Tenant evacuating house without informing landlord and owing rent

[dreamsicle]

Can anyone give me advice on this house issue if you have been in similar situation please?

Our tenant stopped paying her rent a few months ago. Initially we failed to notice as she had previously been fairly regular with her payments and we are currently living abroad (i.e. our bank account is not actively checked every month) and we have been busy with our newborn baby too recently. We only found out when the bank statement showed the mortgage payments bouncing as there was not enough deposits recently into the account. We tried to call our tenant and there was no reply on her mobile (the person who replied did not answer the phone but texted us saying she was someone else and only got this number recently...really?). We then emailed the tenant and she responded straight away with a sorry email saying she left the house in December(!) and she posted us the keys with he excuse of change in family circumstances. She said she lost our phone numbers and other contact details which we made every effort to provide her with in the past. She had been there for the last 4 years yet she did not feel obliged to give us any information on her moving out - that's another thread on its own though.

We have not received the keys as we are currently not living in the country so the postal address we have for UK is empty. She knew that too, but made no effort to post the keys to the address we gave her for abroad. The keys are not the issue though as we have copies that work on current locks.

We have since inquired at our bank and it seems that she failed to pay the last 5 months worth of rent plus she had missed a few payments over the last 2 years, very irregularly so we again hadn't noticed- total of 10 month rent she owes us for a 3 bedroom house. We had a private contract with her which was renewed in August for a year and is still valid. We did not have a management agent in place hence why the problems.

We (stupidly) do not have any details now on where she lives or anyone she knows/works with/gave a reference for her etc. We have not replied to her email yet (what do we say to her?) but it is unlikely that she will volunteer her current contact details. If we had her details then we would take it as far as instructing a solicitor to act on our behalf to claim the money we are owed.

However we are thinking that some agencies could have up to date data on the tenant- her children I think attended the local school for example, or the council tax may well know her new address. Does anyone have any idea as to how we can proceed from here and how the data protection act works in these situations in the ex-tenant's favour?

If you want to try and recover any of the money owed, you will have to seek advice from a solicitor.

You could just ask about locating her for starters and then decide if you want to pursue a claim.

You can make a claim through the small claims court online. It only costs £80 and you don't need a solicitor. But you will need an address for the tenant.

Some private agencies can locate people. Do you have her full name and date of birth, that would help.

Did you have a deposit in a protection scheme? If not, you could email her asking for an address to return her deposit too. At least that would be a starting point.

This happened to me and I'm afraid my advice is to write it off to experience. I instructed a solicitor to persue the ex tenant, and all that happened was that it cost me another £600 in legal fees! At least I got the deposit back.

I do feel you need to take a more business like stance in future, it's worth paying an agent just to find/check tenants and hold a proper deposit etc.

Sorry, it's horrible when people stuff you over like this, but paying even more money to chase this woman could be costly. You should seriously consider if it going to be worth it.

I had a tenant that left owing just one month's rent. I found her address through mutual friends and entered a claim with small claims court. The £80 fee is added to the amount she owes.

This was last year. The court have just ordered her to pay so much a month until it's paid off. It's worth pursuing but I wouldn't go through solicitors because they charge so much.

If you can't find an address for her though, there isn't much chance of success.

You really need to get someone to go and check the house, make sure it's secure and to change the locks. If you haven't already.

And really, all you can do is get a solicitor on it and take her to court. There are the proper channels to find someone who owes you money, and you take them to court if/when you find them.

But asking schools etc isn't one of them. And the council aren't going to tell you.

Instruct a solicitor. Get the house secure. And if you are going to rent the house out again, do it through an agency.