Sticky Tenant in my HMO has caused other tenants to quit

[Geezah]

Oh well, I suppose you cant have the joys of being a landlord go uninterrupted at some point!

Scottish HMO, I'll keep it simple!

Letting Agent has put tenant in my HMO who was on Bail Condition. (unknown to LA or myself) Tenant breaches terms of bail and gets arrested by the Police for this. Other tenants allege that its for child pornography (police wont tell us the reasons).

Other tenants have their children visiting them and say that they cannot remain in the property while the offender is resident (understandably). Offender is staying put as he says he has nowhere to go, he has lost his job and is no longer paying rent, this includes council tax, gas and electicity.

Effectively, this person has made all my tenants leave and is now living in my property for free, no rent, no council tax, no gas, no leccy etc. I have a fair usage policy for utilities but this offender does no know what an OFF switch is for. The room was advertised at a rate inclusive of all these services. Clearly I am trying to get him out asap and my LA has served the appropiate notices but earliest he has to legally leave is 4 September.

Naturally he has the best free legal aid available so he is painfully aware of his rights.

My questions are:

1. Is there any way that I can get him to leave earlier?

2. Is there any way that I can transfer council tax and utilities in his name as he is the only one living there now?

3. Is there anyway that the agent should have found out that the tenant was under bail conditions?

4. Can the LA put a clause in the tenancy agreement to the effect that any convictions or bail condition must be disclosed? Insurers ask whether applicants have any criminal convictions.

Any hints or tips as to the best way to deal with this would be appreciated.

Ta muchly

[Richlist]

There are Jock specific forums that will be able to help.....here's one.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?20-Scottish-Rental-amp-Legal-Issues

[Grampa]

My thoughts are:

1 You could give him a bung to leave.

2 Don't allow any of the other tenants to leave before their contracts are up unless they provide proof of alleged offence.

3 Not sure if the council tax and utilities can be changed over, depends whats in his contract. But look into a section 6 notice where terms can be changed to a periodic contract.

4 What refs did the agent do? Surely it should have picked up something about him.

5 I see no reason why a tenant application form can not ask about criminal record and or bail conditions and for it to be disclosed. If they make a false disclosure that is a ground for possession.

All of the above maybe incorrect or not legal as the property is in Scotland and the Housing Act is very different to England

[Geezah]

Thanks for your helpful inputs, very much appreciated.

The bung is being negotiated at the moment.

Maybe I'm too soft but, I wouldnt want to live in the same place as someone with an alleged history of child sex involvement.

Im told that in Scotland, it is possible to get a record of convictions from Disclosure Scotland if the subjects signature is obtained but there is no way of obtaining information as to whether subject is under any Bail conditions.

I have been told that the tenants can serve an injunction on him and he can be out overnight but there has to be evidence and the police wont tell me anything nor will Disclosure Scotland without the offenders signature.

So, the onus is to get some evidence from somewhere, will a solicitor be able to obtain this for me?

[Richlist]

I'd be interested to know why referencing & or your Rent Guarantee Insurance didn't flag up a problem.

[Geezah]

Well, according to a recommended solicitor who deals with this kind of thing, I'm Donald Ducked and have to wait for the usual notices to run their course.

I (other tenants) can't get an interdict (injunction) as I have no evidence as to the nature of the offending tenants breach. At the moment the alleged offence is practically hearsay until he's put before the Sheriff. That'll be months.

So, the offender has now got the place to himself rent free, free gas, electricity, council tax etc. Scales of justice? what a complete joke. This has definetly been an eye opener for me and I will have to alter my Modus Operandi.

I've been renting out Buy to lets since 1989 and have several props and in all that time I can count the problems I've had with tenants on one hand, (I don't take tenants on benefits). This has affected my attitude when it comes to RGI as I have never had it. But I can clearly see the benefit of having it in this HMO type scenario. I assume RL that you believe in it? Can I ask how you implement it, e.g. do you have it running for the duration the props are tenanted or just for the initial 6 months, would you have it on all your properties and would it make you relax your criteria knowing that if things went awry the insurance will cover it? Is there any one company that you would recommend over another?

Does anyone else have it and how do you use it?

