Are tenants likely to refuse to leave if they cannot pay the rent anymore?

AdrianC

vietnamica said:
So do you think landlords should definitely buy an insurance policy for this scenario. Will it really protect us?

Insurers charge a premium high enough that they make a profit after all their admin, staff, marketing costs, tax... and paying claims.

So unless you turn out to be significantly more unfortunate than average, insurance will not be worthwhile.

ProDave

Just about anyone asking on here about end of tenancy notices, gets advised to stay in the property until a cour has ordered eviction.  If everyone follows that "advice" then getting a tenant out could be hard and slow, which would be very painful to a landlord if they are not even paying the rent.

Personally I think that is the wrong advice to give.

Murphybear

The waiting list for a council property in some parts of the country is years.  Many years in some cases. A single person/couple with no children or disabilities may never get one.

My first husband and I approached the council in South London and were told that they couldn’t put us on the list.  That was in 1978.  I dread to think what it’s like now.   

Glover1862

It’s not without risk for the tenant, they could and probably will end up with a CCJ and if council accommodation doesn’t work out or you end up in a b&b the chances of getting decent private accommodation will be near impossible with a CCJ and no landlord reference.

Comms69

vietnamica said:

This will be the first time we rent out our house, so my question is very basic.

In England, what is the chance of tenants refusing to leave when they cannot pay the rent anymore? I imagine decent people would leave anyway. Is that true? Or is it common that tenants will just stay in your house even when they cannot pay the rent anymore?

Thank you

Where would they go if they cant pay rent?.....

Exodi

Plenty of TV shows showing examples of this ('Can't Pay We'll Take it Away', 'Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords', etc).

Typically they'll highlight the LL's journey over a year trying to evict a tenant who's not paying rent. The LL usually ends up racking up thousands in court costs/bailiffs and they very rarely recover a penny of the lost rent or legal costs... plus the property usually ends up trashed when they get it back. In most cases, councils advise tenants to not leave the property until they are formally evicted as it increases their eligibility to emergency housing if they are made involuntarily homeless.

Even the thought of a 1% chance this happening is enough to scare me off the idea of renting a property out for good.

Murphybear

I worked in lettings for years.  

Number of properties trashed - 0
Number of tenants should refused to pay the rent - 2.  

This was in the middle of Devon so I understand my experiences may be different from those in the big cities.

Comms69

Exodi said:

Plenty of TV shows showing examples of this ('Can't Pay We'll Take it Away', 'Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords', etc).

Typically they'll highlight the LL's journey over a year trying to evict a tenant who's not paying rent. The LL usually ends up racking up thousands in court costs/bailiffs and they very rarely recover a penny of the lost rent or legal costs... plus the property usually ends up trashed when they get it back. In most cases, councils advise tenants to not leave the property until they are formally evicted as it increases their eligibility to emergency housing if they are made involuntarily homeless.

Even the thought of a 1% chance this happening is enough to scare me off the idea of renting a property out for good.

Obviously those are the outliers that get shown on TV, as opposed to the vast majority of evictions. 

Exodi

Comms69 said:

Obviously those are the outliers that get shown on TV, as opposed to the vast majority of evictions. 

No doubt.

Hannimal

I am not sure where a tenant who can't afford rent would go. These aren't necessarily horrible people, just avoiding homelessness.