Tenant has not paid rent!!! What to do?

BUTTERS

Hi all,

I let my property through a letting agent and had some new tenants in at the start of feb on a 12 month contract. They did not pay last months rent so I called the agents who said they had tried to get in contact with the tenants but had no answer.

Finally I had a phone call from the agents saying that the tenants are sorry and last months arrears will be paid on 21/6 and then this months on the 24/6.

I then waited for the payments and to no surprise the first payment due on 21/6 has not been processed. They will be 2 months in arrears on 26/6 so how do I go about reclaiming money owed through the courts and get them out of the property?

I do not have rent guarantee or legal protection! Help please.

Thanks

zzzLazyDaisy

Isn't that the sort of thing you pay your agent to deal with?

Are they on LHA (used to be called housing benefit)? If so, once they have missed two months rent you can ask the local authority to pay the rent directly to the landlord.

Hopefully someone more knowledeable will be along soon.

Jowo_2

What is the reason for the arrears so soon into the tenancy? Why did your agency issue a 12 month initial contract and does the contract contain a 6 month break clause? It's the norm to issue a 6 month contract or longer one with a break clause in case the tenants prove to be unreliable - it takes months to get a non paying tenant out of a property through the courts, hence a fixed term 12 month contract without a notice period is very risky.

Undertake research on how to serve an S8 or get someone like Landlord Action to do this.

Look at Landlordzone for info on how to serve notice, including an S21, and how to manage rent arrears. Has your agent served the S21 at the outset of the tenancy (this fairly common and is done to reduce the time required to evict a bad tenant at the end of the tenancy).

If the property is in England or Wales, did the agent protect their deposit in a tenancy deposit scheme which landlords are required to do by law? If not, eviction under the S21 route is invalidated.

Find a better agent - check if they even bothered to carry out thorough tenant screening as this reduces the risks of bad tenants by 90%. Did they check their ID, get employer references, previous landlord references, undertake a credit check, check the electoral register for previous addresses? Do your agents belong to a professional body? Ask your agents for copies of the tenancy application form and the results of the tenant screening.

Novice landlord handing over a property to a cowboy agent is a recipe for disaster because they are targetted by professional tenants (that is, ones that know their legal rights to stay in the property without paying and who do this on a serial basis).

BUTTERS

I used a high street lettings agent (allen and harris) and have had no problems before. I have been advised by them I can serve eviction after 2 months of arrears so that will be 26.6.

We have a deposit with TDS but have been advised that it cannot be used for rental arrears but more for damage ect.

Does anyone know any good law firms? Will it cost me an arm and a leg?

clutton_2

joni national landlords association - that is the cheapest way to get free good legal advice on their phone helpline.. they can talk you through exactly how to submit forms to court to get them out .. their joining fee is tax deductible

TDS - cannot use deposit for rent arrears ?????? a deposit is for breach of tenancy agreement ... rent arrears is in breach... unless your AST says otherwise......

Jowo_2

BUTTERS wrote: »

I used a high street lettings agent (allen and harris) and have had no problems before. I have been advised by them I can serve eviction after 2 months of arrears so that will be 26.6.

We have a deposit with TDS but have been advised that it cannot be used for rental arrears but more for damage ect.

Does anyone know any good law firms? Will it cost me an arm and a leg?

I didn't ask if they were situated in the high street, i asked whether your agent belongs to any professional bodies, such as ARLA and whether or not they undertook full tenant screening and have proved this to you. Go and read the Landlordzone website to understand how to find a good agent and the importance of thorough tenant screening to try and filter out bad ones before the key gets handed over.

I already suggested an organisation like Landlord Action which offers fixed price fees. You can serve the notice yourself if you have the confidence to do this but be aware that many cases reach court and the judge finds they've been served incorrectly and throws out the case. The landlordzone forum and website can advise you how to serve an S21 and S8.

lyndasharp

We recently had a similar problem with a non paying tenant. The lettings agency served the S8 notice for free. We submitted the court papers ourselves online, prepared the case and attended court. Although the tenant never paid the arrears, he did leave when the eviction notice arrived, so it only cost us £100 for the court fee plus a bit of time and travel to court. As very recent landlords this was our first experience of this, and it was much less difficult to DIY than we expected.

We now have new tenants in who will hopefully prove to be better - though apparently the fridge has just broken, aaargh. Oh well, tax deductible expenses etc etc....

BUTTERS

I have been on the phone to the lettings agency. Full referencing was done and copies are on their way to me. S8 is being issued for free in the next couple of days and the reccomended law firm details passed to me. Lettings agency are also going round to do an inspection on the property. Thanks for your help today guys.