A single mum says she has lost all her savings after renting her family home to a ‘tenant from hell’ who refused to pay rent for more than a year and turned the property into a hoarder’s hovel.
Nevena Khediri’s five-bedroom house was left full of overflowing piles of rotting rubbish, rodent droppings and thousands of pounds’ worth of damage – on top of £40,000 in unpaid rent.
The 51-year-old said she had to rent out the five-bedroom house in Camberley, Surrey, to support herself and her two children after her marriage ended in September 2023.
The individual who moved in seemed ‘normal’ at first but suddenly stopped paying rent in October 2024.
Stonewalled by the tenant and facing mounting mortgage payments, Nevena eventually felt forced to launch eviction proceedings.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
But the tenant clung on until November this year, dragging Nevena through a hellish court battle which forced her to pay lawyers and bailiffs.
It included a 60-day period in which legal proceedings had to be paused because the tenant was accepted by the government’s ‘Breathing Space’ scheme for people in temporary debt.
Nevena’s family initially helped her with legal fees but when their money ran out too she had to represent herself at the end of the court case.
The mum-of-two, who works in a school, found the property ‘completely destroyed’.
‘The whole house is filled to the brim with stuff. The drawers are pulled out for more rubbish to be piled on.
‘There are cobwebs around the rooms. You can’t even step in some of the rooms, you have to climb over bags to gain access.
‘It smells. There is a mixture of rotting food and wrappers. In the oven there is mold. There were three dogs in there, so there is a lot of hair and dog food. There are signs of rodents.
‘It is horrendous. It is beyond belief that someone could actually live in that state. The garden and the two garages are full to the brink too. The carpets are completely destroyed.’
It’s estimated the damage to the carpets and floors will cost thousands to rectify.
But Nevena said she doesn’t even have enough money to hire cleaners, and is having to rope in friends and family to help.
Nevena said: ‘It has been an absolute nightmare. It was so painful going through the whole thing. I have gone through hell for the last 14 months.
‘Some landlords are not landlords by choice, and those are real individuals that get hurt. All of my savings have been depleted. It has been really tough.
‘It was really stressful making ends meet and providing for my children. Christmas is coming up and the kids know it is going to be quite modest this year.’
Nevena said she will ‘never rent [out] again’ and urged anyone thinking of doing so to make sure they have protections in place.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
