Tenants Leaving Agreement Early

speedtwin

Ithink what poppy is saying is, yes legally the tenant owes you until you get another tenant in and you could go to court for any rent owed. But getting judgement in your favour is a gamble and if you win getting any cash out of them could be very hard. You could go for a attachment of earnings against the one who works part time but i would guess it would be a very small amount and take a long time to pay off and I bet they would leave as so as the first payment when out of their wages.

So you have to make a commerial decision and decide if to go down the court route and maybe get nothing or do a deal and get them to pay another month and get a new tenant in with a guarantor this time.

The joys of being a Landlord.

leespot

Hi speedtwin.

Yep, I get the jist of what poppy is saying. I'm more than happy to let it go should I get another tenant in ASAP. I am working on this too, not just spending time on sorting the tenants out.

Lets be honest, we all know taking someone in their financial position is pretty much a waste of time. They have no traceable earnings worth talking about - he only works for cash in hand.

You're right about the guarantor too. I'm enjoying being a landlord to be honest (if that is even possible!) It something else to occupy my time with.

poppysarah

And if you are thinking about reporting them for benefit fraud don't do it out of anger over your 12 month tenancy being interefered with. Do it because benefit fraud is wrong.
You can do it online.
But lots of people on disability are encouraged to take on work to rehabilitate themselves back into work. If you genuinely believe they're on the fiddle then snitch away. Plus bear in mind whilst they've got to repay benefits your debt gets further from being repaid.

leespot

Yep, I only found out today about the work that he does on the side - I genuinely thought he did struggle with his legs / hips, hence why I let them put an extra "bannister" in. And you're right, benefit fraud is wrong.

I'm not asking for much, just for them to be fair. One month extra is being more than fair IMHO. I'm sure people would have a different opinion if it was me asking them to get out a week before Christmas. There are still some details I haven't posted, but if I eventually do, then you will see I've been well and truly had off here, not the other way round.

poppysarah

No I agree they should be giving you an extra months rent- not neccessarily staying in the property until January though- it's a shame you've not got a deposit from them to cover it.

leespot

Yep when I mentioned it to them before (the extra months rent) they didn't seem very happy, and ended up saying that I wouldn't be getting it in one go, so thats a semi-positive step.

leespot

Ah, the deposit. That came about because they had to leave their previous home due to an issue with the landlord - they said they didn't have a deposit, I took the (slightly silly) gamble and until now they had paid their rent spot on time every month. I have found that they've paid a months deposit, month upfront rent on the new house, and the rent is £550 on the new place.

real1314

poppysarah wrote: »

Of course there's the chance in court they would turn up and say you made them sign a new AST and they didn't understand that you couldn't evict them if they didn't and that they thought it was just continuing the one they'd already signed.
They may get critised by the judge for signing something they didn't understand or read properly, but it doesn't guarantee you all the cash you could get.
did you say you'd already started marketing it before they'd signed a new tenancy? They only have to mention that and say they signed the contract under durress and I suspect the judge might say it's null and void.
They wlll see CAB advice when they get the papers to court.
.

Erm, If they say they were forced to sign it, they'll have to give some sort of credible story. What makes you think this is likely or that they'll be believed?

The judge could simply ask them if they signed the agreement for the new coulncil place, and ask if that was under duress too, or why they signed 2 tenancies to run at the same time. Marketing a property doesn't make any sort of duress.
I suspect the judge would think they are a pair of idiots who think they can do what they want and would award in the OPs favour.

As for them saying they are skint, they've bought a new lcd telly, carpets and paid a deposit. They've got income, they are not skint, they are just spending their money on anything but rent.

Spendless

leespot- exactly the same thing happened to a friend of mine. Her tenants had also been offerred a council property and wanted to leave asap. I am sure I started a thread on here asking if they could, but I can no longer find it. Anyway the advice I got was that the tenants have to pay until the end of tenancy or until you find another tenant. My friend went back to her tenant and told them this so they 'found' someone for her. The new tenant turned out to be a total nightmare who did not pay her rent for months until my mate eventually got her out.
Unfortunatley her tenant not paying co-incided with my friends ill-health, admitted to hospital for a few weeks, followed by my friends redundancy, so my friend has built up huge arrears on BTL mortgage and was very close to having it re-possessed.

leespot

Hi Spendless,

Yep its a risk that I accepted when I decided to rent out my house. Your friend had a really unlucky run of things by the sound of it though!

I'm lucky enough to not have to rely on the rent to pay the mortgage, its just more of an inconvenience to be honest. Rather than go through any sort of court proceedings, I've asked the tenants to pay rent until 19th Jan, which is one more months payment. I (and others on here I think) feel that this is a fair and amicable way of dealing with it. I've spoke to them again today, and rather than sayin they won't pay at all, they are now saying they wouldn't be able to pay it in one go - so at least thats a start.

I'll post any progress here as it happens - or lack of!

Lee