Help required with tennant not paying rent :(

Wrong_Move

Hi there, long time viewer here and hoping for a bit of advice.

Basically I have a house that I rent out. Top and bottom of it is I have been really sloppy with it and freely admit I have not had my eye on the ball.

I started to rent it out in October of last year and there was supposed to be a deposit of £320 which he paid £100 of and asked if he could pay the rest once he was settled in at the end of the week as he was struggling with his payments from where he was moving out of. Stupidly I agreed as I am gullible and foolish. He never paid the rest of the deposit despite many promises.

Since then he has missed weeks here and there and sometimes pays in the rent but other weeks he only pays in £30 or £40 only and despite promises of paying it all off he is now £800 in arrears.

Then 5 weeks ago for the next 3 weeks he never paid a penny and I couldn't get hold of him at all by phone or at home, then at last I caught up with him. He says he spoke to his solicitor and because a drain is blocked he does not need to pay any rent?!

I asked why he never told me about it, he claims he did. He is clearly none too trustworthy.

So I fixed the drains and he paid that weeks rent. Now 2 weeks have passed and nothing. no rent, I can't contact him, nothing.

I really need to get him out I think, as I think this will go on until he owes thousands.

I don't understand why he is not paying rent, but when I did go round about the drains he had just re-decorated the living room and hall and it looks really nice and must have cost a lot to do. Very strange, as I don't know how he thinks he can live there rent free or by just paying token amounts here and there and getting further into debt?

Sorry about the long post, but I guess my question is can I get rid of him by evicting him? And If so how soon?

I also heard that to serve an eviction notice that you need to have a witness present...what if I can't find him to serve it though?

By the way, you may well think I am a fool getting into renting out a house so under prepared, but the house came about as part of a split with my ex, and I had to rent it out quickly to cover the mortgage. If I could sell the house I would but houses in that area are not selling at the moment (not a great area to live).

Any piece of advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

AverageJoe_4

OK here goes, and you may not like it mate...

1 - did you give him a contract to sign?
2 - if so, legally either party can serve notice on each other with one months minimum notice period.

3 - if he had broken the agreement then evict him immediately - he is now squating and taking services for free - ie theft.

4 - if you didn't give him a contract, find some friends that are "built" and scare the living cr-ap out of him and change the locks in his absence.

5 - do NOT return the deposit you have so far.

6 - I am not a lawyer, just a realist, you'll have to play it the street-level way with this guy cos he's gonna take the pi-ss out of you forever and a day.

AJ

MissMotivation

Firstly what date did the Tenancy start and when does the fixed period end and have you protected his deposit yet?

MissMotivation

AverageJoe wrote: »

OK here goes, and you may not like it mate...

1 - did you give him a contract to sign?
2 - if so, legally either party can serve notice on each other with one months minimum notice period.

3 - if he had broken the agreement then evict him immediately - he is now squating and taking services for free - ie theft.

4 - if you didn't give him a contract, find some friends that are "built" and scare the living cr-ap out of him and change the locks in his absence.

5 - do NOT return the deposit you have so far.

6 - I am not a lawyer, just a realist, you'll have to play it the street-level way with this guy cos he's gonna take the pi-ss out of you forever and a day.

AJ

This is BAD advice, please do not do any of the things he has suggested....you will end up getting yourself into A LOT of trouble if you follow any of this 'advice'

Especially point 4!!

Wrong_Move

I gave him a six month Tenancy Agreement on 20th October, and I did not put the deposit into a scheme as only a third of the deposit was ever paid to me, so I never gave a receipt for it and could maybe take that off the arrears?

Edit - I can't get 'heavy' with him as that's not really my style, also he has a little boy (his Son) who lives with him most of the time which just reinforces why I wouldn't do that.

Thanks for the advice though mate, still very much appreciated.

Planner

AverageJoe wrote: »

OK here goes, and you may not like it mate...

1 - did you give him a contract to sign?
2 - if so, legally either party can serve notice on each other with one months minimum notice period.

3 - if he had broken the agreement then evict him immediately - he is now squating and taking services for free - ie theft.

4 - if you didn't give him a contract, find some friends that are "built" and scare the living cr-ap out of him and change the locks in his absence.

5 - do NOT return the deposit you have so far.

6 - I am not a lawyer, just a realist, you'll have to play it the street-level way with this guy cos he's gonna take the pi-ss out of you forever and a day.

AJ

What absolute rubbish! not a single correct piece of advice!!!

Firstly, galling as it maybe, you need to either return that £100 deposit to him or protect it in one of the tennancy deposit schemes. If you donot do this, you wont be able to serve a s.21 eviction notice (which maybe the quickest way to get him out) and the court could order you to return it to him anyway and pay a further £300 compensation to him on top of that for not protecting it.

The quickest way to remove him wiould be the section 21 process, which you cannot do until that deposit is returned or protected.

Wrong_Move

Thanks for that, so if I gave back the £100 along with a S21 letter how soon could I get him out?

Planner

Is the rent due monthly? and Im assuming the property is in England/Wales?; Then

A s.21 notice wont come into effect until at least the end of the tenacy and a periodic has arisen.

Further, you have to give two clear calander months notice (assuming that the renbt is ment to be paid monthly). So if the tenancy began on 20th October, you need to serve a correctly filled out s.21 notice to end on the 20th Mayl 2009. Make it clear that you want him to leave on this date. You must serve this before 20th MArch 2009.

If he doesnt, you will then have to begin the accelerated court procedure which could take a further 2 months.

As soon as he is 2 months in rent arrears you can also serve a s.8 notice.

Im going to suggest that you dont do any of this yourself unless you are 100% confident, as a single mistake can send you back to square 1.

MissMotivation

Wrong_Move wrote: »

Thanks for that, so if I gave back the £100 along with a S21 letter how soon could I get him out?

Is he supposed to pay rent on 20th of the month?

Planner

Ive jsut edited the s.21 dates in the post above... thought we where still in February!

AverageJoe_4

Yes yes, it ALL depends upon if you want to get things done, or do things by the so called book which no one ever does in this game.... I am not talking total and utter law breaking - he's a guy that has let out his place and this guy in there is taking the pi-ss.

You will get all the grief and none of the rewards if you do things like you're a prpoerty guru.

Kick the idiot out - end of. Nothing will come of it other than a bit of s scrap - this is the reality of the day to day of this kind of thing.

It is hard to see past the "terms and conditions" of "life by the book"... but the reality is, you're just gonna set yourself up for fall... The tenant needs a slap and is stealing from you.

Its not gonna make headline news and you wont be arrested, you're protecting your own well being.. you need to use all the information to hand, the street approach - the "proper" approach, and see what fits best for the best answer for what you are looking for.

AJ