A three-year nightmare, a judicial odyssey to recover one’s property, only to find it literally devastated. Damage beyond insult to Collette McFarlane, a 62-year-old English woman who found herself having to pay for the mess left by her tenant, who in the meantime had accumulated a debt for unpaid rent of 55 thousand pounds, equal to over 65 thousand euros. An already astronomical sum, to which judicial costs must also be added.
Collette’s story
Collette told her story to the British news agency Swns, starting in May 2021, when she decided to rent a two-bedroom apartment in the Barnet area of London, at a price of 1,600 pounds a month (around 1,900 euros). A house in which the woman had lived for several years with her son, before moving to the Hillington neighborhood.
At the beginning everything seemed to be going well, with the tenant always paying the monthly rent, at least until February 2023, when Collette no longer saw the transfers arrive. At first the 62-year-old tried to reach out to the tenant, agreeing on a repayment plan, but when she saw that the payments continued to not arrive, she decided to contact a lawyer.
The beginning of the nightmare
The dispute went on for three years and it took three court orders and £4,500 in legal costs for Collette to regain possession of her home at the end of last September. “At each hearing – he told the British media – the tenant was given further time to remain in the property, despite her refusal to pay the rent”.
The woman, who works in human resources in London, said the loss of rental income and the costs she has incurred since have taken a huge toll on her finances: “It’s absolutely crazy. I’m relieved she’s gone, but also very angry and exasperated that it’s taken so long. It feels like I have no rights, how can that be? It’s cost me a lot of time and money, and it’s been emotionally exhausting and distressing.”
The judicial odyssey
According to Collette’s story, the tenant initially told her that she had temporary financial problems linked to the change of job and that she would pay the arrears as soon as possible. But this did not happen. After the failed attempt to set up a repayment plan and the complaint to the authorities, the first eviction notice arrived in October 2024. At that point the tenant owed £16,600 in unpaid rent, but Collette and the estate agent gave her a 28-day extension.
The woman had to wait over a year for the court to process the eviction order. The bailiffs were supposed to intervene in February 2026 to vacate the property, but a few days before the tenant requested and obtained a further 28-day extension from the court. The following month, in March, Barnet County Court again ordered the defaulting tenant to leave Collette’s home, but she said she would not leave because she had nowhere else to go and that she would not vacate the apartment.
The devastated house
Collette then started a new procedure, until the turning point came in recent weeks, when the tenant left the house voluntarily, leaving behind 55 thousand pounds of unpaid rent and damages of around 22 thousand pounds, equal to over 26 thousand euros.
The 62-year-old, as the Swns images show, once she returned to the building found herself faced with a terrifying scenario. The rooms were full of useless objects, with dirt everywhere and mold all over the bathroom, kitchen and refrigerator. A scene from a horror film, accompanied by two holes in the ceiling and two doors falling off their hinges: “I was horrified by the fact that someone could live like that and also by the fact that they could treat other people’s property that way. I’m sad and shocked. I was proud of that house and I put my heart and soul into renovating it in a period when I had little money.”
“Do not rent”
“If you have a property available, don’t rent it – said the owner – it’s not worth it. Even if you follow all the legal procedures, you will find yourself stuck for months and months, while the situation will get worse and worse. If the judicial system had been more efficient, I would have had her evicted sooner. If the procedure had been quicker, the tenant would not find herself at this level of debt towards me. The judicial system is completely corrupt. It has allowed her not to pay and continue to live in my house. My hands were tied.”
Barnet County Court has now ordered the former tenant, a single mother, to pay Collette the £55,000 in back rent: “I’m lucky to have a good job – explained Collette – but a shortfall of over £50,000 is a huge problem and a big worry for me. Now she’s gone and I’ll have to find out where she is and try to get my money back. It’s incredible, there was no system to protect me from all this.”
“I asked myself several times: how could my tenant do this to me? – she concluded -. How could she lose sight of the fact that there is a human being on the other side? It was a horrible experience. At times I felt on the brink.”