rent arears/eviction

[swamygedela]

I have a very difficult situation. I own a luxury 1 bedroom flat in a ported development in W1 Marble arch London. I rented it out through an estate agent who also manages the property. Our tenant is an Arab lady with a Dutch passport who is a student and is pregnant, and she has a guarantor who is from Dubai and currently has a visa to stay in this country. They initially paid 3 months rent in advance with 1 year tenancy. The estate agent said they carried out all necessary checks before allowing them to sign the contract, and so we were happy to let them in. BUT Now they have decided not to pay rent. They are in arrears of 2 months rent. They keep making excuses that the appliances are not working, but they won't let any one in the flat to fix it. This is a high spec flat so it is also very suspicious that suddenly everything is not working. Also other residents in the complex are making complaints that too many people are entering the flat.

We have currently issued a section 8 notice through our estate agent.

This is a very distressing time for my family as we have a huge mortgage on this property but have no rent.

Is there anything else I can do? Am I allowed to report the tenants to credit agencies. Also am I allowed to inform the tenants employers that they are not paying rent and that legal action is being taken against them.

I would be grateful for any advice.

[F-Prop]

Oh Dear! A nasty situation indeed!

Assuming you have keys to get in the tenants cannot stop you entering the property providing you have given reasonable notice. I suggest writing to them to say you will be entering the property on a given date to put the things right that they are complaining about. Explain that the rent is late and that you expect full payment.

You can't really go telling the credit agency or their employers as there is nothing they can do. You need to go through the courts to recover the money (if she really won't pay) You can apply for an attachment of earnings which would force her employer to pay you directly from her salary. This would also show up on any future credit checks.

As this lady has a guarantor you need to be contanting him to pay. Hopefully your estate agent got him to sign a document to be guarantor. I'd write to him explaining the situation and asking for the money. If he signed as guarantor he's legally bound to pay you.

Sorry it's a bit of a mess for you, I know how stressfull it can be!

Trevor.

[swamygedela]

Dear Trevor,

Thank you very much for your reply. Unfortunately I recieved more bad news, as the tenant falsified documents regarding her employer. We have found out that she doesn't actually have an employer. Most of the documents including references we have about the tenants are forgeries. We are obviolosly extremly angry with the estate agent for not checking this beforehand but there is nothing we can do now.

All I can do is play the waiting game with the courts.

Swamy

[F-Prop]

That is bad! Sorry to hear it. It sounds as if the estate agents haven't used a credit reference as they really should have picked up on the false documents. I bet the agents haven't checked them out at all!

Well good luck going through the courts!

Trevor.

[swamygedela]

HI,

With regard to my dreadful situation I am using a company called regency law that deal with evictions. This company was recommended by my estate agent. As I do not have that much confidence in my estate agent, can anyone tell if they know whether regency law are any good???

Thanks