Tenant refusing to pay rent!

[cookiemonster100]

Hi all,

Advice pls.

DH tenant is several months in arrears and now has an eviction date coming up in a few weeks.

How do I go about getting the rental arrears from them? They were a private tenant turned social (without us knowing).

Any advice please. Anyone else had issues like this.

I can't help too much with the legal side - obvious answer seems to me to be to file an N1 with the county (small claims) court. They have good guidance on line.

Realistically, they can't pay what they don't have. When you don't have much money it is easy to show the courts that you have only enough to live on (remember you are entitled to sky tv, petrol transport cots and a reasonable standard of living etc along with ongoing rent & bills etc before historic debts can be enforced). You might end up getting a few pounds per month and spending time and money on enforcements and tracing actions.

Hope to God that they leave on the eviction date and chalk it up to experience is my view.

contact housing benefit department of council and say you haven't had the rent, they may be able to pay it direct to you if tenant claimed.

We've had two tenants "go bad" - ie stop paying the rent.

The first lot, we found them alternative accommodation, arranged a removal van, helped them pack and moved them out. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to gain possession of the flat unless we helped them move. We did take them to court for the arrears and it was a total waste of time. The courts decided that the tenants could repay the (pretty substantial) arrears at a rate of £10 a month. We never received a penny.

The second lot we just wrote off to experience. They both unexpectedly lost their jobs, and were financially in a complete hole. When we got the flat back it was scrupulously clean but the gas and electricity had been disconnected due to non-payment. Heartbreaking really. We gave them their deposits back . No way would we have got anything back from the court process and it is costly to pursue (although it doesn't have to be if you do it yourself).

The key point is you should stay on good terms with your tenants if at all possible. You want to get your property back, and if you have to seek orders for possession etc it can get unpleasant. You also want to get the property back in one piece.

I really wouldn't bother pursuing the arrears unless you enjoy filling in lots of forms. It sounds as though your tenants have no money.

The advice on trying to get them to pay housing benefit to you is good - although the housing benefit might not be any where near a market rental. But something is better than nothing.

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice.

I think we are going to get some legal advice re the arrears as this gets me so mad unfort i can't chalk it up to experience . They have been taking the p* for far too long! Completely forgot to mention that there is a guarantor on the agreement so may go after them instead?

We think they will go in a few weeks as the council have already spoken to us re them moving out & they are going to rehouse them. However not counting my chickens yet!

Such a drama!

If you've got a guarantor, go after them, immediately.
If the tenant is 2 months in arrears, start the eviction proceedings with form N1 from the county court (phone and check it's the right court as it may not be in your county), and send everything by special delivery copied to the tenant (can you tell I learnt all this the hard way 3 years ago during the last postal strike???)

Once the repossession is granted there's a form you get for claiming costs plus arrears from the tenant - although again you're unlikely to ever see it (is about £2000 down from a nightmare ex-tenant - she was great for about 18 months until she went doolally and started on too much cocaine, not sure in which order. A high point was her complaining to the police that I was harassing her by not allowing her to take drugs in the flat and this infringed her human rights. The plod told her 'this is a civil matter' aka not their problem, burst out laughing, and phoned me...)

A guarantor

Why your problems are OVER

Just gain possession first though.