Tenant on Housing Benefit

clutton_2

join national landlords association - their legal help line will talk you through exactly how to get your tenants out and it will cost you much much less than a solicitor will charge. joining fee is tax deductible.

skintsue

OOPS
I've been trawling through other parts of the forum about landlords etc and have spotted that I may have done a boo boo.

When I put the house onto the rental market I had all the safety checks etc done, and took out the landlord insurance for buildings and what contents there were - carpets, kitchen units, ch boiler etc. I thought I had covered everything that had to be done.

It appears that I overlooked one thing that might be very important. I forgot to let the mortgage company know that even though I was moving out of the house and, though the mortgage was still going to be paid by me, that it was going to be rented out. Silly lapse of double checking all the relevant information.

Now then - dilemma!
Do I resort to underhand tactics? Or do the decent thing?
Do I give the tenant one last chance and explain that if all the backdated due payments are not in my account by Thursday (gives me Friday to tell the Bank), and that every payment is paid in full on the dot of the due date for the rest of the contract, I will delay getting in touch with the bank.

OR

Do I get in touch with the bank now? Explain that the oversight was genuine, and I only found out when I was trawling this website, and does that mean they will have to evict her unless, or until, I apply for the Letter of Permission - or whatever it is called?

If she hadn't been such an Emma (Emma Roid - pain in the butt!:)) I would never searched on here and found this out, so it's her own stupid fault!

Maybe this could be the answer - get her out without delays or costing us a fortune :j.
There is sure to be a downside. Nothing in my life is that simple.

real1314

The bank will not be majorly concerned with her situation, but they will have a big issue with YOU.
They may well impose different interest rates, and require a fee, to switch to a BTL mortgage.

They might possibly evict her, which seems to be what you want, but that might still leave you liable to house her as YOU signed a 12 month contract. She could sue you for the cost of moving / finding another place / extra rent / bond etc.

I think you need to consider the possible outcomes before doing anything hastily. :cool:

RAS

Hi

frankly this is of no consequence unless you let it become a problem. Do not let it get in the way of sorting her out.

1. Speak to your mortgage provider and fess up.

You do have a Gas Certificate?
You are reporting your income to the Tax people?

If not get both sorted so that she cannot use either as blackmial

And with regards to the agency, demand to see the copies of the credit checks and references that they obtained before she moved in.

clutton_2

focus on one thing at a time - focus on getting her out. With this record of rental payments it could be quite quick. Dont give her any more chances. Tenants who had a history of this type of rental payment rarely change.

produce a spreadsheet showing the followign columns .. Date the rent is due, date the rent is paid, number of days late in paying the rent, how much rent due, how much was paid, arrears per month, cumulative arrears,

then join NLA and talk to them - they will need all the info you have put on the spreadsheet .. they will then help you issue a S8 notice and a S21 notice as well. If you have grounds for a S8 notice (unpaid rent) then you can serve the S8 notice (alongwith the Spreadsheet you have produced) to the tenant immediatley and 2 weeks later apply to the court for a possession hearing.

skintsue

Thanks for the replies and I'll try to answer them briefly.

You do have a Gas Certificate? Yes, all in order.
You are reporting your income to the Tax people? Yes, though at the moment I am not making any profit after fee's, repairs etc. |Everything I can claim against has been.

The bank will not be majorly concerned with her situation, but they will have a big issue with YOU.
They may well impose different interest rates, and require a fee, to switch to a BTL mortgage. The house was only being rented as it had been on the market for nearly a year and only one viewer in the first week, despite several price drops. The house I am in now would have been lost, so it was suggested that house No 1 was rented out to get some income and keep it maintained until it was time to sell. It seemed 12 months gave the housing market time to settle, which is why we signed the 12 month contract.
If she gets out, I will not risk another tenant like her and am going to put it on the market ASAP, regardless of the current housing situation.

skintsue

real1314 wrote: »

They might possibly evict her, which seems to be what you want, but that might still leave you liable to house her as YOU signed a 12 month contract. She could sue you for the cost of moving / finding another place / extra rent / bond etc.
. :cool:

Isn't it great? I do everything by the book, she does everything but, and if I don't toe the line I'll be the one in an even bigger mess, while she laughs all the way to the bank, making a fool of some other sap.

I bet if I tell the truth on the landlord's reference she will have some smarmy little oik of a solicitor screaming about her Human Rights and sueing me for injury to feelings and defamation of character. Sometimes it makes you want to scream about the injustice of it all.

If it was only the problems with the rent it would be bad enough, but there is more to it. Can't say too much, but at this rate you will probably see me on the Jerry Springer Show. Jeremy Kyle isn't brutal enough!:mad:

real1314

skintsue wrote: »

Isn't it great? I do everything by the book, she does everything but, and if I don't toe the line I'll be the one in an even bigger mess, while she laughs all the way to the bank, making a fool of some other sap.

I bet if I tell the truth on the landlord's reference she will have some smarmy little oik of a solicitor screaming about her Human Rights and sueing me for injury to feelings and defamation of character. Sometimes it makes you want to scream about the injustice of it all.

If it was only the problems with the rent it would be bad enough, but there is more to it. Can't say too much, but at this rate you will probably see me on the Jerry Springer Show. Jeremy Kyle isn't brutal enough!:mad:

Erm, no. Not at all.

You DID NOT do everything by the book. Your mortgage agreement did not give any right to let the property, but you have broken that agreement.

You cannot pass the blame for this problem on to your tenant. You should accept the blame for this error.
:cool:

skintsue

real1314 wrote: »

Erm, no. Not at all.

You DID NOT do everything by the book. Your mortgage agreement did not give any right to let the property, but you have broken that agreement.

You cannot pass the blame for this problem on to your tenant. You should accept the blame for this error.
:cool:

I accept that I did, in error, not realise that I had to notify my mortgage company. Interesting that the LA did not ask to see the paperwork giving me permission to let. If they had I would have got permission before signing the contract.

That one accidental oversight however surely does not justify the tenant doing a whole pile of deliberate breaches, withholding rent payments given her by the HA, causing damage and distressing the neighbours in a variety of ways.
As soon as she is out they will be having a street party!

And I will be able to tell you the full story of why I want her out. Maybe then you won't think that someone lying, cheating and stealing are justice for not doing something you didn't know had to be done.
Ignorance may be no defence in law, but deliberately ripping people off in full knowledge of your actions, and then getting away with it? Why don't we all do it if no-one thinks it matters?

Sorry if I'm sounding bitter, but I feel very let down by the system at the moment. Justice might be blind, but sometimes she seems to just turn a blind eye.

somethingcorporate

+1

You didn't just make a boo-boo, you made a giant !!!!-up of monumental proportions. Theoretically the bank could demand instant redemption of your entire mortgage for breaching your terms. Drastic, yes, likely, no, possible, yes.

Unfortunately you have gone into business without doing much research or having the thick skin to deal with the kind of tenants you have got. Don't take their behaviour personally because it isn't. They obviously know how to play the system and you don't.

Join a LL association and benefit from the experience of others.

Good luck.