A West Hendon landlord has been left with an £8,000 repair bill after being forced to go to court to evict unwanted tenants from his property.

Pravin Sisangia, 55, said he had faced every landlord's worst nightmare' in driving out the destructive occupants from his house in Rosemead, off The Broadway.

The father-of-three said doors were damaged, toilets and sinks left barely useable, leather furniture ruined and a luxury glass coffee table broken. His garage was also broken into and a marquee stolen that he intended to use at his daughter's wedding.

"This whole situation has been a nightmare," Mr Sisangia said. "I have not received a single month's rent and my house has been left in a diabolical, horrendous condition."

On May 17, a judge at Willesden County Court ordered the tenant, a 31-year-old Polish man, who was not present in court, to pay £18,600 in rent arrears.

The court also ordered the tenant to leave the property. Possession of the four-bedroom, semi-detached house was returned to the owner.

But Mr Sisangia, of Blair Avenue, Kingsbury, said he had not seen the tenant since January and had no way of recouping the unpaid rent.

He said instead he had seen his property rented out to other people, who he did not know, who he understood were paying rent to the Polish man.

He added: "Every time I visited the house there was a different person there, and they said they had paid a deposit to the man I originally rented the house to.

"It was a scandalous situation, but one I could do nothing about until I was able to obtain a court order and regain occupation of the property.

"It will cost £8,000 to repair, so we need to carry out the work ourselves to bring it up to its previous standard.

"There are also televisions and furniture piled up in the back garden. They didn't come with the house and I believe they were stolen."

Mr Sisangia's wife, Ranjna, 52, said: "Our experience should be a harsh lesson to other landlords."

Malcolm Harrison, a spokesman for the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), said Mr Sisangia's experience was not completely untypical' among landlords. He said: "It does happen, but we must also stress that the majority of tenants behave perfectly well.

"The best way to minimise your risk is to go through a qualified agent and safeguard your money."

For more information go to www.arla.co.uk