Tenants leaving owing rent

silvercar

if the property is empty no council tax is payable for upto 6 months. you just need to tell the council. if you are confident that you will not need the full 6 months exemption then you may as well tell them the date from which it is empty. It needs to be unfurnished as well as unoccupied.

Somerset

GG

I was in your position but down a lot more. In my case I wanted to ( and prob still will at some point ) go for a CCJ against the ex-tenants. The problem was they 'disappeared' and without a current/valid address you can't do it.

Best of Luck

silvercar

Keep an eye on the insolvency register, good chance they will turn up eventually. Though if they've gone bankrupt it will be too late.

http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/eiir/IIRRegisterNameInput.asp

Your right to take action. if everyone put it down to experiance the whole sector would suffer, leading to less people wanting to be landlords and less properties available for the rental sector.

ianian99

chill out for gods sake. Tennants leaving owing money is just one of the many JOYS of making money out of renting out houses.
I cant beleive that you rent your hou#se out for £20 a week less than market value coz ur a good guy, if you are then you are nuts!!
I reckon more than likely you are only charging £80 because thats what its worth.
also people that leave owing the landlord money tend not to care about ccj's else they wouldn't do it so going to court is just a waste of time.
As for being owed £740 well thats only if you cant get another tennant for another month or so so with the dameage they are owe you £440 minus the deposit = £140 which is a bargain after renting your house for 3 years.
You've got more than enough money to paint the whole house off the deposit with plenty left over so stop winging and think yourself lucky.

funky-footprints

Gorgeous George ..reading your post .... made me think you are my husband !!! but I know he wouldnt call himself your user name ! lol !!

Dh owns 3 flats in a block of 6. The building has always been leasehold. We were selling 2 of the flats, and possibly the 3rd next year, but the ground floor flat owner has proved very difficult in granting access to the back, reporting guttering problems with roof, slapped various orders on building which meant flat sales fell through etc etc. It meant everyone interested didnt proceed.

Every flat owner gets one car parking space and a wheelie bin out the back and ground floor flat owner has fenced the back off and padlocked it. We rent out our 3 flats and it is only the last 6 months or so, since we have been trying to sell that it has become an obvious problem, even though this has gone on for 2 years, before none of our tenants had a car, we now have new tenants who drive, and one with a baby who is in desperate need for an outside bin. The other flat owners are all up in arms but no body wanted to do anything.

Ground floor tenant had claimed ownership of the back yard, but after a bit of research dh found the actual owner and has bought it, the owner of the leasehold was actually happy to sell as ground floor tenant is in arrears and the building needs a bit of (thankfully not urgent) but cosmetic work.

Dh is now taking legal proceedings about access to back yard, and has had great delight in introducing himself to ground floor flat owner, and informing them that as flat owner they will be liable for 10% off all building repairs, dh says he is getting in some quotes for everything. He says he doesnt care if we end up out of pocket ...... OMG !!! he says on times it just comes down to the principle !!


I think he is mad ...back 6 months ago I was on here asking questions about a sitting tenant of 6 months as we couldnt afford to be out of pocket and now he has a bit of £££ he has gone and taken this on !!!!!

op I wish you luck. I know dh would do anything even if it were a pointless excercise.



x

Gorgeous_George

ianian99 wrote:

chill out for gods sake. Tennants leaving owing money is just one of the many JOYS of making money out of renting out houses.
I cant beleive that you rent your hou#se out for £20 a week less than market value coz ur a good guy, if you are then you are nuts!!
I reckon more than likely you are only charging £80 because thats what its worth.
also people that leave owing the landlord money tend not to care about ccj's else they wouldn't do it so going to court is just a waste of time.
As for being owed £740 well thats only if you cant get another tennant for another month or so so with the dameage they are owe you £440 minus the deposit = £140 which is a bargain after renting your house for 3 years.
You've got more than enough money to paint the whole house off the deposit with plenty left over so stop winging and think yourself lucky.

I am surprised that any member of this site would have such an attitude to what can only be described as THEFT.

