Tenants not paying rent - what are the options?

angle

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Granted Angle's suggestions were unprofessional/ illegal but she is not a landlord anyway ....

I don't recall make any suggestions....unprofessional/illegal or otherwise.

I am hoping that you are mixing me up with Torby.

G51shopaholic

Scottish Law

You must be registered as a Landlord - i worked for a Glasgow letting Agent for over 7yrs so i know what I'm talking about.

If the tenants have discovered that your mum is NOT registered then the information on the registration site suggest to the tenant that they should with-hold their rent until the landlord get registered.

If your mum lives abroad then she would also need to register with the Inland Revenue a get an additional form that she'll need to acompany her application to become a registered landlord.

What sort of lease does she have with the tenants?

If she has no lease, she is in big trouble!

She needs to give 60 days notice to terminate. She can use the reason (called grounds) that she wants the property back as she is returning to Scotland.

Sheriff must grant return of property to a landlord (called statutory grounds) however there are discrecionary grounds where the sheriff might decide to allow the tenants to stay.

The tenants can claim unlawful evicition if you simply turn up and change the locks.

But if they haven't paid rent for over 3 months you can serve them with a 7 days NTQ (notice to quit) but you can only do this IF you've already seved them with the 2 months notice before hand.

You need to get legal advice and get them out fast! but it has to be done correctly & legally.

Jowo_2

G51shopaholic wrote: »

Scottish Law

You must be registered as a Landlord - i worked for a Glasgow letting Agent for over 7yrs so i know what I'm talking about.

If the tenants have discovered that your mum is NOT registered then the information on the registration site suggest to the tenant that they should with-hold their rent until the landlord get registered.
.

Where does it say this, please? I'm aware that scottish landlords have an obligation to register their properties and that a local council can impose a Rent Penalty Notice on the tenants if the landlord does not comply with registration requirements but don't believe that tenants can withold their rent from non-registered landlords of their own volition. Shelter seems to argue that any instruction to withold rent by the tenants must come through an RPN issued by the council.

http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/getadvice/advice_topics/renting_rights/landlord_registration/about_landlord_registration#6

The OP could send her mother the link to the Landlord Action website who specialise in evictions and offer a fixed fee service. This is not a personal recommendation, by the way, but this organisation is very experienced.

http://www.landlordaction.co.uk/scotland.html

tbs624

Check the date of the first post - May 2009