The little mistake that could cost landlords £20,000!

As landlords, it is easy to assume that bad things won’t happen to you. It’s called the ‘’It would never happen to me’’ syndrome.

Well, I wanted to inform you of one instance where it nearly did happen to me.

To give you an overview - I was watching a programme on tv which outlined the rise of Cannabis factories within the UK. The problem used to be isolated to central london and city areas, however the drug growers are moving further out into rural areas and hundreds of cases are being uncovered monthly. There were even some cases of new build properties shown (one shown was a 5 bed detached property) that are being turned into cannabis farms. The reason for the increase in this activity is that the outlay is minimal when compared to the potential returns – a 3 bedroom house (costing just £800 a month to rent) can give a yearly yield of £200,000 in cannabis. In fact, the problem is getting so severe that the UK is actually exporting the green gold!

You may not think it is a serious problem, however, these farms involve re-doing the electrics within the house, fitting extractor fan systems which involve cutting large holes in ceilings and walls, and serious damage to décor through the installation of lights, reflective solar sheeting and wiring throughout the house. So it is not a case of a quick fix repair. There are substantial costs involved and it can cost in excess of £20,000 to bring your property back to a rentable state.

The funny thing is, the morning after I watched this programme I got a call informing me that a flat within a block where I own 4 flats had been used a one of these Cannabis factories. I had actually nearly bought this flat after it was fully refurbished, however, in the end it was bought by another vendor for a higher price than I was willing to pay. The tenants had kicked the door in after locking themselves out (I presume one of the perks of growing cannabis is in quality control of the product) however, another tenant in the block noticed the door was kicked in, and contacted the police. To cut a long story short, the property was full to the brim with cannabis and it is estimated that it will cost a few months, and in excess of £20,000 to bring the property back to it’s original state.

So how could this cost you £20,000 - and how can you ensure that your insurance will pay out? Your insurance company may well have a legal way of getting out of paying for these repairs, so to find out how to avoid this happening to you visit: http://www.the-home-place.co.uk./page73.php