Need advice after evicted a tenant

babazub

Tenant was evicted. Locks changed. House is a complete tip, with lots of old dirty clothes, footwear, bedding etc. Bottles and cans of booze everywhere. Looks worse than a pig sty.
Plus most of the rooms stink of stale cigarette smoke. Both the gardens are full of junk too.
I do use a letting agent, but they have not dealt with any evictions for a few years.
The bond was high, so will cover 3 out of the 4 months rent I am owed. But then I have the courts costs and legal fees, and clearing the junk etc and cleaning. So all in all will be in excess of £2k I will lose out on.
Need some advice on what to do now please.

1. To try to get anything back which I know will be hard if not impossible. Do I go for a CCJ? Or what is a money order? How much do those cost?
2. Should I maybe get a debt collection agency? Any idea roughly how much they may charge?
3. Clearing the junk may need 2 small skips or 1 big one. Any idea of rough costs of those please?
4. Is it better to employ a professional cleaner? Or just to do it myself?
5. I am pretty sure I stated NO SMOKING in the house. What if any comeback on the Letting Agent would I have with that? On the inspections, they should have picked up on that.
6. Tenant was a single mum with quite a few kids. She was told to report any changes. But hardly ever contacted the office, and never replied to calls, texts, letters, emails. (FAKE NAMES USED). She was a Sarah Jones, but I found an envelope addressed to a Mr and Mrs Sarah Evans. That is NONE OF MY BUSINESS, but she was claiming benefits, and that's why the Council and DWP could never find her details. There is a large photo of her and hubby and kids they left behind!!!!
If the Agent now calls DWP and Council and gives the correct details, the Housing Benefit, which should have been coming towards the rent, can we tell the Council to pay up? Or would they need to claw it back from her first?
Thanks a lot peeps

DCFC79

babazub wrote: »

Tenant was evicted. Locks changed. House is a complete tip, with lots of old dirty clothes, footwear, bedding etc. Bottles and cans of booze everywhere. Looks worse than a pig sty.
Plus most of the rooms stink of stale cigarette smoke. Both the gardens are full of junk too.
I do use a letting agent, but they have not dealt with any evictions for a few years.
The bond was high, so will cover 3 out of the 4 months rent I am owed. But then I have the courts costs and legal fees, and clearing the junk etc and cleaning. So all in all will be in excess of £2k I will lose out on.
Need some advice on what to do now please.

1. To try to get anything back which I know will be hard if not impossible. Do I go for a CCJ? Or what is a money order? How much do those cost?
2. Should I maybe get a debt collection agency? Any idea roughly how much they may charge?
3. Clearing the junk may need 2 small skips or 1 big one. Any idea of rough costs of those please?
4. Is it better to employ a professional cleaner? Or just to do it myself?
5. I am pretty sure I stated NO SMOKING in the house. What if any comeback on the Letting Agent would I have with that? On the inspections, they should have picked up on that.
6. Tenant was a single mum with quite a few kids. She was told to report any changes. But hardly ever contacted the office, and never replied to calls, texts, letters, emails. (FAKE NAMES USED). She was a Sarah Jones, but I found an envelope addressed to a Mr and Mrs Sarah Evans. That is NONE OF MY BUSINESS, but she was claiming benefits, and that's why the Council and DWP could never find her details. There is a large photo of her and hubby and kids they left behind!!!!
If the Agent now calls DWP and Council and gives the correct details, the Housing Benefit, which should have been coming towards the rent, can we tell the Council to pay up? Or would they need to claw it back from her first?
Thanks a lot peeps

1 Should be answered here
https://thesheriffsoffice.com/articles/how-little-does-it-cost-to-obtain-and-enforce-a-county-court-judgment-for-m


3 Maybe £100 per skip

tacpot12

Complain to the letting agent about the cigarette smoke and ask them to contribute £200 towards cleaning. You are better to get a professional cleaning company in; it will be worth it as it gets the property ready for re-letting much more quickly.

The DWP and council won't be interested in making sure you get your money. You have the courts for this. If you know the tenant's real name, and new address you will be able to get a CCJ against them.

wesleyad

You can get a CCJ against her, but the chance of getting any money from it sound pretty slim to me. Probably worth doing so it will be harder for her to do this to anyone else in future.

