Rental Arrears - How to proceed for Landlord

MQA

I (Landlord) am looking for some advice about whether this can be deemed rental arrears (I have read some posts from some years back and wanted to check they are still relveant due to COVID
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4262573/rent-arrears)


If the rental arrears can be claimed:
I have calculated the Tenant who had moved out and owes 4 months rent.  The Tenant had told me only one of them are in paid work and cannot afford to pay

tourist4ever

I dont know if it's me but your post sounds confusing. So was it a three year tenancy and tenants gave notice when? What type of tenancy? Was it joint so all tenants are responsible for rent as you are saying 'tenant who moved out' - did someone stay in the property? What about the deposit did you use this already to set some of the arrears?

if you wish to make a small claims case you pay for the fee, there is no guarantee you get any money from tenants. if they do not respond/pay you can apply to get a CCJ against them. Bare in mind you need a postal address for the tenant so not sure you have a forwarding address for them.

GDB2222

You'll win your claim in court, most probably. But, that's the easy part. Enforcing the judgment is extremely hard. 

Most LLs in this situation just shrug, and move on.

Mutton_Geoff

As a landlord, I've had a couple of successful CCJs against tenants for non payment of rent, damage to property etc. I've never actually received any money from those tenants. My opinion is that there are certain types of people out there who know how to work the system.

saajan_12

MQA said:

I (Landlord) am looking for some advice about whether this can be deemed rental arrears (I have read some posts from some years back and wanted to check they are still relveant due to COVID
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4262573/rent-arrears) - Evictions are delayed, and the most egregious cases will take priority. no explicit change to recovery of rent arrears, other than perhaps delays in getting a hearing. 

My situation in summary:
Each year for 3 years, my Tenant (married couple) tells me verbally they are moving out.  I have asked them to posted me their notice, a backdated (3 months) notice received. - why backdated? why 3 months? were they on a fixed term / contractual periodic / statutory periodic?

If the rental arrears can be claimed:
I have calculated the Tenant who had moved out and owes 4 months rent.  The Tenant had told me only one of them are in paid work and cannot afford to pay - do you mean they both / all moved out? owes 4 months based on the time they were in the property? or a notice period? How much in £ is 4 months rent?

Question.

'The 4 months owed rent'
How does the Small claim court work?  (ie after paying the fee, what happens if Tenant do not respond  or respond to say they cannot afford to pay) - you write a letter before action, then file a money claim submitting your evidence. You have a hearing (may / may not be in person) and will very likely win a judgement. Then they either pay in 28 days or get a CCJ. If its a CCJ, then you have to try to recover monies, eg by agreeing a payment plan, or getting an attachment of their earnings, or bailiffs, etc
Is it likely for Landlord to get the owed rent? or get the Small Claim fee back?
- If you've served a letter and given them an opportunity to pay before going to court, then you likely will get a judgement for the small claims fee. However actually recovering any of it (rent + fee) is another matter. Likelihood there depends on whether you have a forwarding address, whether they have a legit job, whether they have assets..

Comments in bold..
* Is the tenancy properly ended and all tenants vacated?
* Do you have a forwarding address?
* Did you take a deposit? Protected? Write to them stating you're deducting for rent arrears, and request the full deposit from the scheme. If not protected, then you could be liable for penalties so might not want to poke the bear..
* Write a 'letter before action' demanding the rent arrears be paid, and giving them some time. 
Upto this point its free. If no response, then you need to decide whether you want to start spend money on: 
* Money claim online
* Recovering money eg bailiffs, earnings attachment etc.

GDB2222

If you do want to go to court, and the other party are legally represented, you'll  need to be represented too. Otherwise, they'll run rings round you, and the judge won't interfere. Representation tends to be expensive, but the cheapest way is to find a direct access barrister. Try https://www.clerksroom.com/  

You'll need to marshal your thoughts a bit more. I really can't see whether you have a good case or not from what you've posted. So, start from the beginning and write everything down in date order. That's the easiest way for other people, entirely new to the case, to follow what has happened.

Even if the ex-tenants don't want a CCJ against them, you still won't get any sensible amount of money out of them if they don't have it!  So, you'll just be further out of pocket yourself, and they'll have a CCJ against them. You'll just have made everyone involved unhappier, except the lawyers, who have a chuckle.

anselld

You have not explained how the four months arrears is calculated.  How much is actual arrears and how much is lack of notice?  Despite whatever your tenancy agreement may say you are unlikely to enforce three months notice after the initial fixed term when the statutory tenant notice is one month.
Also, if you are claiming three months "lack of notice" what is the reason you have not re-let?   Even if three months is enforceable you would be required to mitigate your losses and you could not continue to claim lack of notice once the property had been re-let.

GDB2222

From the moment they said come and get the keys, that’s what a reasonable person would take as an indication that they had already moved out. Whether they should have travelled to you to give you the keys or posted them is another issue, but you can’t expect that the court will deem them to have been in occupation just because they still had the keys. 

There are other issues about them giving notice, and maybe they didn’t do that properly.

Once they moved out and offered back the keys, you had a duty to try to let the place, so as to mitigate your loss.