Tenant owing 6 weeks rent

tony541

Hi,
My tenant recently separated with two young children has been a good tenant along with her partner for 3 years. They split up 3 months ago and she is now the only name on the contract. There was a void of rent after he left of 6 weeks but she has started paying the rent again. She agreed to pay the missing rent and said she payed the money into my bank account but it never arrived. She says that her bank paid the money into the wrong account and that they cant get the money back. This seems like a fabrication to me and this has been going on for a month now.
Because she has been a good tenant, especially her ex partner, I want to keep her but it seems to me I have two options. The ex partner paid the rent until his departure and is paying maintenance for the children.
1. Give her a letter saying that if the owing money is not payed within a certain time frame I will action a section 21 or section 8
2. Give her a new agreement with an increased rental so that I can recoup the money over a six month period.
Can anyone shed any clarity on what I need to do to make it all legal?
Could I just give her a letter explaining that the rent will increase for 6 months until the debt is paid off, mutually signed by both parties.
Thanks for reading
Tony

Pixie5740

No you cannot unilaterally change the terms of the tenancy agreement. If a new contract has recently been created with her as the sole tenant does it also follow that she has a fixed term contract making the Section 21 route moot. A Section 8 would be the way to evict for arrears during a fixed term.

It does sound like she's spinning you a story.

See G_M's guide to Ending/Renewing as AST for information.

NYGiants

For just 6 weeks arrears you won't be able to serve a Section 8 Notice to Quit

Pixie5740

NYGiants wrote: »

For just 6 weeks arrears you won't be able to serve a Section 8 Notice to Quit

You can serve a Section 8 using Ground 10 for any amount of arrears owing.

A Section 8 using Ground 8 might be applicable depending on whether the rent should be paid weekly or monthly. I know the OP mentions 6 weeks but it's possible the TA says rent should be paid monthly.

ThePants999

There's no point trying to change the tenancy agreement to recoup this money, you don't need to do anything to "make it legal", she already owes it in the eyes of the law. If you wanted to, you could begin legal proceedings immediately (although the first step is a letter before action to explain that she'll be taken to court if she doesn't pay up within X time). If you want to be more generous/reasonable, by all means discuss a payment plan with her whereby she pays the debt over a period of time (in addition to the normal rent). Don't tie it up with the tenancy agreement, though, or you'll just confuse matters.

Then you need to consider her ongoing tenancy. By all means make it clear that if she doesn't clear the arrears, you'll begin eviction proceedings - where your ability to serve a section 8 ground 8 when she's far enough behind may help focus her mind. You do also need to consider whether you want her for the long term, though. To my mind, clearly it was the partner who was the "good tenant" in the financial sense, and I predict further woes (and/or threads) ahead if you stick with her. I'd serve a section 21 now anyway - if I turn out to be wrong and all becomes well within the next 2 months, you can always just rescind/not act on it, but best case scenario, it'll shave 2 months off a nightmare period of getting no rent!

Red-Squirrel_2

I think you may be as well to let this go. The 6 week gap was probably due to financial problems cause by the partner leaving and needing to pay for a new place for himself. As she is now paying the rent again she's probably back on an even keel, receiving maintenance, and can manage from now on but doesn't have enough to give you a lump sum for the missed weeks. I bet she's made up the story about the bank because she doesn't want to admit this to you.

So for the sake of 6 weeks rent (which you might find yourself without anyway if you evict her, plus more besides!) you could lose a good tenant who has always been reliable except for one period when an unexpected circumstance got in the way, one which is not going to happen again.

Is it worth it?

mrginge

I'm interested to know how and why the ex is now no longer on the contract.

pmlindyloo

If you want to keep your tenant then I suggest that you speak to her and come to some agreement about paying back the rent.

It could be that she is claiming housing benefit and is waiting for the payment to come through.

If the money was paid into the wrong account then the bank should be sorting this out.

You won't know until you ask her. If you are sympathetic to her situation and can come to an agreement about paying back the arrears by adding an amount each month to the current rent then this may be the answer.

Too many uncertainties to enable you to make a decision.D
Is she working? did you check that she was able to pay the rent by herself before you gave her a contract in her name only (did you actually sign a new contract?)

ThePants999

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

you could lose a good tenant who has always been reliable except for one period when an unexpected circumstance got in the way, one which is not going to happen again.

That's an awfully blase attitude to risk assessment!

The pair of tenants have always been reliable. One of that pair has now gone, and this remaining tenant needs to be reassessed on her own merits. For all you know, her ex-partner may have been the sole breadwinner. All we know about her financial situation is that she's struggling to pay six weeks' rent arrears, which is hardly an encouraging sign. This particular unexpected circumstance won't happen again, sure, but others will.

To be clear, I'm saying that she needs to be properly assessed as if she were a new tenant.

Red-Squirrel_2

Well, if she's just signed a new AST then he's got 6 months to see if she remains as reliable a tenant single as she was when she was in a couple!

saajan_12

tony541 wrote: »

1. Give her a letter saying that if the owing money is not payed within a certain time frame I will action a section 21 or section 8 - You can write a clear letter before action giving a deadline for the rent arrears and stating you will recover / evict via the courts if not paid up. Re which section notice you can serve:
1) Is there a fixed term? A section 21 notice can't expire before a fixed term expiry
2) Is the rent payable weekly or monthly? Will determine which Section 8 ground to use..


2. Give her a new agreement with an increased rental so that I can recoup the money over a six month period.
Can anyone shed any clarity on what I need to do to make it all legal?- it's already 'legally' owed based on the rental agreement.
Could I just give her a letter explaining that the rent will increase for 6 months until the debt is paid off, mutually signed by both parties. - you could however agree a repayment plan to spread the cost over 6 months to make it more likely to recover anything!

I would agree a repayment plan with the tenant, to recover the arrears over a short period so the amounts are affordable for the tenant. If they do not abide by it, I would move to serve teh relevant notices and claim the full arrears through court.