Landlords are increasingly encountering hoarding in rental homes, as evidenced by property forums and social media discussions. Research suggests that between 2% and 5% of the UK population hoard at clinically significant levels, making this behaviour more common than many realise.
Since June 2018, the World Health Organisation has classified hoarding as a mental disorder, particularly prevalent among older adults. Hoarding is defined as a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions due to a perceived need to save them. Hoarders often experience severe distress when asked to get rid of their belongings.
You can now sell your property with sitting tenants ,including when the tenants are hoarders.
Common Hoarded Items and Potential Risks
Hoarding can start unexpectedly, even in tenancies that have previously run smoothly. Hoarded items can include paper, shopping, food, rubbish, clothes, and even animals and bodily fluids. Some landlords report finding bottles of urine lined up in bedrooms or bathrooms.
Excess clutter leads to numerous problems, including respiratory issues, attracting rodents, and posing other health hazards like trips and falls. Toilets can become clogged, and leaks may go undetected beneath piles of newspapers. However, the most significant risk is the increased likelihood of fire.
Fire Hazards in Hoarded Properties
A Fire Association notes that hoarded homes pose severe fire hazards due to the accumulation of combustible materials like newspapers, clothing, and rubbish. Fires in such properties spread quickly, and escaping can be nearly impossible due to blocked exits. This situation also hampers the access of emergency personnel.
Challenges in Selling a property with hoarding tenants
For landlords looking to sell a property, discovering a hoarding situation can be a significant setback. Surveyors and estate agents may refuse to enter, and the property will likely photograph poorly, affecting sales efforts. Viewings are difficult, as prospective buyers struggle to see beyond the clutter, and unpleasant odors can be a major deterrent.
Legal Options for Regaining Possession of rented properties
Traditionally, landlords have used Section 21 notices to gain possession of a hoarded property. However, with Section 21 being abolished by summer 2025, landlords must rely on Section 8 notices instead. Unfortunately, there is no specific ground for hoarding, and court backlogs mean that gaining possession could take up to a year.
Clearing the Property: What Landlords Need to Know
If you manage to regain possession, clearing a hoarded property can be a lengthy and emotionally challenging process, especially if the tenant needs to retrieve personal items. In cases where the tenant has passed away, family members will need to sort through the belongings.
Landlords must often hire skips and specialized cleaners to tackle the severe conditions, including infestations of rodents, ants, or maggots. Cleaning a hoarded property can cost around £5,000, and further repairs may be needed once the clutter is cleared.
Can you Sell a property without cleaning it?
Despite the challenges, it is possible to sell a property affected by hoarding without cleaning it yourself or using a traditional estate agent. At LandlordBuyer, we consider any property, in any condition, across the UK, even with a hoarding tenant in situ.
We may be able to work with photos of the property and make a cash offer, reflecting the costs of clearing, cleaning, and repairing the property. This fast, professional service takes the problem off your hands, allowing you to sell quickly without the hassle.
Get in Touch for a No-Obligation Offer
If you’re a landlord wanting to sell a hoarder-affected property, contact us today for a no-obligation cash offer. We’ll handle the complexities, giving you peace of mind and a swift exit.
Can you sell a property when the tenant has been hoarding?
Judging by anecdotal evidence from property forums and Facebook groups, landlords are increasingly encountering hoarding in rental homes.
Research suggests that between 2% and 5% of the UK population hoard at clinically significant levels. That makes hoarding behaviour a lot more common than many people assume.
From June 2018, the World Health Organisation has classified hoarding as mental disorder experienced by older adults.
Hoarding is defined as “a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them.” Hoarders can suffer serious distress if asked to get rid of their possessions.
Hoarding is often associated with the tenant experiencing a mental health issue or some form of crisis, and can often start long into a tenancy that has been running smoothly. Items hoarded can include paper, shopping, food, rubbish, clothes, and even animals and bodily fluids.
