Pronblem tenant/s!

[Mike88]

Hello there,

I have just come across this website & hope someone may be able to help. I rented my house out to 3 professional sharers in March 2005 on a 6 month AST through an introduction only arrangement via a local letting agent. All was fine until 2 rent payments were not made in october & november last year. I contacted one of the tenants who informed me that he would get it sorted out & pay double rents for the following 2 months to cover those missed. He also informed me that he was the only tenant remaining in the property out of the original 3!! One had moved out in June & another in Sept with no contact made to me to inform me of this! I, mistakenly, took his word that the missing payments would be covered by himself but this never happened. He missed another payment in February at which point I decided to hand full management of the property over to the original letting agent who found me the tenants. This was in order to get the payments sorted out as I did not have time to keep chasing the tenant. The letting agent has not proved very effecient to say the least & I am know missing a total of 5 months rent (nearly £3500!!) I have spoken to the Letting agent today & requested that they serve notice on the tenant, however, my main concern is getting back the money owed to me. The tenant does have a guarantor & I have now asked that the letting agent copy all correspondance, sent to the tenant, to the guarantor. Can anyone offer any advice on what action I should take next? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Melboy]

You have taken your eye off the ball Mike and the Tenants have taken advantage of the situation!

You will have to go through the Courts to get your money back but I can tell you now in the two cases I know of, the Landlords, having won their case, are still waiting for thier money and the truth is they will not see it.

You can try the Solicitor but it will be expensive.

You could go for bankruptcy on the Tenant...this works but getting your money back is very doubtful.

[Trenners]

Hi Mike,

I agree with melboy .... and would add that the most important thing, right now, is to get your PROPERTY back and then pursue the tenant or the guarantor (or both) for the outstanding rent once they are out of your property and you have the keys.

If the letting agent hasn't served a Section 21 notice requiring possession then get them to serve it tomorrow.

Don't expect the letting agent to be effective in recovering your outstanding rent - that is a job for a debt recovery company or court proceedings - not someone that specialises in renting property !!

You might have more luck chasing the guarantor than the tenant for the outstanding rent (assuming the guarantor forms were completed correctly) - but it is very probable that you will never see this money.

Mark

[Webb]

I agree too. Go to court, get an order to get the tenant out and then pursue the debt to a CCJ. You can do this yourself, without the letting agent or solicitor.

However you will need the tenant's address to serve the court debt claim so either hand it over before or as the tenant leaves or find their place of work or another reference address to send it to. Don't expect to be given a true forwarding address for post etc. !!

Get your rental business back but don't expect to recover any money, even with a CCJ. Put it down to experience! I have.

Webb

[Toyin]

Mike

I read your forum message and thought that I could shed some light on it.

Quite rightly you will need to concentrate on getting your tenants out of the house as soon as possible and also look at recovering back you rent arrears.

In a nutshell you will need to commence Section 8 Housing Act proceedings for rent arrears this is done by issing a formal Notice of Seeking Possession once that expires you then send proceedings to court and await a hearing date whereby you will have to attend to give evidence of the arrears. You are likely to be successful in court if at the time the Notice was served there was 2 months or more rent arrears outstanding and also if by the date of the hearing the arrears are still 2 months or more. In those circumstances the courts have no discretion but to give you an order for possession normlly within 14 days of the hearing. The Courts will also award you money judgment for the arrears and some costs.

If the tenant does not leave after 14 days or when the Court asks them to you will need to instruct the bailiff to attend and remove them.

Other members are right in that it would cost you alot to give the job to a company like ours and through lawyers like ours, but you need to be confident of what you are doing so to save yourself alot of time and energy and also to ensure that you do get your Court Order at the end of the day.

If you need help or advice as to how to go about it, I am ready to offer you that over the phone for free.

I specialise in this area of the law and do about 300 tenant evictions like these a year.

I hope this advise has been helpful and you manage to recover your property and rent back ( I must say in my experience it is doubtful you will get your rent back)

Regards

Mrs Toyin Davidson-Ero

LLB, F.Inst.L.Ex

Landlord Support Services

www.landlordslawyer.co.uk

0845 128 4032

[Melboy]

Hi Toyin,

Any comments to make on Landlords Legal Insurance?

These policies are very popular these days to protect Landlords from Tenants who abscond without paying and think they can get away with it.

Do these policies assist Landlords and protect them from high legal fee's from Solicitors?

Mel.

[Trojan]

Hi Melboy,

Landlords insurances?, follow the link:

http://homeletuk.com/cgi-bin/alpha.cgi?agentschemeno=1400957

Although as agent, I am meant to push and sell these policies, but as an individual, I am a sceptic when it comes to insurance ands having seen this specialised industry emerge within an industry, well . . . .