Tenant Problem!! help please other landlords

nanna1959

I have a tenant who up until I gave her notice in October to leave on 28th December had been a model tenant. The house was kept very nicely and rent always paid in full (albeit a few days late most months). I had no choice but to give notice due to personal circumstances. I need to move back into the property. She knows I was extremely sorry to have to do this at this time of year, and I had said I would give her an exemplary reference.
The tenant was supplied by a local authority who provided a deposit bond equivalent to 6 weeks rent to cover non payment/damages. Co-incidentally she lost her claim to housing benefit (fraud I believe) days after I gave her notice. Ever since she has been promising to pay the rent when she receives money from relatives abroad but I have now received nothing for 2 months, so already exceeding the council's bond.
The 28th has been and gone, and the only contact she has made in the last 2 weeks, was to request that we allow her (and her 4 teenage children) to stay at least till the end of January. My response was to say that I could not agree to this without professional advice as I don't want to jeopardise the Section 21 notice already given. The only other contact is from an estate agent she is using to find a property, who thought they would point out to me HER legal rights. Im sure if they knew she is in arrears and possibly a fraud they would not even be speaking to her. Her case worker at the council has been off since 20th December and doesn't return until tomorrow.
Where do I stand, what is my next move, and if I email/text/phone her to find out what is going on with regard to her moving out/paying her debt, or point out to her that she will have to pay for any eviction proceedings and may end up with a CCJ, could this be construed as harassment and affect my ability to have her evicted??

G_M

Is your contract directly with her,or is your contract with the council?

Assuming
a) your contract is with her and
b) your S21 Notice is valid (ie no date errors etc)

then
* do not come to any agreement about staying longer- this can invalidate the S21
* apply to the court for possession - this will in any case take several weeks so she'll get her 'end of Jan' date
* be prepared o write off the rent arrears. You can claim the deposit but as she's clearly not rolling in cash you are unlikely to get the extra off her. By all means claim via the courts - they might oder her to pay £5 pw which she'll pay for 3 weeks......

nanna1959

The agreement is with her, with the council having provided a professional inventory service and deposit bond. The S21 is valid. So glad I had not agreed to let her stay! Im so cross that she has not attempted to pay a penny of the arrears (she works and has cars valued at about £15K sitting outside the house) that I want to pursue her for the arrears if only to see her get a CCJ !!
In case anyone is wondering, I am not a bad landlord, I rent out a small flat elsewhere in the country and have always returned my tenants their full deposits, had repairs done promptly and always try to be fair, but this woman is taking advantage of an unfair system which I thought had changed.
I was in a similar situation in a different 'life' 18 years ago, when a bad tenant refused to pay and refused to move out, and eventually that case cost me about £10K and put me off being a landlord for a long time. The odds are still stacked against us honest folk !!

BitterAndTwisted

In my opinion the odds aren't stacked against anyone, bar tenants. You can quite easily get shot of your tenant by going to court to enforce that S21. If, since serving your S21, the tenant has accrued two month's worth of rent due issue a Section 8 Notice as well.

Her having any LHA she was claiming being cancelled or suspended is not your concern. No actual fraud may have been committed, and even if it was, that's her mess to sort out and fortunately not yours. It could be that she won't be considered for re-housing by the Local Authority until you have a possession order from the court, which is possibly why she's not responding to you or paying her rent. A valid and enforced S8 will likely put paid to that plan.

patman99

If you do go down the rote of Court action to get her out and recover unpaid rent, then as she is working, you can go for an attachment of earnings order if she fails to pay.
Or, you could use Court appointed Bailiffs to seize goods to the value of the debt (you did say she had a car worth £15k sitting on the driveway).

whalster

I don't know if this was legal on the councils part but I had a tenant who committed benefit fraud ,this came to light after he gained a private tenancy with me but happened in his former council property .

I had to give him notice after a year for numerous reasons he unlike your tenant left the property and little owing to me however the council would not re house because of his 14K debt liability he had following crown court proceedings by the council..

If your tenant has an income and assets consider initially money claims online or go through the courts for an attachment to earnings.

whalster

Patman is a faster tyler than me��

nanna1959

Thank you all, I will look into issuing an S8. need her out asap, or at this rate and the expected 6-8 weeks eviction process she will owe me 4 months rent!! Great with a mortgage to pay!

nanna1959

nanna1959 wrote: »

if I email/text/phone her to find out what is going on with regard to her moving out/paying her debt, or point out to her that she will have to pay for any eviction proceedings and may end up with a CCJ, could this be construed as harassment and affect my ability to have her evicted??

Can anyone answer this point for me please?

BitterAndTwisted

I would avoid stating the possible consequences of you applying to the court for possession and just enquire about the rent due, and their planned moving-out date if you do feel the need to communicate.

V_Chic_Chick

I'm not a lawyer, but I can't see one non-threatening phone call being construed as harassment. Harassment is normally things like lots of phone calls at funny times of night or turning up on the doorstep with heavies or demanding that they leave immediately.