The most common tenancy breaches by tenants have been revealed with non-payment of rent, dirty homes and failing to call-in repairs and maintenance issues the most common, as reported by landlords.

Direct Line's research highlights why landlords should undertkane regular property inspections, also revealing that only 55 per cent conduct six-monthly property inspections, just 21 per cent make annual checks, and that 10 per cent only visit their properties at the start and end of the tenancy.

The long 'breaches' list features the challenges faced by many landlords when tenants turn out to be less than ideal, with other terrible behaviour highlighted within the research. This includes damage to property, keeping unauthorised pets, vaping or smoking within a property, anti-social behaviour, illegal subletting, redecorating without permission, changing locks and tampering with smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.

Only 17% of the landlords polled by Direct Line said they had not experienced any of the issues.

Landlords reported a variety of reactions to these problems including deducting money from deposits, verbal or written warnings, making tenants rectify problems themselves and, in 23% of cases, eviction.

Intrusive

Sarah Casey (pictured), Landlord Product Manager at Direct Line, says: “Property inspections shouldn’t feel intrusive for tenants and are all about building good relationships and keeping an eye out for any emerging issues.

“Early intervention can often stop these from developing into a bigger problem that requires landlords to take further action.

“Landlords should also make sure that tenancy deposits are held in a government-approved tenancy deposit scheme to help cover costs if, for example, the tenant leaves the property in a filthy state, has broken furniture or removed property supplied by the landlord.”