Question about tenants non payment of rent

[reastie]

We rent out a house. New tenant moved in all fine references wise etc according to agent, deposit and first months rent paid. Second months rent has now been outstanding for nearly a month with no signs of paying. It's all done via an estate agent.

DH found out after tenant moved in through her leaving waste for him to dispose of and letters falling out that she comes from somewhere where she had baliffs and court action for non payment of rent and council tax. We assumed this would show up on credit check by estate agent. Estate agent won't show us said credit check due to 'data protection' but says it's all clean. DH looked into credit checks and found if they did a very basic check it may not have shown up (??).

So, should estate agent have done a more thorough check given it's obvious if they have non payment of rent issues in the past this is something that needs checking?! If this is the case are we within our rights to complain about estate agents and how? Also, should we be able to see a copy of the credit check they say they have done? Any advice on how to proceed with getting tenant out and/or getting her to pay would be very welcome (we know we have to wait 2 months of non payment to do anything).

[Xenia]

You could certainly call round to talk to the tenant about it. They may be able to pay you weekly until they sort themselves out. Estate agents do not always do what they should although here it seems that a basic check does not reveal a problem so may be the agent did all they could?

[reastie]

Thanks xenia . We are trying to do it all via estate agent as that's what we pay them for but they don't seem to be doing anything other than have sent 2 letters to tenant. I have no idea if this is normal or not . I'm just not sure why a basic check would be sufficient for estate agents if this check doesn't check on previous problems paying rent

[Xenia]

I suppose it might be hard to know if there are problems with previously paying rent if they were never taken to court over it and it's not on their record. They might write to the employer and that would still not be shown up. I am just not sure what is normal.