Recovering property rental arrears from soon to be ex-tenant.

Paul76

Hi all - any advice on this greatfully received & very much appreciated.

My partner owns a house that is currently being let to a tenant via a letting agent. About a year ago she received a call from the letting agent advising her that the tenant was 2 months behind on the rent. To cut this part of the story short, after a few phone calls with the letting agent they managed to pressure the tenant into paying up for one of the months BUT agreed to use the security deposit to cover the other month.

At this point the security deposit is now gone (as far as i'm aware it was NOT in any kind of deposit scheme), and the tenant was regularly paying the rent on time until...

In October the tenant stopped paying rent again - they are now 2 months in arrears & as a result a Section 8 has been served to the tenant. We don't need the stress (We want them out. Every time they don't pay the rent a mortgage payment is missed & the bank charges us a penalty fee

So - my question is this. Once he tenant is out of the property (we're looking at the property being vacant for mid-January 2011), how can we pursue the tenant for the money she owes (she owes around £2500-£3000)?

We are at the early research stages on this right now - our first thoughts are in the direction of the small claims court. Is that the right move? Is it expensive to pursue via the small-claims court? While it seems cut & dry to us, is it likely that any judge would rule in our favour? If they did, would the ex-tenant be responsible for paying all the court fees?

As i said before, all advice greatfully received.
Thanks
Paul

BitterAndTwisted

You need to sort out the tenant's deposit and register it in one of the deposit-protection schemes NOW!

Once you've done that you can lodge a claim against it for the unpaid rent and take them to the small claims court for the balance but in order to serve the documents you need to know where they are going once they've vacated.

Paul76

Have just confirmed that the deposit WAS held in a DPS. It was removed - lawfully - for use in paying one of the months rent arrears. The deposit was never repayed by the tenant.

Paul76

..also - chances are that the tenant will not want to give a forwarding address when she vacates. She knows that she's 3 months behind & will probably want to as much distance between us & her & she can get.

Is there a way lawful way to track her down once she's gone?

BitterAndTwisted

Are you sure about the deposit being lawfully "removed"? It's my understanding that no monies can be passed back to the landlord until the tenancy has ended.

You've still got the challenge of finding a forwarding address for your tenant in order to serve the documents for the small claims court. Did your agent get any employment or other references from the tenant?

ILW

You could be throwing money away if you cannot track down the tenant, or if you do it turns out that she has no money

RAS

Do you know where she works/worked, what her NINO is. Otherwise, you can get a CCj easily - just using the current address but enforcing it will be very difficult.

The otehr possibility is to make sure you know her car registration and IF that is owned not HP, bailiffs could secure the debt on that.

bris

You can use a tracing agent to find where the tenant lives. http://www.find-a-person.co.uk/?gclid=CPrNwe7G3KUCFY4f4QodQUcQ1w Many others to pick from.

G_M

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

You need to sort out the tenant's deposit and register it in one of the deposit-protection schemes NOW!

Once you've done that you can lodge a claim against it for the unpaid rent and take them to the small claims court for the balance but in order to serve the documents you need to know where they are going once they've vacated.

The OP has already stated that there is currently no deposit. Perfectly legal if both parties agree (LL and tenant) as seems to be the case here. In practice of course it is a very unwise move as the OP has now discovered.

Let's hope that
a) the tenant DOES move out when the OP plans, and does not stay put requiring court action by the OP and
b) the property is left in an undamaged, clean condition - another reason why giving up the deposit early is always a mistake.

As for the arrears, yes, Small Claims court is the correct way, indeed, assuming friendly negotiation fails, it is the ONLY legal way.

This asumes
a) there is a new address for the tenant, for the serving of papers and
b) the tenant has assets. If not, even after a successful court case it can be onerous actually getting the cash!

Small Claims are informal. Held in a side room not open court. No solicitors/legal representation is permitted, again emphasising the informality. There is a small fee to register the case, refundable if you win (as are reasonable costs). Lots of details here, or use google.

My guess is that the landlord is non-professional, has a single property let out, and little experience? Join a landlord's asociation!
RLA or
NLA

It's tax-deductable.