Tenant Arrears

dancingfairy

From what I can tell your S8 is invalid as you didn'tprotect the deposit. Not only that but your tenants can chase you for 3 times the deposit.
Either get things right and do it properly or accept that you have messedup and write this whole mess off.
Also you cann't go after a repayment agreement (well you can but there are so many holes in that idea).
1) I presume you have sent an uptodate statement of rent arrears , detailing how muchthey owe etc?
2)I presume youhave served the S8 correctlyby keeping proof of posting and/or posting from 2 different post offices?
3) a repayment contractis not likely to be legally binding. You would need to take the tenants to court and prove that they are in a legally bindingtenancy agreement and then take action against them but given you haven't protected the deposit I don't know how successful this would be.
4) do you have their new address?
5)did you take an inventory at the start of the tenancy?
6) Be careful that you are not about to do an illegal eviction by turning upat the house
7). Do you have the relevant gas certificate? otherwise the tenants could report you to the HSE
8)DId you get consent to let/permssion to let
9) Are you declaring all the income properly to HMRC?

I think perhaps unless youare going to get proper adviceand start unpicking this mess then you should write this off and start again properly with the next set of tenants.
df

tom9980

Fuzzythinking honestly i have to say your so naive you missed some very basics obligations here you are lucky these tenants are cooperative a clued up tenant/judge would eat you for breakfast. The law is continuing to tighten to stop this sort of stupidity and it could yet blow up in your face.

Cannot believe you let them move in without getting a 100% deposit and months rent in advance that was a big red flag they were likely to have problems paying at some point.

I suggest you be very nice to these tenants in the hope they dont go and get good legal advice, you should be very reasonable and even write off money to ensure that you dont end up in hot water.

Buy a decent book http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1907765913 and join the landlord association before you mess this up for the next tenant.

jamie11

dancingfairy wrote: »

From what I can tell your S8 is invalid as you didn'tprotect the deposit. Not only that but your tenants can chase you for 3 times the deposit.

df

That's not quite right, although the OP cannot use a S21 if the deposit is unprotected there is nothing in law to stop him issuing a S8.

Also, claiming for the deposit would involve the tenants in a fair bit of expense, it cannot be heard in the (cheap) small claims court. There could be no finding for the tenant from the judge during the S8 claim because there is no mechanism there to take it into account. The only defense with a S8 really is disrepair or pay the rent to under 2 months owing, even then the judge can still make a discretionary decision to give the OP possession.

On the whole it's easier to protect the deposit.