A residential landlord in a Somerset town has set up his own landlord referencing network scheme after suffering a horrendous attack by one of his tenants.
Paul Routledge, who has operated his landlord business in the town of Weston-super-Mare for many years, has recently launched LandlordReferencing.co.uk. The company is targeted at landlords and letting agents and will give them a comprehensive overview of prospective tenants including information on any previous rental arrears they may have incurred or if they have caused damage at a previous tenancy. The tenant referencing idea came to Paul after he suffered at the hands of a previous tenant.
Paul related his traumatic encounter to cable TV explaining: “I had a call that there was a problem at one of my flats. When I turned up the front door was open, so I walked in calling ‘is anybody there?’ I got to the front room and found two guys sat down and another, my tenant, stood by the sink. It was obvious a drug deal was going on so I told them to get out, at which point my tenant jumped over and started stabbing me in the head. A fight ensued and he ended up leaving me for dead on the staircase.”
After recovering from the attack Paul realised there was very little protection in place for landlords who suffered from violent and destructive tenants and decided to go ahead with the tenant referencing network scheme. There is no doubt that stopping a nightmare tenant before he his ensconced in one of your properties is very much preferable to having to take action about getting one removed. Landlord insurance will certainly help protect your property and combined with signing up to a network that forewarns about possible troublesome tenants, both will give landlords that extra peace of mind they all look for.