A LANDLORD has told of his anger after thousands of pounds worth of damage were caused to the house he rented out.

In May last year, Phil Smith and his wife, Marlyn, spent about £8,000 refurbishing the ground-floor of a house he owns in Gladstone Street, in Darlington, to turn it into a flat, only for it to be completely trashed less than a year later.

Problems began shortly after a tenant moved into the flat in August, and when no full rent payments were received, Mr Smith began eviction proceedings.

“It has taken us this long to get them out,” he said. “We have a number of other properties in Darlington and have had no problems whatsoever with any of them, apart from this one.

“We replaced everything, put a new bathroom in, new carpets, new lights, rewired the property, put new heaters in and fitted double glazing. Now it’s all gone.

“The newly-fitted heaters have been removed, along with the water heater from under the sink and the oven door had been smashed.

“The toilet bowel was smashed and blocked, so goodness knows where they went to the toilet.”

The one-bedroom flat’s bay window and front door had also been smashed, as well as a window in the kitchen, which had been boarded over using an old table.

A number of needles and drug paraphernalia were also found in the property and copper piping had been removed.

Rubbish was piled high in each of the rooms and spilled out into the flat’s back yard, leading to complaints from nearby residents and business owners.

Antisocial behaviour has also been rife at the property, with dozens of complaints of loud music being played throughout the night.

Following months of trying, the tenant was evicted from the flat yesterday (Wednesday, May 8) and the couple have already started work on repairing the property.

Mr Smith, who has been developing properties in the area for more than 30 years, said: “It makes you wonder why you bother.

“It is going to cost about £5,000 to put it back to how it was, and we have already spent a fortune to get them out.

“I just hope that nobody else will have to go through what we have been through. They have made our lives hell.”