Many a time we’ve seen pictures of bottles of urine lined up in a bedroom or a bathroom when someone is posting on social media about a property affected by hoarding.
Excess clutter creates all sorts of issues in a property including respiratory issues, attracting rodents, and other health hazards, such as trips and falls. Maggots, ants, flies, and cockroaches may also be present in the property due to lack of waste management and disposal by the tenant.
Toilets can become clogged and backed up, causing damage to the plumbing of the property. Leaks may go undetected under piles of newspapers and magazines.
But no hoarding hazard is greater than the enormous increased risk of fire.
A Fire Association notes: “The accumulation of combustible materials, such as newspapers, clothing and rubbish, can pose a severe fire hazard. The amount of combustible materials creates an extremely hot, fast-spreading fire that is difficult to suppress. Escaping the home in a fire can be impossible due to blocked hallways, doorways and windows. In addition, public safety personnel’s access to the home can be hampered or blocked.”
Here is a photo from a discussion on a property forum:
This was a property of a lady who had always been an exemplary tenant but started suffering with mental health issues which led to hoarding her used toilet paper.
Pictures on social media have shown rooms filled to the ceiling with hoarded items, with small pathways through for the tenant to move about. Some rooms are so full, they cannot be accessed and doors and hallways are blocked.
It can be a serious shock to a landlord to want to put their rental property up for sale on the open market, only to find it cluttered and full of rubbish.
If the problem is serious, you may need to get Environmental Health involved.
We’ve heard of surveyors and estate agents refusing to even enter properties where hoarding has occurred.
Clearly, the property will not photograph at all well for sales particulars if it is full of old newspapers, knick knacks, clothing, and other items being hoarded by the tenant.
However, if a viewing is generated, it will likely be extremely hard for a prospective viewer to “see through” all the mess. There may be smells as well, which are one of the most off-putting things when undertaking a house viewing.
Issuing a Section 21 has been the favoured method of landlords gaining possession of a hoarder’s property. However, with Section 21 being abolished by the summer of 2025, landlords will have to rely on a Section 8 notice being issued instead, and choose the correct grounds for the notice as there is not a specific ground for hoarding. The courts are becoming more and more backlogged with cases, and its currently taking approx. and on average 1 year to gain possession of a rental property.
If you can gain possession of the property, you will have to work through all the mess with the tenant so that they can retrieve any items of personal value. There may be things such as personal photos, documents, and other items of sentimental value in amongst the mess. That could be a lengthy process as the tenant will find it very hard and may become distressed.
If it is a property where a hoarder has passed away while renting, you will need to arrange for the family to sort through the mess to retrieve anything of value that they want to keep.
If you are attending to the property yourself, you will likely then need to hire a skip which will probably be filled very quickly and need exchanging for a new one.
If rodents, ants, cockroaches and/or maggots are present, this becomes a more serious issue as you will almost certainly need specialised cleaners to come and clean the property once you’ve removed the bulk of the hoarded items (which you would need to have done wearing PPE).
The average bill to clean a hoarder’s property is in the region of £5K.
Once the mess is cleared, damage to the fabric of the property may be revealed such as damp, ruined carpets, walls that need repainting, new bathroom fittings etc.
All this time and effort mounts up along with costs and no rent being received due to the property being void.
Despite this, it is possible to sell a hoarder’s property without undertaking the cleaning yourself or engaging the services of an estate agent.
At LandlordBuyer, we will consider any property, in any condition, anywhere in the UK, with a hoarding tenant in situ.
We may be able to work with just photos of the property and buy with the hoarding tenant in situ.
Clearly, any cash offer we have to make will need to reflect the costs of gaining possession, clearing, and cleaning the property and making good any damage.
However, if you are a landlord just wanting to get rid of such a property, our professional cash buyer service is worth considering due to it’s speed and the fact that we completely take the problem off your hands.
Get in touch today for a no-obligation offer.