A trusting pensioner’s £4million Belgravia home was wrecked after a tenant changed the locks and secretly sublet the property to droves of tourists on booking sites.
The four-bedroom London pad has been owned by Anabel Loyd’s family for over three decades, and more recently the 69-year-old’s mother decided to officially hand her the home.
After renting it out to family ‘here and there’, as well as a successful stint hiring it out as an AirBnB to various tourists, the Wiltshire woman decided to turn the property into long-term let due to ‘slower periods during the winter’.
A family friend worked for Foxtons estate agents so she decided to go ahead with the firm, and soon a potential tenant emerged hoping for a two-year contract, which the 69-year-old accepted with break clauses, and a rent of £1,600-a-week.
They passed all of the estate agents checks, so Ms Loyd assumed all was well – but things started to go wrong almost immediately.
Upon moving into the home, the tenant claimed it was ‘inhabitable’ because of black marks on the windows despite a deep clean being carried out by the estate agents, according to Ms Loyd.
But the problems didn’t end there, as the tenant changed the property’s locks, dumped droves of Ms Loyd’s items into a garage he shouldn’t have had access to and began to rent the house out on Booking.com.
Ms Loyd told MailOnline: ‘I was completely furious. [The tenant] was subletting to huge numbers of people and they would go to the pub for a drink, so the people in the pub, who are truly wonderful, knew exactly what was going on.
Anabel Loyd, 69, had been given the £4 million Belgravia home by her mother before deciding to put it up for a long-term let
Anabel Loyd had trusted her new tenant with Belgravia property, but they quickly changed the locks upon moving in
Pictured: Piles of Ms Loyd’s belongings which were thrown into a garage by the tenant, which they should not have access to, according to the landlord
The 69-year-old was alerted that her tenant was subletting the property after neighbours spotted ‘minibuses’ full of visitors arriving (Pictured: Damage pictured by one visitor)
‘There were all these people going and kind of minibuses of people arriving, I mean, sort of 12 people at a time in a house which isn’t terribly big, I mean you could have perhaps fitted eight at a pinch.
‘The house, meanwhile, has clearly, progressively been disintegrating.’
‘My language on the subject has been truly spectacular. I really felt like going round and smashing my own front windows so that they couldn’t let it anymore.
‘I was flabbergasted, and very bad tempered. It so bizarre that you almost are laughing about it too because you can’t quite believe it is possible.
She added: ‘It is like having your house burgled, you feel everything is sort of dirty, in a strange way.’
‘I wish I could say when I visit for the first time that I will be standing there in floods of tears, but I will be standing there in a tiring fury.’
And although her property is currently in the hands of another, a tenant subletting a property without permission is usually considered a civil matter, rather than a criminal one.
Recalling the moment she was told of hordes of unassuming Wigan supporters were descending on her home with crates of lager, she added: ‘You do end up laughing because you can’t believe it.
‘And I have nothing against Wigan supporters at all.’
Unassuming Wigan supporters arriving to the property in Belgravia, unaware of the ongoing ordeal between Ms Loyd and her tenant
‘My language on the subject has been truly spectacular. I really felt like going round and smashing my own front windows so that they couldn’t let it anymore,’ Ms Loyd said
Pictured: More unassuming visitors unknowingly hiring out the flat from Ms Loyd’s tenant
A US couple who visited the home flagged the damage to locals, and as pictured, doorknobs were falling off
Pictured: Dirty tiles in the kitchen of the four-bedroom property in Belgravia, London
On Booking.com, the property advertised by Ms Loyd’s tenant as ‘Regal Haven Four Bed Home Near Buckingham Palace’
Luckily, her local publican and neighbours alerted her to the ‘minibuses’ of tourists packing into her property, which she said could only fit around seven or eight people ‘at a pinch’.
After briefly searching online, she quickly found her ‘unprincipled’ tenant had been advertising her home via Booking.com, describing it as a ‘regal haven’, boasting a 9.3 rating out of 10.
And although to find her home on offer to strangers was ‘salt to the wound’, a string of images showing the damage to the property was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back.’
‘The sort of straw in the camels back was a US couple who had stayed at the property contacting us,’ she said.
‘There was dirty laundry, the doorknobs were falling off, a hole in the front door, and the three-foot high weeds in the backyard.’
Ms Loyd estimates she would have lost £20,000 in costs after repairing her home, a stone’s throw away from Buckingham Palace, as she would have to re-carpet, repaint and more.
‘Its accumulative damage and mainly cosmetic, but living in London, anything like that costs a lot of money to get.
‘I know I am lucky to live somewhere else, and to have another home, but this is a story of when s**t hits the fan.’
‘It doesn’t really make it any better. all the same.’
And to add insult to injury, her tenant had also piled her possessions in the garage.
Ms Loyd also argued they shouldn’t have had access to this part of her home, as the author feared some of belongings may be damaged.
‘There may be some things that would be of a certain value that would be very difficult to replace.
‘Some things you can’t rectify if they are really damaged as opposed to paintwork.’
Bedrooms at the £4million property as advertised via Booking.com
Ms Loyd estimates she would have lost £20,000 in costs after repairing her home, which is a stone’s throw away from Buckingham Palace
‘I know I am lucky to live somewhere else, and to have another home, but this is a story of when s**t hits the fan,’ she said (Pictured: The kitchen)
While she echoed concerns for books belonging to her husband’s family, her main worry was for a painting of her beloved late pet.
‘If they smash the picture of my late dog , I will wrangle somebody, because I just really mind about it. I mean, it’s a pet long since gone.’ she added.
And although she says Foxtons have offered to return the deposit and commission fee, she doesn’t think it will touch the sides on repairs as well as money spent on renting – which includes a £499.20 a month management fee to the estate agents.
She added: ‘The truth is had this been anywhere other than a small mews where everybody knows everybody business.
‘It it wasn’t for the local pub, no one would have known. From that point of view the tenant picked the wrong place for this sort of thing.’
She added: ‘I think I would only consider renting to someone who was not to me or at least people I know in future.’
In light of her ordeal, Ms Loyd urged others to ‘do their homework’ when letting their properties, saying: ‘Really press any agent before you let them let do something.’
It is understood Foxtons had been in contact with the tenant 12 times between April and May, having also issued him with a Section 8 during this time.
It is also understood the tenant has now signed a Deed of Surrender, a formal written agreement to end a tenancy earlier, and has until July 14 to vacate the property.
MailOnline has approached Foxtons and Booking.com for comment.
