Just caught tenant moving out without telling me..

Timmne

simpywimpy wrote: »

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!

maninthestreet wrote: »

No deposit? You let a tenant move into the property without paying a deposit beforehand?

I don't see the OP asking for advice on whether they made the right decision at the start of the tenancy...

robpw2

it was the letting agent who didnt take the deposit not the landlord

pinkshoes

Simpywimpy, what did you actually pay the agency for? What does your contract with them say?

If you paid them to credit check a tenant, take the deposit etc... then ask to see the credit check that was done etc...

furndire

We had this happen a couple of months ago. The first thing I did was to go straight into the council office - and let them know they had done a bunk. and ask them to put a stop on any rent that she is due. This they did, and I got a letter asking how much she owed etc. I actually got a cheque a few weeks later. Unfortunately, if rents are paid like at our council for tenants, they are all paid out on one date of the month - which in our area was 12th July, so its most likely that she has just got her money and upped and gone.
As for getting it back from the tenant, if they are on benefit, you will be throwing good money after bad if you try and get it back from the County Court (best of luck if you try).
Hope for your sake that she hasn't just had her money.
I found out later that the people who did a bunk from us had done this before. Young family, 2 very small children. Ok I didn't do a credit check, and I don't pay an agent, but they were (not any more) very good friends of one of my best tenants. They left just about everything in the house. I was lucky I knew the rent should have been paid, so went round and said I knew it had. She lied, and said wouldn't be getting it until following week, so I said I would go to Council with her and they could tell me what was happening. That would be fine!!! The next day I got a call from my good tenant saying that she thought they were in process of doing a bunk.
When we were clearing the house out I found all sorts of papers they had left, owing money all over the place, so I rang them all, and let them know where they had gone. Nasty I know, but at least this will put a stop to them doing it again. I'm not usually like that, but I was so p,,,,ed off, as we and others had helped them a lot to settle in. I'd even let him know of a job that was going - and put a good word in for them. My "good tenants" were really really upset that they had done the dirty on them as well, and even offered to help clean out the house on the Easter Sunday.
It made me very wary of letting to a very young woman in another house - another friend of a friend, however she has turned out to be a lovely young lass - texted us yesterday, "Hi guys - have got your rent, see you later". A gamble we took, and I hope will pay off for many years.
Tenancy agreements regarding SOME people on HB are not worth the paper they are written on - obviously we have them for all our tenants, but if they decide to leave they just up and go - they've usually got nothing, so you can't recoup anything, just clear up the mess, and get another tenant in as quick as possible to recoup any more loss of rent.
sorry for such a long winded post - but I think this will start to happen a lot more, as some find that they aren't going to get all their rent paid.

robpw2

did she say why she was moving?
maybe she coulndnt afford to be there ?
maybe there was a problem which wasnt resolved etc
maybe she wss upset at the "ll" constant passing of her home ..

maybe she had here benefit cut etc

PlutoinCapricorn

There is something about this on the BBC website right now: apparently the rent for people on benefits used to be paid directly to the landlord, but is now given to the tenant, to "teach them how to budget". This is causing many problems to landlords, who are not getting paid.

furndire

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

There is something about this on the BBC website right now: apparently the rent for people on benefits used to be paid directly to the landlord, but is now given to the tenant, to "teach them how to budget". This is causing many problems to landlords, who are not getting paid.

It's been happening for over a year now.
HB can still be paid to LL if for example, like one of my tenants, an old lady hasn't got a bank account, but couldn't get to the bank either. If the tenant says they are not good with money, their rent can be paid direct.
A lot of problems as I see it, comes from the fact that if a tenant wants to pay by DD, their rent comes in on a different day each month, as the councils pay four weekly, not monthy. They then end up paying cash and when you haven't got anything, that amount of money must be very tempting - a few hundred quid - gone, don't matter, I'll find somewhere else to live.

I think it was paid direct to tenants because there were some unscrupulous landlords who carried on claiming rent for tenants who had moved out. Landlords were also liable to pay back rent if the tenant started working and didn't tell the LL or moved a partner in.

It can be a bit of a nightmare. For the first time for a few months we have full houses, and settled tenants.

