One of Anguilla’s longstanding rental accommodation owners has taken issue with public criticisms that landlords are unfairly expelling their tenants mainly to rent to other persons capable of paying more or jacking up the price on existing renters.

Scenes of garbage provided by Mrs. Beard

Mrs. Patricia Beard says she does not fit in either of the two categories. She points out that in many cases the critics have to take into account the dreadful manner in which tenants keep the inside and surroundings of their landlord’s or landlady’s properties.

“All over the island you hear people talking about landlords, how bad they are treating their tenants, how they are hiking up the rent to get more money from other tenants, but they don’t realise what’s going on in this island,” she scolds. “You went to the bank to borrow money [to build a rental apartment] and you try to pay back if you are a decent landlord. You try to make the place as decent as possible.

“When you rent your place to some tenants, they make a mess of it. They don’t care. They leave the place in a state that the Department of Environmental Health should be taking charge of, but it bypasses a lot of things. The renters eat and drink and they throw everything in your yard. No matter how you talk to them they keep the place nasty.

“In the end, the landlord has no recourse but to tell them to get out. I had to do that because I cannot live in filth. Both men and women tenants are behaving the same way. My thing is, especially if there is a woman involved, a woman is a person who should always be taking care of her body, her health, her home and her family; and if the outside of your house is nasty, the inside is nasty.”

Mrs. Beard, known for her forthrightness and fairness, went on: “Another thing with our tenants is that they will not pay their rent; and when you go to them for your money, they want to abuse you and so you have no other recourse but to tell them to get out of your property. In my case, I was not raising the rent. I was just telling them to clean up and pay their rent. They went and left all the mess in the yard and in the house.”

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