End of tenancy - tenant still there but has somewhere else to live

domcastro

UPDATE:
On the bright side: The tenant has gone so I don't need to get a possession order.
On the bad side: He didn't turn up to sign the deposit over, the house was full of rubbish and filthy and he pretty much stole everything he could. Washing machine, tumble dryer, curtain rails, curtains, lampshades and EVERY light bulb - GONE
I am now livid. The police said the theft is a "civil" matter. So how do you find someone's address? who isn't on electoral register etc etc I will be suing him for arrears now as nicking all my stuff and not sorting the deposit has pushed me right over the edge

Horseygirl123

We had an almost identical situation to yours. The house appeared abandoned but I was still advised on the Landlordzone forum not to assume tenant had given up tenancy, crazy I know, but the tenant was unhinged and I know he would have caused us as much grief as he could.

We used the services of findermonkey who tracked him down and armed with a deed of surrender we gave him an ultimatum to either sign it in the presence of a witness or we sue him for months of unpaid rent and the substantial damage he caused. It stuck in the craw I can tell you and the ONLY reason I took this route was I had the opportunity to buy a small holding and I needed the property sold pronto.

You are probably safe to assume abandonment but I am by nature overly cautious!

Findermonkey charged about £50 and we had new address a couple of days later.

domcastro

Horseygirl123 wrote: »

We had an almost identical situation to yours. The house appeared abandoned but I was still advised on the Landlordzone forum not to assume tenant had given up tenancy, crazy I know, but the tenant was unhinged and I know he would have caused us as much grief as he could.

We used the services of findermonkey who tracked him down and armed with a deed of surrender we gave him an ultimatum to either sign it in the presence of a witness or we sue him for months of unpaid rent and the substantial damage he caused. It stuck in the craw I can tell you and the ONLY reason I took this route was I had the opportunity to buy a small holding and I needed the property sold pronto.

You are probably safe to assume abandonment but I am by nature overly cautious!

Findermonkey charged about £50 and we had new address a couple of days later.

I wasn't going to sue for arrears originally, but nicking the white goods wound me up and the final straw was the lightbulbs - going to chase him now! How long before he move out did you start tracing him?

Horseygirl123

The property was empty for four months. A neighbour said she had only seen him once in that time. Windows were broken and a tap was running in the kitchen. We let ourselves in to repair the damage and another neighbour told him and he went ballistic threatening to call the police, cheeky s@d as he'd stopped paying rent. We issued s8 and s21 to the address even though he wasn't collecting the mail and after another couple of months we used findermonkey.

Horseygirl123

Another advantage of having his new address was we were able to let all his debt collectors know where he was. He owed thousands to utility companies, council tax etc. I consoled myself at least he was still being hounded, if not by me.

Pixie5740

Why would the tenant have to be there to sign the deposit over? Not that I can see this tenant getting any of the deposit back if the place is a pig sty and white goods are missing. Do you have an inventory from the start of the tenancy that you can use as evidence if you take him to court?

Do you have any details for this tenant? National Insurance number? Place of work? Next of kin? You could try using a service like Monkey Finder to track him down.

Tread carefully. Just because it looks like the tenant has left the property it doesn't mean that he has. You don't want this to come back and bite you on the bum.

domcastro

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Why would the tenant have to be there to sign the deposit over? Not that I can see this tenant getting any of the deposit back if the place is a pig sty and white goods are missing. Do you have an inventory from the start of the tenancy that you can use as evidence if you take him to court?

Do you have any details for this tenant? National Insurance number? Place of work? Next of kin? You could try using a service like Monkey Finder to track him down.

Tread carefully. Just because it looks like the tenant has left the property it doesn't mean that he has. You don't want this to come back and bite you on the bum.

He knows I was changing the lock at 1pm and I told him to come pick up the key but he said he had left. Not as formal as you'd all like but I think it will do because I even reported him to the police for nicking the goods! The deposit is with the agency through mydeposits.co.uk and they've told me that the tenant needs to tell them in writing that I can have deposit even though the deposit is 1075 and he's 1950 in arrears regardless of the pigsty and theft! I've written to agency but to tell you the truth, I'm thinking of suing them as well. I paid them to visit the property every 3 months and I don't know what their standards are but "good" is an awful description of the property! I have an inventory before he moved in. As he left his crap there, the police said I can't touch it for 28 days so I've informed the Council Tax (no empty home discount where I am) that he has legal possession of the house until end of January! If he hadn't have nicked the light bulbs, he could have walked scott free from this!

dacouch

Now he's gone, at least there's light at the end of the tunnel.

...Oh hang on

domcastro

dacouch wrote: »

Now he's gone, at least there's light at the end of the tunnel.

...Oh hang on

hahaha "final straws" are always odd and funny! That made laugh :rotfl:

Pixie5740

It's not a case of doing things as formally as we'd all like, it's a case of just how big a !!!!!!!! is this tenant? I mean he took the lightbulbs! :eek: Who knows if he'll try for an illegal eviction when you track him down for rent arrears and damage.

The LA don't seem to have done the job you paid them for so certainly see what can be done about that.