Our tenants were always supposed to be employed, although the neighbours reckoned they were unemployed when they moved in - even though they told us they were employed and allegedly had references (fake?).

She trained to be a maths teacher and started work as a maths teacher a few years before they left.

He seemed to have a desk job that he did from home, as a company employee to the best of my understanding (not freelance).

In the attic they left a ring binder of a court case where they'd got custody of one of her kids from the child's dad. My guess is if the court had seen the state of the house they wouldn't have awarded custody - they would have taken the other kids away.

They should not be allowed children.

Bottom line, we don't really know what was going on, but feel the agent behaved in an appalling manner when he kept telling us they were good tenants and refused to raise the rent.