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Tenants cause most damage in the south-east

Tuesday, 13 January 2009 11:42 AM

London and the south-east have topped the list of landlords' worst tenants.

The Deposit Protection Service (DPS) has said more than 40 per cent of their disputes have occurred in the region.

The analysis released today has recorded tenants trashing houses, letting gardens go wild or simply disappearing without notice. London was the worst offender when the analysis was broken down into cities, followed by Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and York.

Some 52 per cent of the disputes recorded in the south-east were the result of tenants damaging the property, with more than a third due to the property not being cleaned properly.

The north-east saw the second highest level of disputes (15 per cent), followed by the south-west (12 per cent), north-west (11 per cent) and West Midlands (11 per cent).

Kevin Firth, director of the DPS, said: "Exasperated landlords have sent us all sorts of complaints about tenants - from vomit on the carpets to carpets vanishing completely.

"One landlord discovered that his property was being used as a brothel - while we have had several unsuspecting landlords whose properties have been transformed into cannabis factories."

The DPS currently manages £250million of live deposits, equating to over 329,000 separate deposits. Around 250 new landlords and agents sign up to the service every day.

Mr Firth added: "The introduction of a dispute resolution service has been one of the real successes of the government's tenancy deposit legislation - ensuring that these differences are sorted out fairly.

"It is important to remember, however, that the number of disputes that do arise between landlords and tenants is relatively small."

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