My Tenant has done a runner

ken_and_dot

I currently let a property to three students on a single AST and a single deposit lodged with the DPS. Two weeks ago one of the students rang me to say she had to return to Zimbabwe due to family emergency and would not be paying any more rent. She subsequently left and cleared all her belongings (down to the last paper clip) from the house. I have written to her guarantor asking for the April rent with no response so far. However, I have managed to re-let her room for the remainder of her tenancy. My queries are:

1. Am I entitled, under these circumstances, to re-let the property as she has clearly left the country.
2. Can I retain the one weeks rent I have lost from her deposit plus the cost of replacing the door lock as she didn't return the key.
3. The DPS will not release only a part of the deposit and the lease does not expire until 30th June so am I justified in retaining her deposit until then, not that I have a forwarding address to send it to anyway.

Can't help wondering if the family emergency has anything to do with 'e..bah..gum' read backwards.

neas

joys of the BTLer

ken_and_dot

Quite right. I'm not complaining, just a little unsure of myself in this instance

Guy_Montag

1) It sounds like she ended the tenancy when she rang you.
2) Yes, seems fair.
3) Yes, I would say so.

I think you're being fair there. I suspect you may get to keep all the deposit if she's left the country.

mlz1413

If your tenant signed a contract until the end of June then the guarnator should be liable for the period her room was empty and the cost of re-letting the room.

If you don't get paid then it's more than reasonable to take unpaid rent from the deposit. I gather the room was left in good order as you re-rented it so quickly so nothing can be due for damages.

I've had one dealing with DPS because my tenants left giving 2 days notice DPS repaid all the money to me after I filled in all the relevant forms (took weeks) but as you have other members of the deposit still resisident could you get them to contact DPS and agree to releasing a value to you? If the remaining tenants have their internet ID and password it's quite easy, if not I would recommend you get them to request re-issues now!

Good Luck

Bungarm2001

We had three of 'em do a runner on us last year.

Same sort of scenario as in "Have to go back to China as my visa runs out and I'm needed back home because of family probs..." blah blah This was the day they moved out (we found out since that that particular student is still working at a very famous football ground...but I digress...) The other two went into halls apparently..:rolleyes:

Anyway, upshot was they left with nearly 6 months of a 12 month AST to go; the guarantor also did a runner, but on the up side, they did leave the property in good condition :rolleyes:

SO we took all the deposit as they were in the property before the new deposit bond rules were in force AND told the police where they were working etc when they came looking for them for unpaid fines, speeding tickets etc etc.

Personally, I hope they were all deported.

NOT that I'm bitter or anything :rotfl:

Sparky67

1. Yes - she indicated her wish to terminate the tenancy to you.
2. Yes - these are your losses due to her breach of the (contract) tenancy terms.
3. Yes, I would have thought so - is there a provision under the DWP regulations for what happens if you "lose" your tenant? I suspect there might be.

static999

ken&dot - agree with Guy montag you are being fair.

While, we're on this topic, just wondering if your tenant found via an agent did a runner, agent letting fees were paid upfront, do you cough up the fees or you complain & claim it back from agent? I've not seen anyone discuss this before?

Also, if you think tenant might do a runner, what could you do to protect yourself?

Any ideas?

Bungarm2001

We rent to many students and sadly, a very small minority of them do have a bit of a habit sometimes of doing a runner, but at least they usually tell us they are before they do...if you see what I mean!

At the worst they leave the place in a right mess and at best they clean up, pay the bills so then it's the breach of contract that concerns us.

Nothing really you can do after they go except follow up on all the leads you will have (hopefully) put in place before signing them to the AST. Here's a few suggestions..

Take up references from at least 3 people, including Tutors at the UNI, previous employers/teachers (even if they worked part time for Macky D's) Previous LL (if any..better yet, refs from the LL before that...) Any refs from previous LA's could help too.

Ask for bank references, character references from say a Dr or someone else in a solid profession who knows them and always follow these up with a phone call at least.

ALWAYS do credit checks then ask for a guarantor if these are less than AA (usually a parent...always check this out too as this will be your first contact in the event of the tenant absconding)

Take copies of a passport or birth cert if there is no passport.

Make a note of the NI number.

These last two bits of info are very important in these days of identity fraud.

Ask for any other bit of identity info you can think of. If the prospective tenant is looking a bit edgy at these requests, think twice about letting to them.

Always bear in mind the 1988 Data protection act too.

If the tenant does a runner, your first port of call in trying to track them down to serve papetrs on them is the guarantor, then bank etc etc

kunekune

I think I have one of the better 'tenant done a runner' stories.

We had to let out a 3-bed, 2-bath log cabin in a leafy bit of Auckland's north shore (actually, if you ever watched a programme called 'hot property' you might have seen it, I know it was shown here cos I met a new immigrant who had seen it on pommie tv). It was urgent, as we had rent to pay elsewhere and a big mortgage and negative equity (this was about 10 years ago). Only one of the viewers was interested. She had cash and showed us her (Australian) passport. She moved in, we moved out and some distance away (I was rather pregnant, I seem to recall).

About 9 weeks later, we got a phone call from the nice German couple on the section behind us. They had suspected the house was empty and had, very kindly, investigated. Whoops, she had flitted. House not too bad when we got there to look, though she took some stuff from the garden with her! Financially, it wasn't bad. We had a deposit and didn't lose much. Others lost more ...

We were contacted by the police a few weeks later, wanting to know what we knew about her. She was being tracked for various illegal activities. We shared what we could. Six months later we had the shock of our lives. Front page, national paper. One woman, 26 identities (and 26 passport photos). Lengthy prison sentence.

As I say, we were incredibly lucky. She was running a phone based fraud from our house. Scamming us was incidental to the real business, and the deposit just about covered our own loss (well, apart from the hose pipe). But heck, it just shows - when they flit, sometimes they are flitting from more than just you!!!!

static999

Bungarm - you do sound like a v experienced LL especially dealing with students.
I rang credit company a mth ago asking if you can report tenants doing a runner & as you guessed it - NO. Basically, I was advised the only way you can recoup your losses or to "black list" them like how the banks dent our credit record is to bring them to small claims court! I reckon this works if the tenant is a UK/EU citizen. If the tenant is a non-UK resident, I don't think it's even worth going through all the trouble. I just wished there is a company/body that's able to collect rents like mobile phone cos. If tenants does a runner, or is late with payments, it dents their credit history. It's good that UK now has DPS, similar to what Australia uses so many years ago.

Somehow I feel we do not have enough protection here for both ways. Why can't we have normal people ie nice reasonable LL & also tenants. Yeah, I'm dreaming for the perfect world

My sixth sense tells me one of my tenants might do a runner next month. Yes, students from China! :eek: She asked if she can cut short her AST 3 months in Feb as she + bf will go back to China. I told her no as we've signed a contract. I let the flat using agent & have no information whatever about them. No copy of passport, no idea which Uni they went, what course they are doing etc... My tenants have so far been working professionals & this is my first student tenants. The agent advised me that industry norm for letting to someone with no reference is for them to pay 6 mths rent in advance. I was hesitant but gave in eventually. It didn't occur to me abt getting copies of passport, NI, etc.. at that time. I supposed it's inexperienced. Do you think asking for a copy of some form of ID eg. passport now is too late?