, to combat this, make sure that you create a formal incident log for the tenancy where you record every interaction with its date, time and the method of communication. This is especially important when dealing with difficult tenants. Also, make sure you provide a summary of the issue and the advice given to the tenant. All of this information canbecome the glue of any future eviction case. 

Common difficult issues with legal enforcement

When you have to use legal enforcement with your tenant, it means that you’re using formal, written notices to steer the tenant back into adhering to the tenancy agreement. Here are somemain reasons for dealing with difficult tenants.

Late rent payments 

The most common issue that you’ll find when dealing with difficult tenants is handling late rent payments. So, what you need to do immediately is follow the late rent procedure outlined in your rental agreement. This usually involves an automated reminder, followed by a formal, written Notice of Demand for Rent after the specified time period. 

Also, make sure that you never accept partial payments without the agreement being written down clearly and signed by both parties. Ensure that all notices clearly state the exact amount of rent owed to you by the tenant, the dates of missed payments, and the deadline for the payment before you have to take legal action. 

Property damage and lease violations

This encompasses issues like unauthorised long-term guests, unapproved pets or any physical damage beyond normal wear and tear. If you can’t come to a verbal agreement, you can issue a formal Notice to Cure or Quit, demanding that tenants either fix the issue or vacate the property by a specific deadline.  

This notice must state the exact clause/part of the rental agreement that has been violated. Once you have issued this notice, make sure that you conduct a documented inspection to verify the damage or violation before issuing the notice. 

Noise and neighbour complaints

Here, you’ll need to rely on the rental agreement’s ‘quiet enjoyment’ clause. Your first step will be to acknowledge the complaint and interview the complaining party, asking neighbours to keep a log of all the noise, detailing the time, duration and the nature of the disturbance. 

Next, you’ll issue a formal, written warning to the tenant making the noise, including the dates and times of the disturbances. Make sure that you inform your tenants that repeat violations constitute a material breach of the rental agreement. 

Knowing when to pursue eviction when dealing with difficult tenants

Evicting a tenant should always be the absolute last resort and should only be utilised when a tenant has consistently failed to fix the breach of contract. You can’t evict a tenant purely because they are difficult – there needs to be solid evidence, for example:

• Consistent and persistent failure to pay rent (arrears).
• Severe damage to the property.
• Illegal activity on the premises.
• Breach of a material lease covenant (after repeated failure to cure).

Serve the correct legal notice

The first step in eviction is serving the correct statutory notice, like a Section 8 notice, for breach of tenancy or a Section 21 notice as a no-fault eviction. Never attempt to evict a tenant yourself or pressure them to leave by illegal means. This can include changing the locks, cutting off utilities or removing their belongings from the property. 

These are all illegal actions and will result in massive fines for you, immediately sabotaging your case in court. 

Dealing with difficult tenants can be extremely stressful and legally complicated, so it is important to keep yourself knowledgeable on these topics as a landlord. You need to know when to delegate so that you get the best out of the situation. 

Hiring a specialised property manager or retaining a landlord-tenant lawyer is not a sign of failure, but is instead a smart business decision. With this help, you’ll know that all paperwork will be handled correctly and that the eviction process will be handled legally. This cansave you a lot of time and potentially thousands of pounds in legal fees caused by procedural errors. 

For more information on landlord insurance and managing your rental property efficiently, feel free to visit our advice centre. Otherwise, make sure to get in touch with our friendly team of specialists at CIA Landlord Insurance on 01788 818 670.