A LANDLORD said he did not know
whether "to laugh or have a heart attack" when he discovered this
three-bedroom family home had been utterly ransacked by the outgoing tenants.
Mohamed Shabir, who owns 45 homes across south London, said he
believed the damage caused – including stripping the property of its piping –
would cost £20,000 to repair.
And he claimed it was situations such
as this that put landlords off renting to social housing tenants and
exacerbated Croydon's critical housing shortage.
"All the time you hear that tenants get a bad deal from their
landlords – but this is the reality. It has happened to me four times now and I
can't let it happen again," he told the Advertiser.
"I'm not the only person this has happened to – it happens
all the time.
"The council says we should take on more social housing
tenants, but this is what happens when we do."
Damage caused to the three-bedroom north Croydon property, whose
precise location the Advertiser is not publishing for legal reasons, included:
Floorboards ripped up to steal copper piping
The boiler torn from the wall and stolen
Doors pulled from their hinges and furniture trashed
The gas meter was stolen
Mr Shabir is adamant the damage was done by his former tenant and
her "druggie" boyfriend and was not the result of a subsequent
break-in.
And to make matters worse, the Tooting-based landlord said he was
now unable to contact the woman because she is in a women's hostel.
"I've reported it to the police but they're not
interested," he added.
Mr Shabir said his tenant had been recommended by Bromley Council
after fleeing domestic violence.
"I thought I was doing a good thing – giving a home to a
vulnerable family – but this is how I am repaid," he said.
"What they [the council] need to do is to make the tenant
responsible for their actions. They have to warn the tenants that this kind of
behaviour is not acceptable.
"If they are going to do something like this, the money
should be taken from their benefits.
"If there was going to be a real consequence for them, then
they would soon stop doing this sort of thing."
Police said they were investigating the case.
