HA tenant and growing rent arrears!!

tabskitten

I actually think she is a bit in denial- and insane. Just my luck to get a lunatic.
Well, the rent will now go direct to me so need not worry about arrears rowing.
She has also agreed to pay £325 per month until her arrears are clear.

So to be honest I think that now she will be issued with a letter stating that any failure to pay this will result in eviction notice I think the best thing is to sit tight.

If i evict her now i will have to go to small claims court anyway.
And viewings will be awful if we are going through court with the tenant at that time.
The EA is confident all interest he had over the weekend is landlord buyers, if it sells before arrears are clear then the LE will direct the arrears payments to me.

Good grief.

Jowo_2

How does someone on benefits magic up £325 spare cash per month for the next 6 months?! Why can she manage this huge sum going forward when she very recently indicated she needed the rent to be dropped?

Have you verified how she is going to manage to do this or whether she is spinning you a line to stall the eviction for another month.

Seek advice about whether you should cover yourself by serving an S21 as a back-up - i.e. that you can act on it if she defaults on rent arrears and make it clear that is why it is being served.

Your letting agent seems abysmal. Get another one who better serves your interests. If they are also representing you for the sale, its no wonder that they are spinning you positive tales. Why are you rewarding them with landing you with a dodgy tenant by giving them a commission on the sale?

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

She may very well facilitate viewings for you in order to keep you sweet and stall your initiation of the eviction process but she isn't going to leave the property if its sold, is she? This is because you won't be able to provide a good reference for her, plus a good letting agent would be able to identify if she has a poor credit record (which your agent may not have bothered to check out).

If your agency is so great, tell them that they must find a new property from their books for her to move into...

tabskitten

Thankfully they are not my EA.
I have no idea how she is going to generate the extra and honestly do not care as long as she does..
If she defaults then she will be evicted, solicitor letter is the first step in our legal backup should this happen.
you have been a great help thank you

bitsandpieces

tabskitten wrote: »

I actually think she is a bit in denial- and insane. Just my luck to get a lunatic.

Your tenant has successfully diverted £2k in what should have been rent payments from you (as landlord) to herself over the past year, with no apparent repercussions as yet. I think she has done rather well, to be honest - I certainly wouldn't just assume she's in denial!

If you're wanting to sell to a Landlord, not sure how a sitting tenant on LHA with a lot of arrears will affect the price?

Jowo_2

My guess is that probably increase the likelihood of it being sold if you can offer vacant possession, plus having a tenant in place puts off residential buyers and having a tenant in arrears puts off investment buyers...

You seem to think your tenant is unknowing and naive so I hope this is the case and that you are not lumbered with a pro tenant, one who hops from novice landlord to novice landlord staying in place for as long as possible with paying as little as possible, plus coming up with sobstories and plausible excuses to stay the eviction process.

You should ask your letting agent for a copy of their tenancy application form, plus the tenant screening reports that they should have received, in order to verify who you are actually dealing with, particularly as you veer towards optimistic outcomes.

tabskitten

Well. Now that with the help of this forum, my EA, the council, and a few other sources I have got my head around the situation I am in a postition to take some action. I have had the tenent issued with formal warning of eviction and small claims court should she refect on any of the arrears payments.
I have also got the LHA paying me directly.
I really do not care how long it takes as long as I get that money in the end. And I am not going to give up on getting it. I will happily go to court if need be. Even if the flat is sold and I have emigrated the LA can continue to take and fwd payments to me. If there are no more arrears I am happy for her to stay.

Jowo_2

tabskitten wrote: »

I will happily go to court if need be. Even if the flat is sold and I have emigrated the LA can continue to take and fwd payments to me.

Once the tenancy has ended, the local authority will end all rent payments to the final day the tenant leaves the property. They are not responsible for paying any of her arrears - she is. By receiving all future LHA payments directly, the existing arrears won't increase but the local authority will not pay you a penny towards the sum owed. The local council will only pay out a single instance of LHA for the rental period - it is up to the landlord to extract it off the tenant.

You can take her to court for the 2k but she'll probably fall into the group of debtors where the claimant never gets a penny - its virtually impossible to enforce any kind of money judgement on someone with no income and no assets. This is why many landlords are wary of tenants on benefits, or students, for example, for being high risk.

The court, if they find in your favour, may agree for her to do a repayment schedule but might consent to her paying it off at a tenner a month over the next 16 years...

The same tenant, who is convincing you that she can find an extra £325 from her benefits to pay back her arrears so you consent to her tenancy continuing, is going to plead complete poverty and distress in any proposed repayment schedule through the courts...

tabskitten

I will happily wait as long as it takes for her to pay me.
I do not expect the LHA to pay the arrears- i never have. I also don't give two hoots how she finds the money- as long as she does- her problem not mine. I suspect that her partner is paying the £325. He seemed like a reasonalbe chap pervesely!

The solicitor seems confident that as long as I am realistic about the time scale that a small claims court will rule that she has to pay.

dopester

tabskitten wrote: »

I actually think she is a bit in denial- and insane.

No offence, but I draw the same conclusion about quite a few posters here... myself included to some degree. Nice portfolio of properties.

In denial and insane... £219,950 for a house in Rossendale just doesn't compute to me but a long while since I've been up there. Been ski-ing on that dry-slope they have in the area a few times when younger.

Confusing.. the Ross one from your portfolio... is it back up for sale so soon? houseprices.co.uk has this data for that property:

Sales Date: 21/04/2009
Price: £198,000
Type: Ter.
Tenure: F
New Build: Yes

Hope you solve your tenant problem.

Catblue

tabskitten wrote: »

I will happily wait as long as it takes for her to pay me.
I do not expect the LHA to pay the arrears- i never have. I also don't give two hoots how she finds the money- as long as she does- her problem not mine. I suspect that her partner is paying the £325. He seemed like a reasonalbe chap pervesely!

The solicitor seems confident that as long as I am realistic about the time scale that a small claims court will rule that she has to pay.

It sounds more like you are in denial than she is. It seems unlikely that she will suddenly be able to find the money to make up the arrears from somewhere. Also, she's got £2k (your £2K rent) less to live on this year but has to find £325 per month extra from somewhere. If this chap is so reasonable and generous then it is strange that he hasn't intervened before eviction proceedings started against her.

Also, have you considered that she might not actually pay the money when the small claims courts have told her to? Lots of people don't you know. And I'd say that someone who chooses not to pay their rent is someone who is reasonably likely to choose not to pay what the court orders them to.

Your solicitor being confident of success in small claims court is one thing - actually getting your hands on the money is another thing entirely.

If she eventually does a moonlight flit then you have the problem of trying to track her down to get her to pay the money. And, having done that, she might refuse to pay again.