Tenants can sometimes leave a few surprises behind.

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I was an accidental landlord once upon a time and I didn’t enjoy one miniute of it. I was forced into it because the house was costing me money while it was lying idle.

It was years ago, and I rented it out while I was trying to sell it. I had moved from the countryside a few years earlier to be closer to the town, but the market was slow, and the house wasn’t going anywhere.

I had some lovely tenants over the years but there was one who wasn’t easy to please. He was prone to complaining.

One day, he rang me with a serious problem. He was very upset because there was a smell of raw sewage coming from the toilet in the bathroom. He told me the house was stinking and proceeded to give me a lecture about the danger to his health from being exposed to this noxious gas. He was concerned that it could result in him being found dead in his bed.

He was quick to point out my responsibilities as a landlord. It was my duty to provide him with a safe environment and if I couldn’t do that, then he would be forced to leave and find alternative accommodation. I bit my tongue while I fought the urge to offer him some encouragement to go.

I couldn’t understand how this issue had developed so suddenly. In the first place, the ‘U’ bend in a toilet bowl is always full of water and that forms a seal to prevent any smell coming back through the system. Secondly, I had lived in this house with my family for over twenty-five years and I had never experienced that problem.

I told my irate tenant that I would get there as soon as I could. So, I dropped everything and headed off for the house. On the way there, I was running through all the possibilities in my head. I thought that maybe there was a burst pipe somewhere and I had visions of digging up half the property and creating a huge mess and a lot of expense.

I needn’t have worried.

I pulled up outside the house and the miniute I stepped out of the car I could see what the problem was. I met the tenant and advised him to close the windows and the smell would soon disappear. Then I brought him to the front door and pointed to the fields across the road where a tractor was pulling a large tanker behind it.

I explained to him that they were spreading slurry as fertiliser. I told him it was normal practice and they usually do it just before it rains so it disappears into the soil quickly and the smell doesn’t linger. If he had taken the time to do a little bit of investigation before grabbing his mobile phone to have a rant, he could have discovered that for himself.

Smells are part and parcel of country life, but rural life can be a challenge for some and sometimes even the farmers can have issues with odours.

A court in Germany, ruled that bad smells and farming go together. The ruling was made after neighbours complained about a farmer’s plans to extend his chicken hatches. The poultry’s poo, they argued would pollute their air.

But the court was having none of it. While stopping short of accusing the plaintiffs of muckraking, they argued that the countryside is the countryside and people there should be used to the smell of dung.

The judges said the plaintiffs were farmers too and had done their own share of muck shovelling in the past. They said bad smells are a fact of life and are something which inhabitants should be able to cope with.

Not all smells are bearable though and some landlords have discovered that the tenants themselves can often be the cause of the trouble.

One landlord had a problem with a tenant who hadn’t paid his rent for three months. He tried to evict the man, but the tenant dragged out the legal process for months, so it took time to get rid of him.

The property was eventually let out again, but the new tenants complained about a strange smell in the apartment. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t discover the source. He threw everything at the problem, but the smell remained.

It dragged on for months until the landlord noticed a slight discoloration on a wall. He poked a few holes through the drywall and was surprised to see maggots pouring out through the holes.

The previous tenant had placed packets of raw meat behind the walls throughout the apartment as a last act of defiance. As it rotted, it created the terrible stench.

I have no intention of ever becoming a landlord again. It’s a lot of trouble and it can be risky too as one landlord in the States found out.  He had a lucky escape after buying an investment property. It was a house with an upstairs suite and a basement suite.

His first applicant for the basement suite worked in construction and had wonderful references so he immediately offered him the suite but the next day, the tenant told him he wouldn’t be taking it because he decided to move closer to his children.

A few months later, while watching the news on TV, he saw a story about a man who had held his former girlfriend – the mother of his children- captive in a cabin in the woods for five days. She eventually escaped and ran for safety. The man who kidnapped her was the man he had offered the basement suite to.

Maybe I should go back and just have one more look in the attic!