Help - tennant not paying rent!

Waterside

We currently have a tennant in a rental property who is not paying her rent. Other than the initial payment, she has not paid until she slips 2 months in arrears, and then pays 1 month (sometimes in part payments). Having taken the tennancy out in February, we are currently missing one payment, with the next month's payment due in 14 days, which would make her two months behind again if she does not pay in the meantime.

We use a managing agent, who has already served a Section 21. However, because the tennant is still in her fixed term, this cannot come into effect until mid August. We have enquired about using a Section 8 before, but the agent seems reluctant to do so.

My questions are:

- How long will it take to get her out if we wait for the Section 21?
- Why might the agent not want to use a Section 8? I believe we have had ground of 2 months missed payments, plus consistent late payment, plus we have had complaints from a neighbour that she is running a business from the property which is against the tennancy agreement...
- Do we have any comeback on the agent? Clearly the credit checks were not carried out properly, plus her boyfriend lives there with us and we were told it was her on her own
- How do we get all of the rent money back when we do finally get her out.

Seems to me that the law is firmly on the side of tennants, and this tennant appears to know when to pay and when not to! In the meantime, we are running permanently £1k down whilst she isn't paying...

Any advice gratefully received!

BitterAndTwisted

What has your agent advised? Have they explained to you about the risk of trying to use the discretionary grounds of a Section 8 Notice?

Waterside

Not really, but I have looked it all up on the internet. I understand that using discretionary grounds provides no guarantee and you still have to pay court costs, but she has slipped into the mandatory grounds 'zone' every month for the last 3 months. Maybe I am niaive, but I would have expected with that, plus a (growing) number of discretionary grounds, it would be difficult to find in her favour...

BitterAndTwisted

The discretionary grounds cannot be relied upon and the mandatory ground (two rental periods owing) means that the rent needs to be owing when you issue the S8 and still be owing when it gets to court or it will automatically fail. It sounds like your tenant is well-aware of this.

I think you should just get on with enforcing the S21 in September.

mchale

Waterside wrote: »

Any advice gratefully received!

Won't help you on this occasion but in future make sure you get a guarantor, regular posters will no doubt come on suggesting adult tenants are well aware of their commitments and shouldn't require a guarantor, but it sounds like you have got a tenant who knows the game.

Waterside

And in the meantime we end up permanently out of pocket until then? Seems really unfair to me...

angrypirate

Looks like shes going to leave you owing you at least 2 months rent and she probably wont challenge the deposit which im assuming is 6 weeks. You might want to organise an inspection in case shes tearing up the place?

BitterAndTwisted

Not permanently. You could always take her to court to secure any unpaid rent. Once she's got a CCJ she'll have a hard time finding an other landlord willing to offer her a tenancy. Plus, if she has a job (you did get a reference from her employer, didn't you?) you could apply for an attachment of earnings.

mchale

If she does do a runner post her details here: http://www.landlordreferencing.co.uk/

ILW

Waterside wrote: »

And in the meantime we end up permanently out of pocket until then? Seems really unfair to me...

Any business has it's risks.

dopester

You received warning to do lots of research about becoming landlords last year. Also, it's tenant, and not tennant.

Fire_Fox wrote: »

If you are on that kind of income any rental profit would surely be taxed at 40%? Factor in mortgage, service charges, ground rent, buildings insurance, landlords insurance, repairs, letting agents fees, vacancies, tenants who trash the place or do not pay, capital gains tax ... I'd be surprised if you don't make a whacking loss!

In that thread you say your joint earnings are in the £200K region per annum. You didn't want to stomach the fall in value on one property and take steps to sell it, you presumably still have a good income, and a tenant who might get into arrears is part of the risks of being a landlord. It's business.