Just caught tenant moving out without telling me..

simpywimpy

I passed our tenanted house today and found the tenant moving all her furniture out. She says she decided today (we only spoke to her yesterday) that she wants to move and has today moved all her furniture out of the house.

She has a 12 month tenancy signed in February this year. Her rent is also due this week and is still unpaid. She has paid no deposit or advance rental so if she disappears we are a months rent out of pocket. (the letting agent we used did not tell us before she took over that they had not taken either a deposit or advance rental)

In the morning, I intend to go to the letting agency and demand they go straight there and collect the rent at least but how long am I stuck with this? Can I make any demands here seeing she broke the agreement herself?

The AST agreement is wrongly completed by the letting agency with the dates being from 20 feb 09 - 19 feb 09 (should be 10) so I guess that means the contract will be unenforceable. As this is a mistake on the part of the letting agency, can I claim against them for loss of rent?

This is my first tenant and first agency both of whom have turned out to be unreliable!

poppysarah

You have a very poor agency. What does your contract say about them paying you in lieu of being incompetant letting agents?

clutton_2

never mind blaming the agency for now - - concentrate on finding a new agent immediately and getting a new tenant in - your focus must be on not having an empty property - you can deal with the old agent later on

typeractive

clutton wrote: »

never mind blaming the agency for now - - concentrate on finding a new agent immediately and getting a new tenant in - your focus must be on not having an empty property - you can deal with the old agent later on

That's a very good way of looking at things. I agree.

simpywimpy

I think we have someone interested but as their house is sold they would need to move this weekend, hence the question about getting the existing woman out sharpish seeing her furniture has all but gone already.

Just looking through the AST now and it clearly states that rent is payable in advance yet the agency told me when I enquired that because she is on benefits she is paying 4wks in arrears

Other than the normal wording, there is nothing in it that says anything about the responsibilities of the agent at all.

silvercar

Get something in writing from her to say she has given up the tenancy. A professional tenant could be playing games with you.

simpywimpy

Will do that if she hasn't done a runner overnight.

I have also gone through the agreement between us and the agency and there is nothing in there either about their responsibilities to us. Its all about our responsibility really. Nothing to say if they fail to do something.

I guess they will just say they only pay us what the tenant pays them and will wash their hands of the whole thing

Jowo_2

simpywimpy wrote: »

In the morning, I intend to go to the letting agency and demand they go straight there and collect the rent at least but how long am I stuck with this? Can I make any demands here seeing she broke the agreement herself?

The AST agreement is wrongly completed by the letting agency with the dates being from 20 feb 09 - 19 feb 09 (should be 10) so I guess that means the contract will be unenforceable. As this is a mistake on the part of the letting agency, can I claim against them for loss of rent?

I hope you got the keys back:-

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/legal/abandonment.htm

You should obviously be looking to mitigate your losses by getting a new tenant in. It is up to your to take the tenant to court through the small claims court for breaking the agreement but take legal advice regarding the the contract date error to see if this is unfeasible. If it is, you should look to get compensation from the agent for their mistake.

What kind of tenant screening did your agency undertake? Did you see the references, credit check and so on? Stick to agencies that belong to professional bodies for a more professional service.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/agents.htm

Jowo_2

simpywimpy wrote: »

Just looking through the AST now and it clearly states that rent is payable in advance yet the agency told me when I enquired that because she is on benefits she is paying 4wks in arrears

Other than the normal wording, there is nothing in it that says anything about the responsibilities of the agent at all.

Yes, the problem with tenants on benefit is that rent is payable in advance but their benefits are paid in arrears. That's their problem though - it's generally not a practice to hand over keys to a tenant until the deposit and first month's rent is paid. Many HB/LHA tenants prefer to think of the late payment of their benefits as the landlords problem but this kind of skewed thinking is why many landlords won't accept this group as tenants.

It is unlikely that you can ever successfully recoup any arrears owed by someone with no income - you may get a court judgement in your favour but its virtually unenforceable. The few landlords that do accept claimants will often insist on a guarantor because of the high risk of them getting into arrears and this is one of the few things that acts as a deterrent.

The AST, even when signed by the agent, is solely between you and the tenant. They are mere intermediaries who when they sign a contract, are merely signing on your behalf because your contract with them gives them this permission. The primary legal relationship is always between tenant and landlord - the agents are just transparent windows. This is why there is no mention of their role on the AST. The agent exposes themselves to little risk when a tenancy goes bad.

simpywimpy

when we originally enquired about their service they did say they take references and credit checks but in reality I dont think they ever did

Jowo_2

simpywimpy wrote: »

when we originally enquired about their service they did say they take references and credit checks but in reality I dont think they ever did

Without getting this in writing, it's not worth the oxygen they spent on saying this to woo you into signing over the property to them to manage.

Demand to see the references and credit report. 90% of bad tenants can be eliminated through basic tenant screening. Your tenant has managed to find somewhere else to rent without you being contacted for references which shows she's pretty adept at the game.