So, my tenant left the country without paying rent

thegirlintheattic

Has the other tenant done a bunk too? If not claim it off her.

msrisotto

Yeah, I think she went a while ago.

molerat

How do you know he has taken the mattress and left the place in a mess, if he is still the tenant did you enter his home without his permission Just asking.

msrisotto

No, I sent him an email, in good time, saying I would do a pre check out visit. Not all landlords are !!!!!!

G_M

tbs624 wrote: »

Can we stay in the real world?;)
You can lose hours of your life over on Nation States............

Sorry tbs - it was past midnight, I'm on antbiotics, and anyway, a little humour every now and then is no bad thing....

Back to topic - since this was a joint tenancy, the OP should not be viewing the arrears has HIS arrears, but as THEIR arrears.

If the other tenant is still around, demand off him/her.

If both have left, then any legal action should name them as joint defendants. This has several advantages:

When the initial papers are served:
* the joint tenant may pay up
* the joint tenant may put pressure on the defaulting tenant in Australia to pay up


And once the case is won the same two points above may apply.

And there will be two people to enforce judgement against if either of them returns to the UK

molerat

msrisotto wrote: »

No, I sent him an email, in good time, saying I would do a pre check out visit. Not all landlords are !!!!!!

My post was partly in jest but I do believe could have a valid point, there was a thread a while back about a tenant dieing and access rights and another where a landlord cleared a property and the tenant returned.

tbs624

G_M wrote: »

Sorry tbs - it was past midnight, I'm on antbiotics, and anyway, a little humour every now and then is no bad thing....

Hence the wink emoticon in my own post G_M.

Are the antbiotics working btw? We're having dreadful problems with ants right now.:D I so admire their work ethic but do not wish to share my living space with them, up close and personal

tbs624

theartfullodger wrote: »

Take legal action through small claims route. Chances are he won't turn up in court. Get judgement: Later, enforce to CCJ

Naf wrote: »

So to summarise the best advice from above:
Serve papers on him at the address rented from you.
Wait for him to respond: if he does, then you should receive payment or a judgement for it; if he doesn't then you win by default and he gets a CCJ.
.

antrobus wrote: »

You missed the bit about "It is possible to recover debt from one jurisdiction in another". Australia and the UK mutually recognise each other's civil judgements.

msrisotto wrote: »

I will let him know that 1. He is not entitled to use his deposit as the last months rent, 2. I know where he works 3. I can enforce a CCJ which will affect him if he wants to return and 4. I can pursue this despite him moving abroad.

If the T is now living abroad and the LL manages to obtain a CCJ based on the T's last known address in Eng/Wales, then bear in mind that it may be possible to get that CCJ set aside on the grounds that the debtor was not living here at the time and so could not offer a defence. Therefore the chances of getting enforcement over in Australia are minimal IMO

msrisotto - whilst "threatening" that you know where the errant T works be aware of the provisions of the Admin of Justice Act 1970, s40

40 Punishment for unlawful harassment of debtors.

(1)A person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under a contract, he—

(a)harasses the other with demands for payment which, in respect of their frequency or the manner or occasion of making any such demand, or of any threat or publicity by which any demand is accompanied, are calculated to subject him or members of his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation;

(b)falsely represents, in relation to the money claimed, that criminal proceedings lie for failure to pay it;

(c)falsely represents himself to be authorised in some official capacity to claim or enforce payment; or

(d)utters a document falsely represented by him to have some official character or purporting to have some official character which he knows it has not.

(2)A person may be guilty of an offence by virtue of subsection (1)(a) above if he concerts with others in the taking of such action as is described in that paragraph, notwithstanding that his own course of conduct does not by itself amount to harassment.

(3)Subsection (1)(a) above does not apply to anything done by a person which is reasonable (and otherwise permissible in law) for the purpose—
(a)of securing the discharge of an obligation due, or believed by him to be due, to himself or to persons for whom he acts, or protecting himself or them from future loss; or
(b)of the enforcement of any liability by legal process.

Not condoning a T who behaves as yours have apparently done - as someone else has suggested if the other joint & several liability T is still here then your best option is to go for a CCJ against her. Kick your LA's behind until they come up with the relevant personal info - that's what you pay them for.

Naf

tbs624 wrote: »

it may be possible to get that CCJ set aside on the grounds that the debtor was not living here at the time and so could not offer a defence.

surely the fact that the tenant still has a current, active tenancy here would count as residence?