[Richlist]

I assume RL that you believe in it? Can I ask how you implement it, e.g. do you have it running for the duration the props are tenanted or just for the initial 6 months, would you have it on all your properties and would it make you relax your criteria knowing that if things went awry the insurance will cover it? Is there any one company that you would recommend over another?

I'm totally sold on the idea of RGI and every property I have rented to every tenant(s) for the last 6 years has been done with RGI. If a tenant doesn't qualify they usually don't get any further.......hence my objection to low income, unemployed, poor credit history, benefits claimants amongst others. Very, very occasionally I will waive the RGI requirement and take a home owning guarantor instead but I view every application on its own merits. I always say that the most important thing that any landlord can do is to choose the tenants very carefully ie hope for the best, plan for the worst and above all ALWAYS aim to reduce risk.

The RGI I take is ONLY for the first 6 months.......I don't think I have ever extended beyond that period. By then I will have a much bettter idea of the tenant, how they perform, wether the payments are met and on time, how they treat my property etc.

I never relax my selection criteria and am willing to leave property empty for as long as it takes for suitable tenants to come along. I'm fortunate that I have relatively small outgoings on any empty properties and have other income sources which means the loss of rental income is not a problem. My overiding impression of landlords generally is that many cannot live with the loss of rental income during voids and that often clouds their judgement (it sometimes erases any judgement completely at times) and they let to the first applicant that shows an interest and offers them money.

My RGI is offered by/arranged thru my lettings agent so I cannot recommend any outside suppliers.

Good luck.

[Geezah]

Thanks very much for sharing your M.O. with us RL, all very useful stuff. I will definitely be implementing some of them.

An alternative to RGI bought 6 monthly would be to add it onto your Block insurance policy for the year for all your props for all the time. Although I imagine that buying it from an agent specific to an individual tenant would increase the likelihood of a payout and would add an extra assurance as to whether the applicant is suitable?

Meantime, the Bung route is still being negotiated!

[Richlist]

An alternative to RGI bought 6 monthly would be to add it onto your Block insurance policy for the year for all your props for all the time.

I don't understand this point. Perhaps its something unique to Scotland

With leasehold property in England the buildings insurance is a block policy but provided by the freeholder or their managing agents usually. I don't bother with contents insurance preferring to self insure........a decision that has prooved worthwhile as I have never needed to claim in over 10 years and must have saved many £000's in premiums.

Although I imagine that buying it from an agent specific to an individual tenant would increase the likelihood of a payout and would add an extra assurance as to whether the applicant is suitable?

Absolutely correct.....the people that provide the insurance have set criteria that an applicant has to achieve to quallify for the insurance. So, an added bonus is that THEY do all the referencing for you and its included in the cost of the RGI.

[Geezah]

Apologies if I've muddied the waters somewhat. By Block policy I was referring to the individual properties contained within a landlords portfolio rather than a physical block of flats.

E.g. I have all my properties under one Landlords Buildings insurance block policy, the obvious advantage is that all the renewal dates coincide so it reduces the risk of forgetting to insure any of them. Also 'bulk buy' discounts are normal.

Landlords policies offer safeguards particular to landlords needs as opposed to ordinary householder policies. E.g. Typically they include continual rental payment should the tenanted property be uninhabitable due to an insured risk. So if the property caught fire and took say 6 months to bring back on line, the insurer will pay the monthly rent up to a maximum of 20% of the insured property value. This is often confused with Rental Guarantee Insurance which can be purchased as a bolt-on extra and is not 'named tenant' specific. It's designed to cover all the properties for the duration of the policy, 1 year. this is available for any type of property, not just Scotland.

In Scotland, arrangements are a little more complicated and insurance obligations are detailed in the Tenements ( Scotland) Act 2004 (Yawn!!). We effectively have freehold flats where the owners are responsible for insuring their flats and have a shared responsibility for common areas, rooves, stairwells, etc. Some blocks of flats have managing agents or Factors and they will be resposible for the insurance needs of the physical block as a whole as well as the individual flats. Similar to the usual arrangement in England. In this circumstance I would advise you to obtain a copy of the Key Facts of the policy that they have put in place together with a copy of the certificate of insurance each year to ensure that they are actually insuring the property and that the chosen policy protects your rental income as a landlord in the scenario described above if the property became uninhabitable.