PLease Help! Tenants Ran....

Gam007

Hi

In a bit of a state here and need some help.

I have been letting my house out through an agent for the last 3 years, i have had 4 polish guys in there and for the last 5 months they have not paid any rent!!!

The letting agent gave them the notice after they failed to pay for the 2 month in a row, the tenants promised to pay three months later they had paid £200.00.

So there leaving date was the 22nd Sept on the 15th they had ran...

The house looks like its been burgled, the carpets are completely ruined and they were new when they went in, they also have marked all the walls and there are holes in some of the walls, there are over 500 beers bottles in bags etc etc..

I am owed around £3400.00 in rent and money for the damage they have caused.

I have £700.00 from the deposit, but that’s it..

I have there names but no forwarding address, I would like to make something official so they cannot do this to another family, I would also like to try and sue them for this..

Can it be right that you can just run away???

Please any advice or if you have been through this any help would be great..

Thank you

Gaz

tek-monkey

Surely you have more than just names, the LA must have checked them out?

Gam007

Hi

I have where they used to work, but they have been in there 2 years..

I have there passport details and things but not much else, i do have letter coming through the door and one of there National insurence numbers..

Gaz

tek-monkey

Is that all the agent got? I needed a lot more than that when I rented, don't you have the bank details for the DD?

Bufger

Sounds like your LA was poor. They should have more details than that or they're failing you. if you cant trace the tennants i would seek legal advice and try to recover the money from the LA.

clutton_2

you will get nowhere with the agent.

unless you have a forwarding address, you cannot sue these tenants.

harsh as this is - write it off, get the house redecorated and get a new agent and some new tenants asap

Pobby

I was a landlord for a very short time. Similar situation. The agents were unreal, imho basically crooks, and I never received the deposit back. When the place was finally vacated, the agents forgot to lock the doors, the house was totally vandalised. I was offered to see photos of the damage. I obviously refused as it was the home I was bought up in.

To this day, many years later, I can`t drive past the house. If I was you write it off and if you can, manage the rent yourself.

skint-student-nurse

can you not claim any of this from your insurance? i agree with the idea of getting the LA to take some responsibility, i would do the same if this happened with our tennant

Jowo_2

Don't use that agent again who has failed to provide thorough tenant screening which screens out 90% of problem tenants, plus eviction for non payment of rent should have been quicker than 5 months. Here's a link which explains the benefits of using an agent that belongs to a professional body.

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

Use a tenant tracing service to find them but the tenants may have gone back home overseas or return to avoid any enforcement of a future judgement so you may just have to put this down to a learning experience.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/dir/tenant-tracing.htm

Soot2006

As above, you can of course try to trace them and get your due rent + damage payments BUT ... You ask that surely it's not right that people can just run away? .. Well, no. But running away is just that, and people who run away often don't want to be found. If they've left the country or have made an attempt to disappear for good, you probably won't be finding them. And even if you find them in Poland you might find it impossible to get what you want out of them, . Very nasty situation & sorry there isn't a simply way out .

Gam007

Thanks you for thacking the time to reply..

I guess this is a lesson learnt.

I hope that no body else has to put up with this in the future.

i have put this down to a bad exsperence.

thanks