One of the things I make clear with my tenants is "if you are having problems, Please let me know so that we can sort things out". Apart from that last one they usually do. Plus we charge reasonable rents

debrag

furndire wrote: »

We had this happen a couple of months ago. The first thing I did was to go straight into the council office - and let them know they had done a bunk. and ask them to put a stop on any rent that she is due. This they did, and I got a letter asking how much she owed etc. I actually got a cheque a few weeks later. Unfortunately, if rents are paid like at our council for tenants, they are all paid out on one date of the month - which in our area was 12th July, so its most likely that she has just got her money and upped and gone.
As for getting it back from the tenant, if they are on benefit, you will be throwing good money after bad if you try and get it back from the County Court (best of luck if you try).
Hope for your sake that she hasn't just had her money.
I found out later that the people who did a bunk from us had done this before. Young family, 2 very small children. Ok I didn't do a credit check, and I don't pay an agent, but they were (not any more) very good friends of one of my best tenants. They left just about everything in the house. I was lucky I knew the rent should have been paid, so went round and said I knew it had. She lied, and said wouldn't be getting it until following week, so I said I would go to Council with her and they could tell me what was happening. That would be fine!!! The next day I got a call from my good tenant saying that she thought they were in process of doing a bunk.
When we were clearing the house out I found all sorts of papers they had left, owing money all over the place, so I rang them all, and let them know where they had gone. Nasty I know, but at least this will put a stop to them doing it again. I'm not usually like that, but I was so p,,,,ed off, as we and others had helped them a lot to settle in. I'd even let him know of a job that was going - and put a good word in for them. My "good tenants" were really really upset that they had done the dirty on them as well, and even offered to help clean out the house on the Easter Sunday.
It made me very wary of letting to a very young woman in another house - another friend of a friend, however she has turned out to be a lovely young lass - texted us yesterday, "Hi guys - have got your rent, see you later". A gamble we took, and I hope will pay off for many years.
Tenancy agreements regarding SOME people on HB are not worth the paper they are written on - obviously we have them for all our tenants, but if they decide to leave they just up and go - they've usually got nothing, so you can't recoup anything, just clear up the mess, and get another tenant in as quick as possible to recoup any more loss of rent.
sorry for such a long winded post - but I think this will start to happen a lot more, as some find that they aren't going to get all their rent paid.

As a tenant getting LHA I find this way much better, councils near me do it but mine don't. The way it works for me is that I have to use all the amount I get i.e £210 even though my rent is only £195 due to when I recieve the cheques if that makes sence.In the long run it balances out when I have a 5 week month but it can be hard those other months.

After 8 weeks in arears LHA/HB gets paid to the LL not tenant

furndire

debrag wrote: »

As a tenant getting LHA I find this way much better, councils near me do it but mine don't. The way it works for me is that I have to use all the amount I get i.e £210 even though my rent is only £195 due to when I recieve the cheques if that makes sence.In the long run it balances out when I have a 5 week month but it can be hard those other months.

After 8 weeks in arears LHA/HB gets paid to the LL not tenant

Certainly makes sense. You are the type of tenant that this is meant to help and LL's should really appreciate. Unfortunately a lot of folk don't realise that there are 52 weeks in a year which amounts to 13 x 4 week payments.
I assume councils pay out on set day of month because money is sat in a bank account accumulating interest and can only be drawn down this way for the best rates.

Luckily I have not been in a position where I needed to find out about the arrears payments.

tbs624

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

There is something about this on the BBC website right now: apparently the rent for people on benefits used to be paid directly to the landlord, but is now given to the tenant, to "teach them how to budget". This is causing many problems to [edit *] landlords, who are not getting paid.

Edit point* Problems for *some* LLs.

Whilst recognising that there are some Ts who fail to pass on their rent to their LLs, causing genuine difficulties, the fact is that not all Ts who claim LHA are rent dodgers.

It's a pity the BBC report can't be more accurate - their quote, re the NLA:

"Its research has found that 52% of landlords will no longer let to LHA tenants because they often fall into arrears. "

is very misleading. That's not 52% of all LLs, it's not even 52% of the NLA's total membership: it's 52% of those who took part in one of their membership surveys in April this year.

The actual report phrasing was that 52% of their survey responders said that the introduction of LHA meant they:

"were less likely to take on new benefit tenants or had failed to convince them to start renting to benefit tenants in the first place"


Wonder why they didn't flag up the 20% of LL responders who said they would still rent to benefit claimants plus the 5% who said the intro of LHA made them *more* likely to rent to that sector?

20% didn't know how they felt, 3% were undecided and 16% would still say no to benefit claimants ( the 16% are the LLs who would in all probability never let to this sector of the market). That 16% were included in the 52% figure waved about.


But, yep, let's flag up that over half of all LLs have a downer on *anyone* in receipt of LHA ............................lies, damn lies and stats;)

Those who follow that line of reasoning would presumably be fine with the viewpoint that some of the Ts have shown on this Board - that *all* LLs are money grabbing charlatans, who will fail to repair, fail to provide gas safety certs, and fail to either register or return a tenancy deposit?


What was interesting was that for both LLs who currently let to LHA tenants and for those who don't similar percentages (38%/37%) agreed with the notion that just one month of arrears should trigger automatic payment of the rent direct to the LL, and give more time for the authorities to assess any T's potential "vulnerability" issues.

I guess an article headlined "Almost 40% of LLs See a Way Forward with LHA tenants" is far less "sexy"