complicated situation

[sandydays]

Hi. I have a difficult situation with my tenants and letting agent and would really appreciate any advice, suggestions or insight you could give me.

I've had a couple renting my property for almost two years through a letting/property management agent. 5 months ago the tenants' business went under and they stopped paying the rent. The agent apparently issued them with a notice to quit at the end of July but they didn't leave. The agents tell me that the husband is seriously ill in hospital and that the wife has applied for backdated housing benefit. However, that was three weeks ago and nothing has materialised.

I am overseas and I am concerned that the agents don't seem to be on top of things. I had to phone and remind them that the tenants should have vacated the previous week. They don't respond to my emails and when I phoned after three weeks to ask for an update it was clear that no further action had taken place.

I am at my wits end. This is now causing me real financial hardship and I'm wondering if I should involve a solicitor - though I'm not sure what action to ask for. The situation is complicated by the husband's illness and I would give them more time if I could but I can't.

[Trenners]

Hi Sandydays,

I think you need to get someone else - other than the letting agent - to start acting on your behalf in the UK as soon as possible to try and find out what the REAL situation is and taking control of the problem.

Have you got any family or friends who could take charge of this on your behalf ?

Whatever happens - it is not going to be a quick process to get repossession of your property. I am sure that the tenants have already sought legal advice on this point and have been told, due to the husbands illness, to "sit tight".

If you decide to follow the legal route then it may well be a number of months before you get awarded possession by a court (assuming the correct notices were served by the agent in the first place).

A better approach might be to try and be supportive to the tenants (given their difficult circumstances) and actively work with them to claim back-dated housing benefit. Support the PTD process. Speak with the council. Keep on top of events.

It sounds to me as though the tenants have genuine hardship and - given that you aren't going to get possession any time soon - a supportive, compassionate, approach might be better than "going legal".

I'm sure other forum members would disagree with me though !!

Mark

[sandydays]

Hi Trenners. Thanks for that. Interesting that the approach you suggest seems to be the one the letting agents are taking. The problem being that they don't quite seem to appreciate the urgency from my point of view. ie. I am in imminent danger of losing the house to the bank now since I have no income from it and no means of selling it. The house is my home, not a commercial property - don't know if that gives me any extra rights. I have to say my compassion has just about run out. I feel sorry for the wife having to deal with this situation now but they have had 5 months to sort things out and they didn't even bother applying for housing benefit until after they should have vacated the property and I started putting some pressure on. I actually offered some months back that if they could resume paying something but not make up the arrears, I was prepared to work something out with them. They didn't even bother responding.

[Trenners]

Hi sandydays,

OK -if you need to go legal then you need to find out what notices have already been served by the letting agent - and in what format.

Has a Section 8 notice been served (using grounds 8, 10 and 11) which basically says you are taking them to court because they are 1) more than 8 weeks behind with the rent, 2) often late with the rent and 3) some rent is still outstanding.

It's really important that grounds 8, 10 and 11 are listed in the Section 8 notice otherwise - just before the hearing - the tenant simply pays you some of the outstanding rent and you no longer have a case to put before the judge because the tennat is no longer 8 weeks behind with their rent (ground 8).

If the agent has served a Section 21 notice (requiring repossession of the property) then you can apply to the courts via the Accelerated Possession Procedure which means that you do not need a court hearing and as long as all the paperwork has been completed and served properly by the agent then you will be awarded possession.

The Section 8 route may take you up to 3 months to get possession.

The Section 21 route will take you about 6 weeks to get possession.

Even when you have been awarded possession it doesn't mean that you will get the keys back as if the tenants don't leave then you are going to need to involve the bailiffs.

Hence the suggestion of trying to avoid going legal !

Mark

[SPEEDTWIN]

Get a copy of the terms and conditions of the letting agent to see if they are doing what they say they do.

It doesnt help you now but you might have some recourse for later if they belong to any organisations and they should have insurance.

I would also get copies of all letters and notices sent to tenant

[sandydays]

Thanks for all the advice. I suppose the silver lining to all this is that I'm learning a lot - the hard way, unfortunately! I've now asked three times for an update from the agent and had nothing. They don't seem to belong to any organisation so there's not much I can do from that point of view.