LL predicament (Urgent)

adcarr1207

Hi All,
Hoping for a bit of advice on this one.
I have a property that i rent out to a single 22 year old male.
the rent i charge is £500 a month for a 2 bedroom property.

The fella signed a tenancy agreement for 6 months (started in July).

The fella receives housing benefit (doesnt work) The HB is paid direct to him and then he pays me cash each month.

as far as i am aware they pay half of the rent and he is finding the rest (???)

I dont have anything to do with the council due to a bad experience in the past and their complete incompetence in general.

The tenant has been tryhing to get the council to pay the full rent, but has had a letter to say that they wont.

He has asked if her could get a friend to move in with him to pay half the rent but I have said no because then it would be classed as multi- occupancy and then i would have to pay the council tax.

He then asked if I could put the tenancy agreement in soneone elses name who apparently gets £450 HB. This person is not reliable and so I dont want this person as a tenant. I have told my tenant that I cant do this as his tenancy agreement is for a minimum of 6 months.

He is saying that he cant afford the rent.

What do i do, where do i stand??

A

BitterAndTwisted

Is there anything in the tenancy agreement which precludes your tenant being able to move a lodger in? Why would two people living in a two-bed property make it a multi-occupancy one? It's just one household and therefore the occupants are responsible for paying the C Tax, surely.

adcarr1207

not sure, this was what i was told by a friend ????

Jowo_2

I assume the reason why he doesn't get much LHA is that as a single person under the age of 25, he is only entitled to a rate equivalent to a room in a shared rate, not a 1 and definately not a 2 bedroom property (unless disabled). Check his entitlement on the LHA direct website which will give you an idea of why there is a huge mismatch between what he gets from the local council and the rent you are charging and why there was never any hope that he would manage to afford it?

Why did you grant him a tenancy before checking if he could afford it?

adcarr1207

basically his brother and partner lived in the house in 2007, then the father moved in with the brother, then brother moved out and he moved in the tenancy was in the fathers name. now the father has moved out and so the tenancy is just in his name.

Its all complicated, but basically the property has been let out to the same family for 3 years.

in honesty, when the father asked if the tenancy could be put in the sons name, I just agreed to it without even asking any questions!

BitterAndTwisted

Tell your tenant that the rent is the rent and it's not your responsibility if he took on a tenancy without realising that he couldn't afford it.

Once he's in two month's-worth of arrears issue a Section 8 notice and go to court for possession.

adcarr1207

really appreciate the help guys (even if its not what i want to hear!!!)

He is on facebook, slagging the council off etc, apparently he going to the CAB on Monday to find out what is going to happen.

Is it possible that they will say he can stay in my property rent free????

Sorry if im sounding vague etc, but guess i am a bit!!!

BitterAndTwisted

adcarr1207 wrote: »

Apparently he going to the CAB on Monday to find out what is going to happen.

Is it possible that they will say he can stay in my property rent free????

They can say anything they like but it wouldn't make it true and/or legal.

Your tenant's mistake was in believing that the Local Authority would sanction LHA payments for a two-bed property when he's not entitled to the payments for it.

As you've received three year's worth of rent for this property without a single week's void, you could consider paying your tenant a sum for agreeing to cancel the tenancy agreement and moving out to somewhere their LHA payments would cover. That, or wait until they are two months in arrears and then going to court. Your choice.

Jowo_2

What's the position on the deposit? Has he paid one and if the property is in England or Wales, did you place it in a tenancy deposit scheme?

Chances are he'll just move his mate in without your permission - there's little that you can do about it. Chances are that even if he gets a low paid job, the rent will still largely be unaffordable to him.

Contact the local council when he is in arrears and get the LHA paid directly to you. It won't cover the rent but at least he doesn't have the opportunity to withold it to punish you when you serve notice (you will struggle to get him evicted unless he owes around 2 months rent or has lived there for 6 months).

Perhaps its best if you ask him to surrender his tenancy - ask for it in writing - perhaps by offering to write off any current arrears. But then if he doesn't leave, you are still at square one.

£250 is a lot for a person on JSA to pay to top up their rent, since it is £65 per week!

The landlordzone website is a good source of information for landlords, including how to regain possession, how to screen tenants for their suitability and so on. Join a national landlords association and go on one of their courses.

adcarr1207

jeez! nightmare......

he said that he has the rent for next month (apparently he has had to sell his X Box...Shame eh! I cant even afford an x box!!!!)

poppysarah

He signed knowing how much the rent was.
He either has to get a job or start weeing money.