An estate agency in Lancashire has been vandalised with graffiti after being accused of exploitation.
The word ‘Conman’ was sprayed onto the office window of Ainsworth-Lord Estates in Darwen earlier this week.
The vandalism came after the owner of the company, Paul Ainsworth-Lord, appeared on Channel 5 show Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords last week with a 90-year-old man called Alan Barnes who was conned into becoming a guarantor for his son who was renting a property through the agency.
The tenant refused to pay rent, leaving the pensioner to pay the £3,500 in instalments over a 12-month period.
Ainsworth-Lord said: “We had the paint off in no time, and we think it is obviously someone who we have had or are having problems with.
“It does not faze us at all, in this industry you always get people who will do these things to you.
“For every person like this, we meet 500 nice people.”
Following the episode’s airing last week, Ainsworth-Lord set up a GoFundMe page to help Alan reclaim some of the money he had lost. The fund has raised more than £16,000 so far.
Ainsworth-Lord added: “Since we set up the page, we have had threats, saying we’re trying to raise the money for ourselves and not Alan, but I thought we were doing a good job by trying to navigate a situation where people wanted to donate money to him.”
The new series of ‘Nightmare Tenants Slum Landlords’ kicked off last week.
New series of ‘Nightmare Tenants Slum Landlords’ kicks off today
Comments (11)
I had a look at their reviews on Google – any letting agent that can achieve a score of 4.5 on there is doing a seriously good job, as tenants who don’t get their deposits refunded in full are all too savvy about kicking the agent on Google these days.
A word of advice to Paul and anyone else reading this: respond to all your Google reviews the day they are posted. Having this as company policy will warn anyone thinking they can post untruths or even libel that they won’t go unchallenged. It tends to give them pause.
If true it still doesn’t excuse the graffiti I agree.
He doesn’t actually deny the money is for himself in his statement.
I saw it reported that the Letting Agent is actually the owner and landlord of the property where the son lives so he will benefit personally from this as the rent arrears will be paid off in full – I may be wrong ?
Does that make any difference?
So?
He will benefit from this? Well if true not really, as he will recoup his monies from the guarantor albeit immediately as opposed to over 12 months.
The person who really benefits will be the guarantor. If the tenant had paid their rent, the guarantor would never have been put in this position. If anyone was conning someone it was the son conning his father.
I watched this episode and I marveled at how helpful & empathetic Paul Ainsworth-Lord was. I’ve also seen how he bravely deals with some incredibly difficult situations head-on. I’m a couple of hundred miles away and know nothing else about him or his business, bar what I’ve seen on a few episodes of this programme. However, I think he is a credit to his Landlords and the wider community.
Raises a few issues in my mind. Clearly the idiot who committed the vandalism is brain dead. The worst person in all this is the son that has offered up his dad, and one must question if he has any morals whatsoever. Shelter, Government et al do, to some degree, have put out the term “Rogue Landlord” and this has, without doubt, coloured the populations opinions of landlords and agents, despite many of whom have high standards. Nowadays you use the term “Landlord” and it is associated with the term “Rogue” and is almost inciting the brain dead in these types of actions. The next point it raises is whether you would consider a non working retired gnetleman to be a suitable guarantor? He may have assets to meet any liability but if those assets are his home and he is on a state pension is this good enough? I would personally suggest not. With Government bashing landlords more and more and wanting them to accept any old tenant who just wants a roof over their head landlords turn to guarantors for their security. Just becauses someone is prepared to sign an undertaking does not mean they have the right level of income or knowledge of what they are signing. Do they own a property and do they have a good level of equity? What happens if they want out once the tenant is in place? Do they really appreciate they are guaranteeing much more than just the rent? Would you trust your son or daughter with your life? That is what you are effectively doing by acting as a guarantor on an ongoing long term rental. Do you want to be demonised by a bunch of idiots as this agent has been. At the same time I think most people will feel sorry for Alan in this case but poor Alan made a mistake by trusting his amoral son!
Very sad news.
But its not the agent to blame its the feckless son doing that to his father.
This vandalism is outrageous and it demonstrates how difficult an agent’s job can be at times.
I really enjoy the TV series. Agents deserve medals!
Difficult!!!
Cleaning a bit of pain off a wall LOL