I am owed over £3500 and took them to court

compforus

I am worried this thread will be unwelcome here but I am in debt because I let my flat and the tenants didn't pay.
It has taken a year to get to a point where I have a CCJ for them to pay the money owing to me.
They have split up and the woman has written saying she has been to CAB and she is going to go to court for an administration order, she says she is no longer in contact with the other joint tenant.

As I was dependent on the rent payment for my rent and food etc I had to put my shortfall of money each month on a credit card. I cannot get interest free so am paying quite a bit of interest on the debt. I am now worried that the court will only order her to pay a small amount each month and I will be stuck with this debt.

It is quite frustrating that CAB give advice that put others in a bad financial predicament. It is just passing the debt problem to someone else and lots of money is spent on court costs/tracing agents/ interest on debts/ bank charges etc. There is something wrong with the system.

Anyway, I guess what I want to know is what I can do to get my money back. She says she is on a zero hour contract and has no possessions. She lives with her mother.

Thanks for any advice!

fatbelly

Firstly, CABs have to advise their clients about the options available to them. If your ex-tenant is going for an Admin Order, you will be written to and there is usually a hearing, which you may attend but there isn't much point.

The court will order her to pay her surplus income to her creditors. If this is going to take more than 3 years, she can ask for 'composition' which means that she pays the percentage of the debt that completes the order around the 3-year mark.

When I used to do these things, a £10 per month order with 10% composition was fairly normal. This means that you would get back 10% of the amount in the ccj, over a period of 3 years.

The irony is that she probably didn't qualify for this until you gave her a ccj. That's what stopped us from doing more Admin Orders - no-one would issue a court claim.

I'm using the past tense because these days most people who qualify for an Admin Order would qualify for a Debt Relief Order, where the debtor pays £90 and the creditor gets nothing.

What can you do about the debt? Trace the other tenant.

chanz4

As they say cant get what they dont have, if she goes for an admin order you may get something but not much dependant on your position with the other creditors. If your living on a credit card mostly, can you not sell the property?

compforus

It just strikes me nowadays that those that do wrong get rewarded and protected and those that are honest get screwed over. No wonder society is in such a state. Morals have gone out the window.

Trollfever

The risks/rewards of running a property investment business.