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DSS Tenants


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Hi Dunmor (and thanks for the recommendation Melboy) <grin>,

The fact that the tenant is not paying their share of the rent (ie: the difference between what Housing Benefit pay you and the amount of rent agreed within the tenancy agreement) means that, technically, the tenant is behind with their rent. You need to take steps to repossess.

Option 1)

You could serve a SECTION 8 notice - with GROUNDS 10 & 11 - which states that the tenat was behind with their rent (Ground 10) when the landlord served notice that they wanted possession and when court proceedings began AND even if the tenant was not behind with their rent when possession procedures started (Ground 11) they have been persistently late with their rent.

The problem with this approach is that these grounds are only discretionery meaning a judge (after hearing a sob story from the poor tenant who is going to be made homeless by the evil landlord) may not award you possession - and it can take quite a while to get to court in the first place !

Option 2)

You could serve a SECTION 21 notice asking for possession at the end of the tenancy. You need to give at least 2 months notice on a SECTION 21 and the repossession date must be, at the earliest, the last date of the fixed period of the tenancy.

This is a much cleaner approach depending on how long the tenancy has been running and is also a MANDATORY ground for repossession if you end up in court.

Regarding the owed rent ..... I would cut your losses ASAP, get rid of the tenant using a Section 21, get re-possession of your property, re-let it and write off the lost rent ......

Not all DSS tenants are bad payers ....... not all professional tenants are good payers .......

Good luck,

Mark

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