INTERESTING to read about the tenants who fled, owing eight weeks’ rent and leaving the property in a mess (The Bolton News, November 6).

Landlady Tina Kearns, who rents out the property in Tonge Moor Road, along with four others in Bolton, blames the system, which changed in April for tenants in private rented accommodation. Tenants on benefits are now paid directly. Previously, the money went straight to the landlords.

But the system is about the rent. My concern is the state of the property and the residents who live nearby having to put up with tenants who are so obviously anti-social.

Mrs Kearns says she suffered an angina attack when she saw the mess.

There were rotting clothes in the basement and a chemical toilet emptied in the back yard. She was appalled!

But not as appalled as the people living next door, I bet.

Now maybe I am being unfair to Mrs Kearns, but I have no sympathy with landlords who put tenants like these into their properties in the first place.

Mrs Kearns says, “something must be done to help landlords, because this is happening all over the place”. Equally, something must be done to protect residents forced to live nearby tenants like these. And it is the landlords who allow these people to live in their properties.

These fugitive tenants could turn up at a property near you.

Brian Derbyshire, Ribchester Grove, Bolton