Landlord’s get a pretty bad rap, and most of the time, you have to figure they deserve it.

That’s definitely the case here, with a guy who let these folks live in an absolute dump while bilking the city tax department for thousands.

Check out the details, which prove it’s better to be smart than rich.

I mean, if you have to chose.

Greedy landlord loses benefits

This happened to my partner and I a couple of years ago:

We live in the UK, and in 2019 I got a really good job in a new city in the Midlands. After a few months of commuting we decided to move closer as my partner could find job easily.

We booked several viewings with prices ranging from £600 to £1200 per month.

After serious consideration we decided that the long-term goal was to buy a property, so we decided to go for the cheapest place in order to save money for the deposit faster.

It was clear from the start there were some dubious dealings.

Now, this house was in one of the roughest neighbourhoods I’ve ever lived in.

The streets were covered in rubbish, people would be shouting outside in the middle of the night, police would be constantly passing by, you’d find needles in the park nearby and drunk/drugged people laying around all the time.

As per the house, it was a wreck but we knew what we were getting into, just looking at the big picture of getting our own home.

We agree to move and pay the £600 deposit plus month’s rent in advance landlord requests to keep his mail, didn’t sign a contract (I know but we were young and naive), payment to be done in cash, do not change the pre paid electricity meter, etc.

But he said there’s no need to register for council tax because he’d cover it, in the UK council tax is usually well over £100 per month and it’s normally the tenant who pays for it, this will be VERY important later.

When they moved in, it was pretty much a nightmare.

Moving day comes and the house is a mess, like a proper mess the converted loft is full of rubbish, they left a bed behind and when we moved it there was years of q-tips, rubbish, even underwear from the previous tenant.

There was a thick layer of grease throughout the kitchen, i guess you get the picture. We took pictures (but later lost them when i changed phone and didn’t do transfer of files).

The guy was a pretty big piece of work.

Another important detail is that in the year we lived there, landlord went on holiday to Sri Lanka, Dubai, Australia, and somewhere else I cannot remember.

Also drove a very expensive car, when he came to collect rent he’d make comments like…

Oh yeah had a barbecue in my new jacuzzi, etc. You’ll know soon why this is important.

They decided to move out and found some very interesting mail in the process.

Nearly one year passes and we fine a shared ownership in a new development in a better area, which together with the amount of money we managed to save, we can afford! We get our mortgage and notify the landlord with three months notice.

I request to not pay the last month and he could just keep the deposit, but he refused.

About one week before moving out I accidentally open a letter from the council in his name, before noticing the name in the letter I realise it’s a council tax bill…

But it’s not hundreds, not even tens of pounds per month, it’s £40-something FOR THE YEAR!

And notice that the reason for this is that he’d been awarded housing benefits for”living alone” in my rented house and being in “low pay”.

So, when the landlord angered them, they made a phone call.

Moving day comes, unlike how the house was upon moving in, we cleaned the property upside-down just to be told by the landlord that he’s keeping the deposit due to the carpet being dirty etc…

Now that did infuriate me as I had lost the moving day pictures of the dirty house, i argued that the house was then in better state of maintenance than when we moved in, but to no avail.

I need to mention that even losing the deposit, the money we saved in council tax still made it beneficial to us. But I’m a petty b-word and I was very much done with landlord maliciousness.

Petty revenge: I called the city council and with my most innocent voice said that I’d been living in the property for a year and just seen a council tax bill filled with benefits for my landlord and thought it was “not ok”.

The previously monotonous voice of the person at the other side of the phone immediately lifted up in excitement and asked a lot more questions. Then thanked me and we hung up.

That was everything until recently we saw our former neighbours, apparently landlord lost his benefits, and was driving a much cheaper car, the house is currently for sale.

That was tied up in a neat bowl.

I bet Reddit loved it, too!

The taxes were probably the tip of the iceberg.

Trouble for days.

It adds up quick!

There were clues that something nefarious was afoot, for sure.

He wasn’t the brightest.

Some people deserve everything they get.

Especially when it’s bad.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.