How can she make her exDP pay?

[BonnesVacances]

After a long story, I gave my tenants 2 months to leave. They stopped paying rent and left the house so damaged it cost more than their deposit to repair. So now they owe us almost £2k and we've given them notice to go to the small claims court as they wouldn't pay it.

Now they have split up and the exDP has gone awol leaving the girl with a baby and no money. She's desperate to avoid a CCJ but based on the repayment plan we've agreed, it will take her a year to repay the debt on her own while she's trying to get on her feet. We can't afford to write it off and I am also not 100% that the story is true anyway based on past events.

They signed a joint tenancy agreement so technically they are both liable for the debt but if true, it seems unfair that the exDP gets off scot free leaving her to pay it. I was wondering how I could specifically go after him for it (I'd have to trace him) or if she could do anything to get him to pay his half?

If it's joint and several liability you can go after both

You can indeed take both to court but you'll need to find where he lives first.

You say you can't afford to write it off but the reality is thst you are most likely to never see it even with a ccj. As a landlord you need to account for this. The same happened to me and in the end didn't bother to go to court as knew thst at best if be lucky to get £10 a month and that wasn't worth the stress.

However I now only rent to professionals when both are in good jobs.