Landlord Vent !!

sooz

just been searching for calculator, and on place i am currently advertising, deposit and first month's - not 4 weeks - rent comes to £3225 in advance.

if you don't have that uprfont, then you probably cannot afford to live there, plus pay council tax and bills

ok, now we are talking silly london prices, but this is how much a 2 bed flat costs here.

[before everyone jumps on me - can i point out that this is not my flat, i manage it, for the landlord, who pays a great mortgage on this property, and it is being marketed at current area value]

Swan_2

I'm a tenant on benefits & in receipt of housing benefit. I've always had to make up the difference between what the Local Authority pay (direct to my landlord at my request) & the asking rent. it's never occured to me to not pay it

wouldn't it eventually be grounds for eviction if the shortfall was allowed to accumulate?

Wig

Swan wrote:

I'm a tenant on benefits & in receipt of housing benefit. I've always had to make up the difference between what the Local Authority pay (direct to my landlord at my request) & the asking rent. it's never occured to me to not pay it

wouldn't it eventually be grounds for eviction if the shortfall was allowed to accumulate?

Most definately.

Alleycat

Swan, yes it would. As soon as the outstanding arrears went above 8 weeks rent worth, your landlord could apply for accelerated possession. However, something to bear in mind, is if a landlord applies for accelerated on this basis and the tenant brings the rent owed to below this figure (even if is just a few pounds) possession can not proceed.

If tenants have this amount of arrears, I usually advise them to pay anything to prevent accelerated possession against them. They can do this right up until they are to be called into court.

sooz

and that answers the question as to how it can take up to a year to get a tenant evicted.

keep arrears below 8 weeks, and you can never get to court

chugalug

Sooz, you're forgetting that the majority of private lets are only for 6 months (12 max), After this period has elapsed the landlord can let the tenancy run on a month to month basis (periodic) or evict. If they have already served the S21 notice effectively giving the tenants 2 months notice then they can go straight to court. The Judge will always award possession if the tenancy agreement has ended as he has no juristiction to do otherwise. The landlord can charge all costs to the tenant. Whether he will get the money is another matter but this is why most landlords charge a months rent as depost and a month in advance. That way they get the majority of their costs back. Possession proceedings are about £250 plus £90 for a bailiff''s warrant should this be needed plus any outstanding rent. The tenant also has to consider that he/she would need a reference to get any sort of decent property in the future - if they owed rent and had to be evicted they wouldnt get one.

Alleycat

As I said Sooz that is for an accelerated possession. You can still issue a normal 8 weeks notice and then go to court for possession. That would not take a year, a lot less in fact.

sooz

thanks for clarification - it's been ages since i've had to evict anyone..still owed 50p per month for eternity...ho hum

Swan_2

Wig & Alleycat, that's pretty much what I thought. I was asking because I was surprised to see the OP not expecting the shortfall to be paid & wondered if this was the norm.
don't worry, I'm not about to default!

re the problems the OP has had with their property being trashed ... in the last place I lived, the flat below me had 2 evictions in the space of 9 months. the first was a young guy who had all the neighbours up in arms about disruptive & noisy behaviour at all hours of the day & night, but when he went he left the place in reasonable order
the second lot, a family, were going to be evicted on the grounds that they had a dog & its' puppies in the property (contrary to the terms of their lease) although there were various other problems with them. in the end they moonlighted, leaving behind a huge amount of junk ... broken furniture, bin bags full of trash, dirty clothing & weeks & weeks worth of dirty nappies!!! which it took a flatbed truck to remove. the carpets had to be replaced because they were so filthy & had dog dirt trodden into them, the place had to be gutted. & this happened to a large property management company who you'd think would have seen these people coming a mile off.

I don't imagine the month's rent deposit came close to covering the work needed to make that flat habitable agaiin.

Wig

Just goes to show this business is not always a walk in the park.