My first tenants hosted excessive pot parties. It was a nightmare I hadn't expected. Throughout I had treated the tenants with respect and the benefit of the doubt. The property was freshly decorated to offer a welcoming living environment. When I recovered the property, I realised just how badly I had been played. Now, I am trying to remove the smell. In hindsight, I had made a few mistakes, which could have avoided or alleviated the issues, but also made some good choices. Read on to learn from my experience and steer clear of problem tenants.

Act 1: Exposition — Finding tenants

Admittedly, I was in a bit of a hurry to fill the property with tenants. Who wouldn't want to start earning rent as soon as possible? My most important learning is to give yourself time to find the right tenants.

During the viewing and application process, the tenants proved a bit disorganised and unreliable:

• They missed my message suggesting a viewing date, and only replied after I double-checked
• The tenant was late to the viewing by around half an hour, without notifying me, and then really rushed through
• Only one of the couple came to the viewing
• Small discrepancies on the application form: misspelled email address, and the previous rent figure slightly off, mismatched post code

The tenants had harmless explanations: Simply missing a message, a work event in London and train issues coming to the viewing, work commitments, genuine typo, apology message for slightly confusing the previous rent amount. On their own, none of these would be remarkable.

Overall, my impression was that the tenants had a more disorganised personality type than average. However, I thought also disorganised people require a home and can be good tenants. In hindsight, altogether, they raised too many flags. Scarred by my experience, in the future I would reject prospective tenants who presented themselves in such a manner. Going forward, I will also endeavour to schedule viewings together with my partner in order to have a second opinion.

By the way: On their application form, they stated that they were non-smokers. The first of their blatant lies.

I performed my due diligence and ordered tenant referencing. This involves confirmation of their salary (in this case, their income was checked through open banking), a credit check, and reference from previous landlord. The reference from the previous landlord was positive for on-time rental payments. However, the previous landlord or agent hadn't answered whether the tenants had treated the property well. I thought, perhaps they don't reply to this question as a matter of policy, or perhaps they are unsure as the leaving inspection has not taken place yet. In the future I would try to dig deeper into the reason for a non-response. Nevertheless, the references showed pass so I proceeded. Positive references are a requirement for rent guarantee insurance, which I am very glad I had decided to buy. See my upcoming post on rent guarantee insurance.

Right to rent checks were completed quickly, they moved into the property, and suddenly I became a landlord. Rent was paid on time throughout their tenancy.

Act 2: Rising action — Complaints, inspection, and notice served

A month into the tenancy, the neighbour started to complain. They were smoking heavily, and it was unbearable, coming from the windows, seeping into the common area and into her own flat, she said. I received a notice from the council regarding cannabis use, to whom she had also complained. I kept receiving further complaint messages from the neighbour.