The 100 pounds is already owed. I have not assessed the state of the property yet but I expect to be left with a house that needs a lot of redecoration (some of which is acceptable fair wear and tear, some of which will not be). It is likely that they will leave behind a large amount of rubbish that will cost me to get rid of.

A 3 bedroomed property is marketed in the same street at 425 pounds on Rightmove. This one has GCH whereas mine has night storage heaters - but mine has 4 bedrooms. Trust me, 80 pounds was well below market value. I allowed this as my tenants were both working and paid on time. With a large family, I recognised that money is tight for them and I was ´breaking even´at 75-80 pounds per week.

I will chase them for the money. If nothing else, it will make them feel uncomfortable.

I am chilled, but I do feel as if the kindness that I have shown towards them has been betrayed. The losers may well be my next tenants.

Still, I´m on holiday and I will enjoy the final few days.

Thanks all for replying to my original question.



GG

prudryden

GG - Go For It!!! Get all copies of the reference material from the Letting Agents - especially the bank references. If the Letting Agent didn't do a proper referencing - consider naming them as co-defendent.

Small claims court is easy, cheap and can be very interesting. On the initial application, you don't have to go into a lot of detail. Asks for costs - anything you can back up.

Caution: The defendent can ask that the county court be changed to one more easily accessible to them.

As one poster mentioned, send letters to the ex-tenants, if you can find their new address. This shows the judge that you made every effort to settle the claim prior to court.

The courts will help you with all the procedures for entering a claim.

Gold_Shogun

Gorgeous_George wrote:

I have written to them advising them that I see 4 weeks notice expiring on 10 Dec and reminding them that they are responsible for bills until that date. I hope the council and water companies chase them for payment as well because I am not responsible for these bills until 11 Dec.
GG

Other posts have pretty much covered the small claims aspects of your post, so I'll concentrate on the more personally enjoyable aspect of "Scorned Landlord Revenge".

As it sounds like you wish to "return the favour" to your ex-tenants for the hassles they have caused you, you may possibly wish to consider the following in order to brighten up your day :-

IF your tenants have not given you FORMAL notice as per the terms of the agreement, then (under the terms of MOST agreements) they remain legally liable for such things as the Council Tax, Water Rates, etc UNTIL either :-
A) ... the expiry of the original agreement ; or
... the expiry of any FORMAL notice period given to you ; or
C) ... new occupants take up residence
... Whichever comes first.

Consider the fact that you (should) have a written agreement to this effect which you can produce to the Council, etc.
Now imagine you formally notifying the Council in writing that they must therefore obtain any such payments from the contracted tenants (instead of assuming liability yourself as mentioned here).
Now imagine that all this has cost you personally is a few minutes to do a "boiler plate letter" & first class Recorded Delivery postage.
Now consider how relentless & powerful is an average Council in finding, hunting down, & extracting funds from a defaulting "responsible person" (the tenant).

... Don't you now feel in a little better mood to relax on your holiday sunbed ?? :beer:

I have successfully done this a few times for unreasonable tenants that have annoyed me enough or done a "moonlight flit", and I can say with pleasure that reasonable (yet legal) revenge does indeed taste very sweet ...

Enjoy !!!
Bob

Tassotti

If I remember correctly, GG, your tenant selection has generally been based on your gut feeling.

Hopefully, now you will take as many precautions as possible to prevent this situation from happening again.

Although your loss appears to be extremely small, it can show what CAN happen.

If I have the wrong person, I apologise.

Be lucky

Tass

gallygirl

GG, I sympathise with you as I was recently in a similar situation. Tenant in total owed me £1700 by the time he left. It cost me £115 for a notice seeking possession (which you won't need), £185 for a ccj & attachment of earnings. He's left job so can't enact it & have no idea where he is. Have since discovered he has another ccj and loads of outstanding debt.

I agree that it's the principle that matters - but tbh I wouldn't bother again. It does not make life difficult - he managed to get plenty credit after his other ccj. You won't get 'your day in court' as I can almost guarantee they won't turn up, and unless they have a steady job & you know where it is an attachment of earnings is worth jack.

Put it down to experience, get the place sorted & relet. Next time charge the market rent & be tough if they get behind on rent (easier said than done, I know).

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!