Tenant in 2 months arrears

saskia297

Hi people,
just after a bit of advice really...
I own a house which i've rented under an assured shorthold tenancy agreement to the same lady and her daughter for the last 2 1/2 years.
She has on occasion been late with some or all of the rent, but not been too bad up to now.
She is now 2 months in arrears, and I'm usnure as to what to do to get the money back - she's on HB, so I'm going to contact the council tomorrow to see if they can start paying it direct to me, and also she does have her parents as guarantor - how would i go about getting them to pay the outstanding arrears? (assuming their contact details are still the same as when she signed the tenancy agreement!!!)

I've also read about distress/distrain, where the landlord can take the tenants posessions to sell to make up the arrears, but have been slightly confused as to whether the law has changed recently and now only allows this for commercial properties - if I can do this, do I need to hire a bailiff?

The next obvious thing to do would be a section 8? How do I go about that - and does it allow me to get the arreas back in addition to regaining the property?

Many thanks in advance for any help - it's much appreciated!!!

Saskia - confused landlord!:o

clutton_2

Saskai.... my b est advice as a LL of 11 years is that you join National Landlords Association who have a great legal helpline which will talk you through all the problems associated with evicting tenants.. their joining fee is tax deductible.

tbs624

saskia297 wrote: »

Hi people,
just after a bit of advice really...
I own a house which i've rented under an assured shorthold tenancy agreement to the same lady and her daughter for the last 2 1/2 years.
She has on occasion been late with some or all of the rent, but not been too bad up to now.
She is now 2 months in arrears, and I'm usnure as to what to do to get the money back - she's on HB, so I'm going to contact the council tomorrow to see if they can start paying it direct to me, and also she does have her parents as guarantor - how would i go about getting them to pay the outstanding arrears? (assuming their contact details are still the same as when she signed the tenancy agreement!!!)

Have you issued your T with a rent statement? If not , you need to do so via a formal letter. You simply list out the due dates, the amount due, and what has actually been paid and on what date plus a total of what remains outstanding. Request payment of that amount by a specific date and/or that the T contacts you to discuss it. You should send a copy of this to the LHA/HB office and keep one for your own records.

saskia297 wrote: »

I've also read about distress/distrain, where the landlord can take the tenants posessions to sell to make up the arrears, but have been slightly confused as to whether the law has changed recently and now only allows this for commercial properties - if I can do this, do I need to hire a bailiff?

No, no - do not go there....

For a S8 to be successful, the T will have to owe a min of 2 months both at the time of your application and at the time of the hearing. ( look up Grounds 8, 10 and 11 under s8)

However, a T's legal adviser would usually tell him/her to pay down at least some of the arrears prior to the hearing ao you need to also serve a s21 Notice as a back up, but for it to be valid you have to (a) have scheme registered any tenancy deposit (if Eng/Wales) and (b) got the dates right.


As Clutton has suggested, you should sign up to NLA or the RLA or Tessa Shepperson's excellent LL Law site - they will guide you through the necessary processes.

Alias_Omega

Why dont you contact the tenant via telephone to ask about the 2 months missing rent, and see whats wrong. You could then ask her to get the HB paid directly to yourself.

If she has messed up, then i would telephone the guarantor to ask them to provide the missing 2 months rent.

Of course, they can both tell you to 'ram it' which i think is very unlikely and you can start to evict them.


I guess it depends if you want to keep the tenant, or evict them.?


(For me, i would rather lose the 2 months rent, and keep my tenant. For me, 10 months rented out is far far better than the negative costs of 12 months sitting empty).

iolanthe07

Be careful with having the rent paid directly to you though. I received rent direct from the council some years ago because the tenant was constantly in arrears, only later to discover that he was earning money cash in hand on the side and not actually entitled to HB. The council then demanded the money back off me, with the helpful advice that I should sue the tenant! My solicitor advised me not to bother as even if I got a judgement, I would never get the money. An expensive lesson.

thesaint

iolanthe07 wrote: »

Be careful with having the rent paid directly to you though. I received rent direct from the council some years ago because the tenant was constantly in arrears, only later to discover that he was earning money cash in hand on the side and not actually entitled to HB. The council then demanded the money back off me, with the helpful advice that I should sue the tenant! My solicitor advised me not to bother as even if I got a judgement, I would never get the money. An expensive lesson.

The law has changed.
The council can only recover it from you if it was something that you should have known, or didn't inform them.

clutton_2

councils wil ALWAYS try to recover from a LL first - they have money - benefit tenants dont.....

saskia297

Hey
Thanks for the responses guys...
Things have got significantly more comlicated since i last posted.
the tenant gave me 2 days notice that she was vacting the property, so I went up to do a routine inspection as she was moving out.... - as she has not given me written notice, I will still persue her for the rent owed, plus rent for the notice period...
BUT the house and garden are a complete mess. unfortunately, the agent I used didn't do an inventory (I was very new to the whole landlord thing, and didn't think about it - my fault... we learn from our mistakes the hard way!!!)
There are several things that will need rectifying before I can relet the house - am I best to get someone in to do these, so that I will have invoices and can persue the tenant for the cost?
Things such as mowing the lawn (in her contract that it should be kept neat and tidy), removing rubbish (AND A HUGE DOG KENNEL!!!) from the garden, replacing broken panels on doors (luckily i have photos of the original condition of the doors somewhere)
Also as the tenant hasn't given official written notice, am I best to send a section 8 to her? would I also send this to the guarantor?
With the section 8, i presume i can persue her for all owed rent, including the notice period that she didn't give, and all the damages to the property? (the total sum will be WAY above the deposit that she paid!!!)
Also the tenant has left property at the house - if by the time i get the keys back this is still there, what do i do with it? - i will probably have to pay someone to remove it - can i claim against her for this too?
Thanks again for all the advice so far!!
Saskia

martindow

In theory you can claim for lots of things but if your (ex) tenant is on HB they probably have no money. If you make a court claim and win it (which sounds likely from what you say) you will just have spent the court fee and still be no nearer getting any money back.

As Clutton has said, join the NLA and read through some threads on this forum to hopefully avoid pitfalls in the future.

tbs624

martindow wrote: »

In theory you can claim for lots of things but if your (ex) tenant is on HB they probably have no money. If you make a court claim and win it (which sounds likely from what you say) you will just have spent the court fee and still be no nearer getting any money back.

You have perhaps missed the part of the OP's post which says that there is a guarantor in place:)

tbs624

saskia297 wrote: »

the tenant gave me 2 days notice that she was vacting the property, so I went up to do a routine inspection as she was moving out.... - as she has not given me written notice, I will still persue her for the rent owed, plus rent for the notice period...

Saskia - you are clearly out of your depth.

You need to be aware that some Ts know how to work the system and they can, and do, run rings around inexperienced LLs.

What evidence do you have that she has given notice? You say that she has moved out - did you witness this and has she handed the keys back to you?

If no, then this and the fact that she has not given you written notice and that her possessions remain in the property means that you need to be careful how you handle things.

Take a look here for guidance
http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/ - as mentioned before: the membership fees are tax deductible.

Note that you can only charge the T a "reasonable" amount for dealing with dilapidations.

You will need to show that you have tried to contact the T and/or the guarantor regarding possessions left behind.

Did you scheme register the Ts deposit btw?