As a landlord, when letting a property I take the risk that I will have a good tenant, capable of looking after the property, paying his/her rent on time and being a good neighbour. Unfortunately, no matter how many checks I do I often can't tell until the tenant is in the property how good they are going to be.
To protect against damage and rent arrears Landlords ask for Bonds. I know that for a lot of tenants the cost of a bond is something they cannot afford and so over the years Bond Schemes have started to help tenants get into properties. Schemes, such as, Solas Bond Scheme run here in Wales by the Welsh Assembly has been around for many years and is an organisation I have used for several years.
It concerned me last year when they started revoking guarantees on existing tenancies. Claims submitted to them at the end of last year were ignored. It took months of emails and phonecalls to get the paperwork through to make the claim.
Since January, I have been making weekly phonecalls on progress with claims. After many excuses the claims were finally approved but not paid. So for the past few weeks I have been chasing every week for payment.
Today, I received a phonecall, only after threatening legal action, advising they have run out of money and can't make the payment until the new financial year.
What credibility does an organisation have if it can't pay it's claims.
Will I be taking on Solas Bond Scheme applicants again? No
Will I recommend them to another landlord? No
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