When to get annoyed with tenant with MH issues?

[Ginseng1]

Long story short had the perfect tenant in my old flat for 7 years until he had a nervous breakdown 18 mths ago. He living in a major city in an apt which is over 20% under market rate. He says he'll be homeless if I kick him out.
Since the breakdown rent has been late (sometimes 3-4 mths) most months I have to chase. Have tried to see if can help him get rent allowance. The reason am giving him so much leeway is because we had a great landlord-tenant relationship for 7 years & when he told me about his MH issues I felt so sad for him n want to help. But once again no rent over 3 weeks late in he won't answer mails/text. Even if he just dropped a line to let me know! Getting very frustrated have a mortgage on this & tax bill in October but I don't know what to do!

Ignore the MH issues, that isn't your concern. How much leeway does he think you should give him? No rent for a month, six months, a year?

Start the process of getting him out. If he pays up, then at least it will give you him a wakeup call that he can't be a CF. Plenty of people with MH problems still manage to keep paying their rent.

Sadly you cannot let this slide. You need to have a face to face meeting to discuss how he can manage. The rent should not slide over

a week or he will soon get in a mess.
You can serve a sec 21 as a shot over the bows, or a sec 8 if there is two months rent missing. Often this is enough the shake up the importance of paying the rent. Trying to help him apply for benefits is disempowering. He needs to find a way of picking up charge of his life, not learned helplessness. This is sad but worst case he has to go

Really difficult situation. I don't know about your finances and how long you can carry this but if things are this chaotic for him he's probably right that he'll end up homeless and unable to sustain another tenancy. On saying that you shouldn't have to carry this he should be getting community mental health supports which should also be about ensuring he doesn't lose the roof over his head. Can you be frank with him and work out where things are at and what plan you can come up with which break things down for him but ensure he pays your rent.

MidniteScribbler you're all heart this person was a decent tenant for 7 years but the minute they're struggling you'd kick them to the curb? Really hope you're not a landlord

Dulra how do you propose op gets her rent then?

You need to serve him Notice to Quit. I'm assuming he's in contact with relevant community health services. They can help him access a new tenancy and housing benefits etc if need be. It's great that you are a kind person but unless you can afford to let someone else negatively impact your finances and possibly credit rating, then it's time for him to go.

Dulra hardly “the moment” this situation has been ongoing for 18 months now.
The OP isn’t letting the property out to be nice, she has her own bills to pay.
She needs to evict.

3-4 months late? You've been generous enough.

You've been understanding but the breakdown was 18 months ago. They need to move out.

Don’t be ridiculous Dulra. OP is not running a charity or a help centre.

Dulra - but it's not "the minute" it's 18 months - how do you know the OP can afford to not get the rent on time - most landlords make less than 10% over the year which means than 1 month without rent can mean making no profit over the year and several months can be a serious shortfall

He says he'll be homeless if I kick him out.

Has he spoken with Mind or an organisation that could assist him? So, is this something he's saying or looked into - because he must know that nobody would tolerate him falling into arrears, including Housing Associations.

And, if he's missing rent payments, it's probably he's picking up other defaults that might end up reflecting badly on that address.

Has he lost his job? Even so, that's not for you to resolve.

Could you send him a message asking him to work with you and directing him to support such as CAB to ensure he is getting the right help? If he won’t engage and can’t or won’t pay his rent then sadly I think you need to look at starting the lengthy eviction process and, probably looking at writing off a lot of rent arrears.

My parents were in your shoes. When they finally got their lovely tenant with MH issues out, their property was destroyed. It was awful and brought them immeasurable stress just trying to get this person out of their property.

You have to be pragmatic.
Your property is your livelihood.
You’ve done your compassionate bit. It’s time to move forward with eviction. This is life. It’s tough. But pragmatism rules the day here.

You’re a landlord, not a counsellor with a half way house on offer. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

What MH issues anyway?

Have tried to see if can help him get rent allowance.

Who did you speak to to do this?

Would it be worth speaking to the housing dept. of the council for advice? If he is evicted then it's them who are going to be picking up the slack and they may have some kind of intervention plan to help both parties in a situation like this.

You are not a charity OP.Even at the utter depths of my worst depressive episodes i have kept on top of bills (standing order!). If he is UK based he can claim ESA and housing benefit is he pocketing the housing benefit? Get him gone. Nostalgia doesn't pay the bills.

I think you've done more than enough to help him. You're not a charity and he should be paying you. I would start taking action now, you've been really nice to him and he's taking advantage.

Issue him with a S21 notice. This is "no fault" so if he can't find anywhere else he won't be classed as intentionally homeless by the council. If he has a diagnosed mental health illness then the council have a duty of care so he won't be homeless.

Being sympathetic is all well and good but you are not running a charity.

Dulra dont be ridiculous

How people become homeless . But as others say you can't kettle this drag out indefinitely. How much rent does he actually owe?

One thing you could also try is to contact the Homelessness Prevention department at the local council. They won't discuss him with you for obvious reasons but if you let them know that you have a tenant who is in danger of losing his home they will probably give you general advice and possibly intervene.

My parents were in your shoes. When they finally got their lovely tenant with MH issues out, their property was destroyed. It was awful and brought them immeasurable stress just trying to get this person out of their property

This happened to us. The tenant was also a friend

We’re currently starting proceedings to try and recoup some of the £7k in lost rent and damages as he invalidated the insurance.

OP you’ve been more than generous. If he won’t engage you can’t help.

We had this. We did our best - let them pay late a few times, tried to direct them to other sources of help (they didn't get thia help). Ultimately we had to evict. And then we discovered the property was ruined. Thankfully our insurance paid up for most of the damage (but not the lost rent).

A Housing Association would have evicted this person by now and HA's are charities. They often go out of their way to help their tenants before evicting them.

If his income technically covers his rent, then maybe tell him he has to set up a standing order for it to you but that any further slips will unfortunately have to be acted on.
Depending on what his MH issue/s actually are, it may be the "managing to withdraw money/log onto online banking to transfer money" executive function aspect that he is struggling with - things like severe depression affect that very badly.

you done enoug now op-unfortunately the council will advise him to stay until the high court sends the baliffs so coujld be a good few months yet