Tenants doing the dirty

[Buzzardbird]

Ok, will try not to drip feed. Need advice on whether to sue.
Got tenants for our house on 6 month contract with Letting Agents and all was going well at end of term so they renewed for another 12 months. We drew up the contract as were self managing anyway. All was fine.
After 6 months the guarantor (mother) called us to say that the tenants couldn't afford to stay and didn't have the money for that months rent so could they move out 6 months early and we could get the 1 months rent back through the deposit (which was 1 months rent plus £100). She told us there would be no point in saying "no" as they didn't have any money.
We then found out this was a complete lie and they were actually moving to another property which was on a kind of rent to buy type scheme and they were obviously using our rent to put their deposit down. More fool us.
We decided it was better to just wait until they were out of the property before we decided whether to sue for loss of rent plus we have had to re-market and pay 2 months mortgage as can't get new tenants in because they have left the property needing redecorating and deep cleaning also some damage.
We are also aware that they broke the terms of their contract by having a dog in the property (we clearly stated no pets) and have left 30+ piles of dog poo in the garden, back door scratched, house stinks etc.
We are extremely broke and have had to go without heating etc to pay the mortgage.
They are now saying they want the extra £100 back from the bond which we were told on the phone we could keep to help cover our costs (nothing in writing). We have told the letting agents that this is not on. (They are releasing the money to cover our first months rent though, thank god).
What should we do, should we sue for our loss of rent and remarketing etc?
We are under a lot of stress because of the money so don't want to go down this road if we are being unrealistic in thinking we can get some sort of compensation.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[fatnfrumpy]

We are in a similar situation. we took on a tenant that the agents "found" for us. They took references etc and arranged a guarentor as he had only been in the country a few months.
After 6 months we renewed his contract. That was in October 12.
He has not paid un any rent since then!
We have now had a solicitor advising him we will be taking him to court to evict him.
Solicitor says at best the judgae will evict him for non payment of rent but there is NO hope of recoupting ang of the ££££ owed to us.
He has made large fist size holes in the doors and plasterboard, ruied all the cream carpets with his many parties and stolen parcels delivered to the neighbours, threatened neighbours with violence, and run our property as a drugs den!!!
Good luck!

[Buzzardbird]

Oh god, fat that is awful.
Why does the solicitor think you cannot get any money especially if there is a guarantor?

[fatnfrumpy]

The guarantor only stands for the first six month contract once renewed after the intial contract the guarantor is not valid.
A CCJ may be obtained against our tenant but if he says he can't pay, he may only have to pay a token amount each month. He may even dissapear so as not to have to pay.
He paid for the first six months on time and was a good tenant we presume to enable him to achieve a 12 month contract.
He paid 6 weeks rent as a deposit that will not cover the damage to the property and owes us 7k in rent. It has taken us months to get this far and still waiting for a court date to evict him.
Our solicitor says he very much doubts that he will attend the court hearing and then we have to wait another month before applying for bailiffs to evict him.Thus we will probably be 10k out of pocket in rent, new carpets, plastering, doors decorating etc.
Unfortunatly the tenant has more rights than the LL
Read more on here the bashing that LL get here from tenants!!

[Buzzardbird]

I am really sorry to hear of your situation fat.
We are hoping that the threat of being sued might be enough as they are going to eventually buy their new property they won't want a ccj on their name.
I hope you get some sort of repayment and I think that maybe we will bear in mind your circumstances re people who haven't been here long as we got sstung by one of those already in a house sale.

[Buzzardbird]

Bumping for advice please

[fatnfrumpy]

I have yet to hear of any LL getting redress from bad tenants.
All the rights unfortunatly are with the tenant.
You could take them to court and get as CCJ on them but it will cost you maybe more in the long run.
Make sure you have malicious damage insurance on your LL insurance policy.
I have heard of three LL recently that when the tenants left they took the recently fitted kitchens with them.
I guess LL are fair game because tenants think they can afford it. Also LL are blamed for the fact that tenants can't afford to buy their own places etc.
Tenants seem to forget that the LL has a mortgage, insurance, maintence charges to pay so the rent doesn't always give an income to the LL!!!
Good luck!

[holidaysarenice]

I have taken them to court and won in similar circs. I would checky fatnfrumpys advice about guarantors as it is not correct with what occurred in our case. Your post is too vague to know whether you wud have a good case or not. Is the guarantor worth claiming off, I.e do they have an income etc?

Certainly I would send a letter outling what is owed in the first instance then small claims if approp. Court was very keen that an attempt had been made to sort it out.

Honestly you need good legal advice on this one.

[Buzzardbird]

Thank you holiday we had free legal cover on our insurance so we are going down that route now as there were several breaches of contract. Made several attempts to sort something out with guarantor but she just kept denying everything and generally lying.