Tenants from hell

Some tenants can be a handful.  [PHOTOS:COURTESY/STANDARD]

By LYDIA LIMBE

The picture many people get whenever they read property magazines, attend homes expos or watch television property shows is that real estate is a lucrative business.

But is it? Those who have invested in real estate hardly dispute its attractiveness, but warn that if you are going to invest in rental property, be ready to deal with rogue tenants.

Ben Ireri, the Managing Director of Splendid Links, a property management company based in Nairobi’s Umoja 1, knows the agony of dealing with such tenants. “I once had this client from Nigeria who moved paid a whole year’s rent in full when he moved in. The following year, he paid for six months upfront. This is every property manager’s dream,” he says.

But when the six months lapsed, their relationship started going sour. “On the seventh month when he had not paid, we did not think much of it because he had a good record. Whenever we asked him about the arrears, he would talk his way out, saying he was waiting for a payment that had delayed,” says Ireri, adding that the client was a businessman.

But Ireri began to get uncomfortable when the arrears hit four months. When he was moving in initially, he had paid the required one-month deposit, together with a full-year rent.

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One day, when the caretaker travelled upcountry to attend to an emergency, the tenant made his escape.

“We discovered the following day that he had moved out at night. This was a huge loss on our part. We had to pay the apartment owner his expected dues, amounting to Sh70,000. We also had to clear the accumulated utility bills,” he says.

Drama

Rouge tenants are everywhere. Thinwa Kagai, the Property Director at Villa Care, a leading property management firm in Nairobi, says they have been a victim too. “We once had this couple client who were very persuasive.

They had signed the lease agreement, but did not wait for us to sign our part. Instead, they moved out of their former house soon after, and were in the process of moving into the new house when trouble started,” says Kagai.

Usually, once a client appends his or her signature to the lease agreement, it is sent to the top bosses to verify before giving clearance. This particular client had only paid part of the deposit, with a promise to pay the balance in one-and-half weeks. “The caretaker of the apartment they were to move into is the one who alerted the office since he did not have the clearance letter.

The clients, however, were able to talk their way into offloading their household items from the truck they were using into the house,” adds Kagai.

As this was happening, back at the head office, their request was declined. This meant that the client had to be asked to remove the already offloaded household items back into the truck and leave the premises.

“The couple refused. They claimed that they had already moved out of their previous house, thus had nowhere to go to. We even offered them accommodation at a hotel of their choice for the night since we also had a role to play in the mess that had ensued, not to mention that they had a five-year-old daughter. They refused. It was ugly,” says Kagai.

Household items were taken back into the truck. The next day, the couple, who according to the lease agreement were church ministers, went to Villa Care offices with a lawyer, claiming loss and damage of property, as well as warehousing charges.

“Police investigated and concluded that there was no wrongdoing on our part. However, the client refused to collect their money after the storm subsided,” Kagai says. Some landlords, on the other hand, opt to manage their property by themselves.

This does not necessarily make their experiences with tenants any pleasant. “I once had a client who had no issues. He paid his rent on time. We lived in harmony with other tenants.

Then one day it rained heavily, and all hell broke loose,” Carolyne Achieng’, who owns a two-floor house in Nairobi, told Home and Away.

Achieng’ and her tenant were living in the same compound. The tenant was on the ground floor, while she lived on the upper floor. On that day, it rained heavier than usual. The laundry and balcony section of the house was flooded, with the bottle trap not able to drain water as fast as it was pouring. The water began to leak into the lower house.

“The tenant called me the following day to show me what was happening. Water was leaking, all right, but it was trickling down the outside of the kitchen window. Even the rest of the compound was flooded,” says Achieng’.

The tenant made a mountain out of the matter. “He was screaming and shouting at me in the presence of his wife, house-help and acting out to the curious neighbours who had stopped to watch what was going on. He claimed that the water was sewer water, and that he would call health authorities to back his allegations,” she recalls.

Achieng’ suggested bringing a fundi to repair the damage since it was the first time something like this was happening, but he could hear none of it and instead opted to continue acting out his show.

Since there was no lease agreement signed (Achieng’ says the client refused to sign the agreement), she told him by word of mouth to sit on his deposit and leave the house after one month.

“He left the house in a mess. I had to change all the locks – both for the doors and wardrobes.

The toilets and bathroom were so filthy, I had to replace the whole vanity sets, as well as paint the house. He also left unpaid electricity and water bills. I spent about Sh60,000 in total to do all that,” says Achieng’.

Lessons learnt

Did they learn anything from these experiences? “Yes. Despite being conned my tenant, when we get an interest from one nowadays, we do thorough vetting of the person,” says Ireri.  This vetting includes identification, reference letters from employers or previous landlord(s), and even bank statements to show proof of ability to pay.

Ireri is quick to add that if a client wants to pay in advance, say quarterly of half-yearly, the deposit has to match the number of months paid for upfront. Otherwise, rent must be collected on a monthly basis.

Thinwa Kagai, on the other hand, says apart from carrying out due diligence on a potential client, they have learnt to always follow due process, no matter the potential client’s circumstances.