Craig1981

you can pursue through the courts for the recharges to get property back into a state for re-let, however, you need to ask yourself if the aggravation and costs will be worth it at the end? claim against their deposit for the loss to try and compensate up to your lost amount

getting CCJ, pursuing through debt collection and through bailiffs will cost you more in the long run.

if they looked after a rental property like they have, you really think they will give a toss about paying a CCJ? i would be assuming they have no assets based on the state of the property

Council wont help - LHA/HB claim is for the tenant, what they chose to do with it is up to them, unfortunate, but true.

chalk it up to a bad experience and move on, no matter how difficult it is to do

Marvel1

3. You may need to ring around for quotes, I paid £180 for a medium one 4 years ago.

4. Save money and do it yourself,

AnotherJoe

I am pretty sure I stated NO SMOKING in the house

How can you be "pretty sure" ? It should be clear in the contract you gave the tenant to sign and that you have a copy of.


The only point getting a CCJ would be for your own satisfaction, since its seems unlikely there's any money to be found.
Regards knowing her name, surely its your business, arent you meant to conduct ID checks to verify the tenant is entitled to live here? Or did you start your letting business before those laws came in?

AdrianC

babazub wrote: »

I do use a letting agent, but they have not dealt with any evictions for a few years.

Use a better agent.

The bond was high, so will cover 3 out of the 4 months rent I am owed. But then I have the courts costs and legal fees, and clearing the junk etc and cleaning. So all in all will be in excess of £2k I will lose out on.
Need some advice on what to do now please.

1. To try to get anything back which I know will be hard if not impossible. Do I go for a CCJ? Or what is a money order? How much do those cost?

You launch a small claim against them.
If you win, and they fail to pay, then the court records a CCJ against them. You can then enforce that debt.

3. Clearing the junk may need 2 small skips or 1 big one. Any idea of rough costs of those please?

It will take you about five minutes on Monday to phone around and get some quotes.

4. Is it better to employ a professional cleaner? Or just to do it myself?
5. I am pretty sure I stated NO SMOKING in the house. What if any comeback on the Letting Agent would I have with that? On the inspections, they should have picked up on that.

Are you sure you're cut out for this business?

If the Agent now calls DWP and Council and gives the correct details, the Housing Benefit, which should have been coming towards the rent, can we tell the Council to pay up? Or would they need to claw it back from her first?

Your debt is not against the local authority or the DWP. Your debt is against your ex-tenant. The DWP and the local authority will not talk to you at all.

For all you know, both surnames are perfectly legitimate - perhaps Evans is her married name, Jones her maiden name. It's increasingly common to retain one for some contexts, while using the other for others - even ignoring the possibility of reverting to maiden name after an acrimonious divorce.

babazub

The reason for not being sure if NO SMOKING was stated was it is done through the agent. They are closed at the weekend, so I am just asking here for advice until they open again.
They did all the ID checks 3 years ago, she was a single mum with a few kids. So if she had married since and a guy moved in, she has not informed the agent. Irrelevant now, but clearly breaching many of the terms of the agreement.
The agent did call the DWP and council many times, but we only had her maiden name. Knew nothing about the married name, therefore did not get anywhere with them.

AdrianC

babazub wrote: »

The reason for not being sure if NO SMOKING was stated was it is done through the agent.

The tenancy contract is between YOU and the tenant. Surely you have a copy of that?

You also have a contract between you and your agent, which says how the agent acts on your behalf, including how often they inspect the property.

Irrelevant now, but clearly breaching many of the terms of the agreement.

Do you know what you can do if the tenant breaches the tenancy? Yes, you can give them notice to leave...

The agent did call the DWP and council many times, but we only had her maiden name. Knew nothing about the married name, therefore did not get anywhere with them.

The DWP and council would not have spoken to you or your agent. It is none of your business. It would be illegal for them to give you any information at all.

theartfullodger

babazub wrote: »

Tenant was evicted. Locks changed. .......

Can we please just check - this was after a court Possession order expired and eviction execution was by HCEO or court bailiffs?

If not, tenancy continues.... almost certainly.