Homeless, any advice welcome

FBaby

I know how important the tenants rights are and every single thing was done properly.

Well no it wasn't from the sound of things. The agent should have spoken to you through the recruitment process and should have got your approval. Yourself should have vetted the tenant by asking all relevant questions.

No point in going through the 'should have', but unfortunately, the should have is what would have reduced the risk of finding yourself in the situation you are in now. As it stands, you are at the mercy of the system and nothing you can do. LLs are seen as money grabbing machines, not humans who can find themselves in the same situation as tenants, homeless.

I hope it works out for you, but unfortunately, the way these cases go, it doesn't look good for you as likely she will indeed stay as long as she can, you will then need to get a bailiff, and she will leave the place with unwanted furniture, damages, and a very smelly house.

Rosemary7391

FBaby wrote: »

Well no it wasn't from the sound of things. The agent should have spoken to you through the recruitment process and should have got your approval. Yourself should have vetted the tenant by asking all relevant questions.

No point in going through the 'should have', but unfortunately, the should have is what would have reduced the risk of finding yourself in the situation you are in now. As it stands, you are at the mercy of the system and nothing you can do. LLs are seen as money grabbing machines, not humans who can find themselves in the same situation as tenants, homeless.

I hope it works out for you, but unfortunately, the way these cases go, it doesn't look good for you as likely she will indeed stay as long as she can, you will then need to get a bailiff, and she will leave the place with unwanted furniture, damages, and a very smelly house.

Actually they're treated as businesses. It's just unfortunate for the OP that the business problem has come at the same time they've lost their personal income and burned through their reserves. Once the OP has possession they'll be in a much better position, they can clean up and maybe get a lodger in to help the income situation?

Might the letting agent pay the eviction costs in the first instance, on the understanding that OP will pay them back? I'd guess they'd be more likely to do so if the OP can demonstrate they've not fulfilled their contract in some way...

moneyistooshorttomention

fortytwotwenty wrote: »

I tried shelter but they just informed me of all the rights of the tenant.

I understand that it's serious to make someone homeless. But frankly, if she didn't have eight dogs she would have found somewhere. And although railing at the unfairness doesn't do any good I think it would grate on anyone if they were facing sleeping in a car when someone else had decided to stay in their house for free. If she had the decency to have paid then I wouldn't be facing this uncertainty.

That's a problem.

I am wondering whether it might be worthwhile contacting Shelter again at a very different time/a very different office of theirs - to get someone more objective at the end of the phone instead?

Within any organisation - there are those that will be coming from the pov of their personal prejudices/inefficiencies and there will be others just trying to "do their job" in a logical/efficient manner. You might get someone in the second category if you tried another time??? It's a tactic I've had to use sometimes in very different contexts - ie "Try again - until I get someone better at the end of the phone".

moneyistooshorttomention

Ah-ha....just recalled there are landlord forums on the Net. Maybe one of them might work better at giving advice in your situation.

Don't know whether one has to be a member (and what's involved in that) or no to put up a thread - but various other people have found themselves in this situation (ie bad tenant living in their own home - and they now need to live in it themselves). So there must be threads up about this situation.

https://forums.landlordzone.co.uk

might be a place to start and look for threads like it.

pinkshoes

I would be tempted to write to the tennant (politely) and point out that unless they pay the outstanding rent asap, you will be notifying the council that they have made themselves intentionally homeless due to non payment of rent...

Don't forget to issue the S8 as soon as they are 2 months behind!

wantonnoodle

fortytwotwenty wrote: »

A claim for benefits won't help me quickly enough. I'm still hoping that I will pick up some work over the next few days.

Bear in mind that JSA payments are paid every 2 weeks, and so you shouldn't be waiting more than a couple of weeks for a payment. Compared to work, where you may have to work up to a month in hand before you get a penny, this would mean you might get money faster on JSA than working. Not to mention that it is possible to have JSA backdated in certain circumstances (as long as you can justify it), so you may get something pretty quickly.

I know that its not nice claiming benefit, and most of us prefer to be in work, but sometimes you have to just swallow your pride and take the money on offer. You have earned it after all, through all the NI and income tax payments you've made over the years.