Evicting a tenant non payment of rent

[BluePeterVag]

I am helping an elderly friend with his problem tenant. Friend is 84 and rents out some flats. One of his tenants has not paid any rent for over 12 months. Refuses to pay, won’t apply for help without housing benefit to get his rent paid.
My friend has been poorly in the past 12 months, so hasn’t been able to work to get the tenant evicted, plus there has been changes because of the pandemic.
Can anyone advise me on what he needs to do now? Flat is unfurnished, owned outright.

Managed with agents doesn't cover eviction costs, although a good agent may have spotted a dodgy tenant earlier. All evictions have been banned for a year or so - rent payment has been optional and scroats like this tenant know it. Landlords need to have legal expenses and rent guarantee cover. I'm afraid this tenant has a lot more free housing to come and types like this usually trash the place too.

Yes all HMRC for my friend is done and everything in place. Is there any relevance to this? An elderly man is being taken advantage of by a tenant. Everything from the landlord side is in place. It is (was?!) a clean and tidy flat. Inspected for gas and electrics. New double glazing 3 years ago. Dread to think how long this will take, but he will go down the professional route and get help.

The tenant will remain liable for the unpaid council tax, so don’t worry about that.

Are you sure the tenant isn’t getting housing benefit or universal credit? If more than 2 months in arrears, landlords can ask for it to be paid to them directly. Under UC I think they can deduct for arrears too.

When the government announced the suspension of s21, our rent guarantee insurers cancelled the policy - obviously did the sums and decided that the pandemic would be too costly for them.

Yes, UC can give both rent and arrears directly to the landlord, but to start this I think the tenant has to agree.

I have had a similar problem I had a alternative payment arrangement with UC but it was short on the rent which the council top up under discretionary housing payment plus they cleared his arrears disclaimer my tenant has cancer and did engage with a help service. I then posted on Facebook group All about property and got some good contacts for eviction progression

Watch it regarding council tax. If the tenant does a runner, or pushes the right buttons with the council,, the landlord will be liable as the easy target. This means landlords can end up paying council tax while still having no access to their trashed property.

I don’t know the finer points with UC, but the tenant doesn’t have to agree to landlord direct payments with HB.

Thanks, I will ask him to call the council to ask about UC.

@Lysistratathereindeer that is really annoying about the insurer cancelling.