Help - need to recover some rent arrears

Bowski

Looking for a bit of advise. Had a terrible year with bad tenants with the properties we rent out.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a solicitor that they have had dealings with to try and process claims with these ex tenants.

Ideally a no win no fee deal would be good but there are so many companies out there I don't really no where to start.:eek:

Annisele

Do the ex-tenants have any money? If not, there's not a lot of point in taking them to court.

I can't recommend a solicitor, but it might help others to do so if you tell us a bit more about where you are (even if it's just to say England &Wales, Scotland, etc so we know which jurisdiction you're in).

mchale

Not used them myself, but they are recommended by local LL association

http://www.jbleitch.co.uk/index.html

If you use them let me know what you think of them.

mostlycheerful

You can do small claims court yourself over the net without need of a lawyer for claims of up to £5,000 and each case costs about £30 or so to lodge. If it’s just outstanding rent arrears and maybe some damage to the property then that’s likely mostly if not all straightforward so no need for a solicitor.

Although, as the other poster says, the ex tenants may not have much or any money now they may do over the next 6 years while your CCJ that you get is on their credit file so probably worthwhile doing – and therefore keep looking for them for the next 6 years. Also consider applying for an attachment to earnings which is a court order that recoups the debt off their earnings.

For finding wrong’uns on the run there are various ways you can trace them yourself, for instance by looking up their credit files at the three main credit reference agencies and if you draw a blank there then there are all sorts of ways of tracing people which you can read up about if you do some research on the subject. And if you’re really keen and don’t mind paying a bit then there are also commercial tracing outfits and private investigators who can normally find anyone anywhere.

Once you’ve found them then it might be worth sending a big bloke in a suit round to knock on their door and say politely “I understand that you owe my client the sum of x amount and I’m here to collect it now and if you can’t quite pay all of it immediately I’ll take a couple of hundred now towards it and the rest in a day or two when I come back” and then they look menacing but don’t actually do any menacing and as long as all they do is politely ask for the money without any actual menaces then that’s perfectly legal as an implied threat done professionally is not actually a threat as such. It’s important not to say anything about breaking legs or cracking heads or such like as that’s illegal and nickable. Some people cack themselves at the sudden surprising shocking sight and sound of a big bloke in a suit saying that and looking scary and cough up whatever they’ve got on them there and then and the rest as soon as matey peeps turns up again. However there's also a lot of hard and bold and fearless criminals who'll just tell your debt collector to get lost so this approach only works on gullible and stupid people.

Hope this is helpful, good luck, let us know how you get on.

tbs624

mostlycheerful wrote: »

Y
Once you’ve found them then it might be worth sending a big bloke in a suit round to knock on their door and say politely “I understand that you owe my client the sum of x amount and I’m here to collect it now and if you can’t quite pay all of it immediately I’ll take a couple of hundred now towards it and the rest in a day or two when I come back” and then they look menacing but don’t actually do any menacing and as long as all they do is politely ask for the money without any actual menaces then that’s perfectly legal as an implied threat done professionally is not actually a threat as such.

......and it might be worth *not* involving yourself in that sort of behaviour.

Administration Justice Act 1970. s40

40 Punishment for unlawful harassment of debtors

(1)A person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under a contract, he—

(a)harasses the other with demands for payment which, in respect of their frequency or the manner or occasion of making any such demand, or of any threat or publicity by which any demand is accompanied, are calculated to subject him or members of his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation;

(b)falsely represents, in relation to the money claimed, that criminal proceedings lie for failure to pay it;

(c)falsely represents himself to be authorised in some official capacity to claim or enforce payment; or


(d)utters a document falsely represented by him to have some official character or purporting to have some official character which he knows it has not.

(2)A person may be guilty of an offence by virtue of subsection (1)(a) above if he concerts with others in the taking of such action as is described in that paragraph, notwithstanding that his own course of conduct does not by itself amount to harassment.

(3)Subsection (1)(a) above does not apply to anything done by a person which is reasonable (and otherwise permissible in law) for the purpose—

(a)of securing the discharge of an obligation due, or believed by him to be due, to himself or to persons for whom he acts, or protecting himself or them from future loss; or
(b)of the enforcement of any liability by legal process.

Two wrongs do not make a right. If the OP wants to pursue the debts the appropriate way is via the Courts.

tbs624

Bowski wrote: »

Looking for a bit of advise. Had a terrible year with bad tenants with the properties we rent out.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a solicitor that they have had dealings with to try and process claims with these ex tenants.

Ideally a no win no fee deal would be good but there are so many companies out there I don't really no where to start.:eek:

Look up your local LL association in the yellow pages and ask them for recommendations. Have a look at Tessa Shepperson's excellent LandlordLaw site or contact the NLA or RLA.

You can do it yourself via the small claims court but, as another poster has pointed out, if the ex Ts are without funds you will effectively be throwing good money after bad. Some LLs are prepared to do that for the "satisfaction" of the T having a CCJ against their name, some put it down to experience and get the next T in place asap.

You may want to review your tenant "vetting" procedures.