Moonlight flit............

MultiFuelBurner

Just some.opinions please

Tenant on a rolling one month contract after expiry of their 12 month AST message last Friday which was their day to pay rent. Lost my job left the flat going back to ...

This has not happened to us recently not since probably 2014 and I had to think a little.

So am I right in thinking the tenant should have given one month's notice, they are liable for Council Tax during their notice period.

Secondly we don't have a forwarding address if they do owe us one month's rent plus some costs for disposing of things they left and a clean (no deposit taken for this one) how have  other landlords found people with no forwarding address to issue the final bill?

la531983

You didn't take a deposit?!?!

And did you mean to finish the sentence with the dots at the end, it makes no sense in the context of the rest of the post. What's losing your job got to do with it?

Well your options are to employ a tracing agency, or do the legwork yourself. If you knew where they worked it would be a handy starting point. 

HampshireH

la531983 said:

You didn't take a deposit?!?!

And did you mean to finish the sentence with the dots at the end, it makes no sense in the context of the rest of the post. What's losing your job got to do with it?

Well your options are to employ a tracing agency, or do the legwork yourself. If you knew where they worked it would be a handy starting point. 

I had to reread it too but I took from it OP had a messaged from the tenant saying they lost their job and were going back to ... (unknown location)

So presumably whether the OP knew where they worked isn't going to be helpful as they lost their job. 

OP have they returned their keys? You have their number / email. Phone them and ask for a forwarding address and follow it up by email. What else did they say

RHemmings

I presume that this is enough that you can clear the flat and prepare it for another tenant. You will know better than me, legally you are expected to minimise your loss if you are going to be pursuing the tenant. If you received a message, then there's at least one method of contact. If I was in your (the OP's position) I'd clarify with the tenant that they're not returning and then (I assume this is already being done) act to get a new tenant ASAP. Asking the tenant what to do with any goods left behind also. Hopefully the tenant will give permission to dispose of them and clarify their position. In any case, total up the total loss, and send that amount to the tenant and ask them to pay. If they don't (I would guess this is the more likely outcome), then there are decisions to make. But, I would ask first. 

Just my personal opinion. 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

and get meter readings.

MultiFuelBurner

Lovely yep done all the above tenant not coming back, they have confirmed to dispose of their remaining belongings including their fish guts in sealed fishing buckets (nice). But when sent the final bill by email and WhatsApp you can guess the response........silence.

Informed them of their last meter readings for electricity/water.

Informed the Council when they gave notice and they are responsible for one month from that date.

Just making sure we have dotted the I's and crossed the t's like I said it rarely happens so I go into brain scratching mode.

As for the deposit question a number of properties we rent out are in largely deprived areas with many of our tenants receiving assistance with their living costs. Many don't have a deposit to give in the first place as they live week to week/month to month. So no shock and awe required (what no deposit 😱)

As an aside rented back out within 2 days they move in bang on what would have been the previous tenants one month notice end date.

We have considered a tracing agent has anyone got experience and can recommend one.

silvercar

If your tenants were living week to week, I doubt they have the money to pay you what they owe. The effort involved in chasing them probably wouldn’t be worth the hassle- certainly consider whether you would get the costs back from employing a chasing agency and any subsequent legal action.

the electric and water bills would be in their names, so just inform the utilities.

la531983

MultiFuelBurner said:

Lovely yep done all the above tenant not coming back, they have confirmed to dispose of their remaining belongings including their fish guts in sealed fishing buckets (nice). But when sent the final bill by email and WhatsApp you can guess the response........silence.

Probably blocked you on WhatsApp tbf, the number of ticks showing next to your message would be a clue. 

MultiFuelBurner

silvercar said:

If your tenants were living week to week, I doubt they have the money to pay you what they owe. The effort involved in chasing them probably wouldn’t be worth the hassle- certainly consider whether you would get the costs back from employing a chasing agency and any subsequent legal action.

the electric and water bills would be in their names, so just inform the utilities.

I tend to agree just wondering if anyone had a recommendation on a person finder agency that had been successful for them. 

We will probably write this off as a cost of doing business but it's nice to gain knowledge from other Landlords here on how they have succeeded in chasing down a debt.

What some people on here don't realise is sometimes LL's provide a social housing extension to the local authority in all but name. Responsible for homing those that struggle to be homer. We have two Tennant's right now where the Local Authorities work closely with us to make sure everything gets paid and the tenants don't make themselves intentionally homeless. 

To say our admin was too heavy would be fair in the area and tenants we work with to provide them with a home.

Grumpy_chap

If the Tenant has confirmed that they surrendered the tenancy with immediate effect and left, plus agreed that you can dispose of their belongings you need to proceed as though the tenancy has ended.

The Tenant has lost their job and was previously on a week-to-week existence so probably not much point in tracing them for recovery of the final rent.  Probably better that the Tenant accepted they could not afford the rent and moved willingly than staying put and not paying.

You have re-let with ease and the new Tenant moves in after a short void period.  Not a massive amount of loss suffered on your part.  Probably time to just forget about the old Tenant.

MultiFuelBurner

Grumpy_chap said:

If the Tenant has confirmed that they surrendered the tenancy with immediate effect and left, plus agreed that you can dispose of their belongings you need to proceed as though the tenancy has ended.

The Tenant has lost their job and was previously on a week-to-week existence so probably not much point in tracing them for recovery of the final rent.  Probably better that the Tenant accepted they could not afford the rent and moved willingly than staying put and not paying.

You have re-let with ease and the new Tenant moves in after a short void period.  Not a massive amount of loss suffered on your part.  Probably time to just forget about the old Tenant.

I said many of our tenants live on a week to week/ month to month basis not this one they had a full time job.

I agree it's not nice to lose your job "if true" some tenants aren't always telling the truth of course.

As stated we will more than likely write this off but still looking at avenues in the future to track tenants down from others that have paid a company for this service before.