Editing a lawyer?s written advice on how to deal with rogue tenants; it occurred to me that we rarely hear of ways by which good tenants can protect themselves from rogue landlords. In my experience for every bad tenant there is an equally bad landlord.

My friend?s previous land?lady? was an alcoholic disposed towards taking drugs and even prostituting herself. Bizarre in her behaviour, her reputation was such that she wouldn?t approach her rented property, afraid of the neighbours? hostility towards her.

When drunk (often) she would make abusive and threatening telephone calls. She went ape when he changed the locks after realising that half the low-life in the area had a set of the keys.

Another landlord hit the roof when his tenant insisted on an appointment being made when potential buyers wished to view (it was on sale). Another landlord who thought he could just come and go as he pleased. The poor tenant had no privacy.

A landlord who wouldn?t repair or replace a 10-year old refrigerator which had broken down. Surely tenants need to be protected from rogue landlords too?

Hear hear!  Having just escaped from a nightmare rental where the landlord and landlady had clearly not agreed the rent with one another before she agreed it with us, we spent 6 months caught in the middle of their ‘domestic’, during which they refused to fix leaky roofs, provide basic equipment, give receipts for rent, etc.  It was one of those situations where you don’t realise quite how horrible it was until you are looking back on it (now from a warm dry villa with lovely landlords who don’t shout at us, ignore us or patronise us)... and yes we paid them every penny agreed as oweing, and were in many regards model tenants.  We should have walked away sooner but we stuck out the 6 month contract, at least we learned a lot,