Tenant absconded owing rent. Are her two guarantors liable?

[judeinsussex]

I own a little property which I bought to help boost my retirement income and let it out to a single young woman. After a year, tenant should have gone when her Agreement was up but she just stayed on and said that she wished to rescind. While I understand that it was legal for her to do this, it didn't mean that no further rent would need paying. From the tine that she rescinded she paid no rent at all, and neither did her guarantors. I tried to do a Money Claim through the courts but as the tenant had absconded I had no forwarding address for her. However, on the money claim form, I still listed her as Defendant No. One, just giving her e-mail and phone number, but also saying that she refused to give forwarding address. On the form I also listed her two guarantors and gave the address for these two. The court, however, has returned the claim form to me complete with my cheque. They say that they cannot process the claim as I did not provide an address for Defendant No. 1 (former tenant). I rang court for help but they said that they were not allowed to advise. The person who answered the phone said that I should put on the form the last known address for the tenant, which would be the address of my property! I now think that I should do a fresh claim leaving tenant's name off completely but just claiming against the two guarantors. Would this be feasible - without the name of the tenant? By the way, the 'managing' estate agents did manage to get the return of the deposit for me which I kept towards the debt, but the agents have done very little else for me as they said their fee doesn't cover this sort of thing. At present, I am owed £4,500. Apart from owing rent, the tenant left the property in a very bad condition which meant that I had to engage a rubbish disposal firm to clear it, followed by a deep professional clean. I waited months for the court to get back to me following my claim, only to be told that the claim couldn't be processed because I didn't provide an address for one of the defendants (the tenant who absconded!). All this has been so very stressful. I can well understand why landlords often do not follow up on this sort of claim but when I met the guarantors (at the start of the tenancy)they seemed such nice and well heeled people. You live and learn I suppose. I don't want them to win over this but I feel that I'm crumpling.

I hope you feel proud of that nasty response. Well done

So you want there to be no properties available to rent? That would leave a lot more people homeless.

The whole point of having a guarantor is so that you can claim from them if the tenant defaults.

So go ahead and send notice to the guarantor that the tenant has defaulted of the rent and you are now looking to them for payment. You have their guarantee in writing, right?

I'd get legal advice OP. Good luck with it.

When you state end of tenancy do you mean the original fixed term or that you served notice? If tenant left after the fixed term then she’s only obligated to give you 1 months notice. Was she in arrears before she left? To get a tenants new address you may find it useful to use a tenant search company who can do searches to locate an address used for any new contacts or credit taken since she moved out, costs about £60.00 and you can use the report for Court. If you have had the deposit your chances of claiming any damages are pretty low in my experience, did you have a full inventory signed by the tenant when she moved in?

So if every landlord sold up tomorrow, then what? Paying rent doesn’t by default mean you can’t save for a deposit.

Surely this is just about the completeness of the form.

Just fill it in with the last address. I would assume the case will just procede as normal. If personally worry that if I put the guarantor first it would be right either.

However, you might want to get some proper legal advice.

This is exactly why you get a guarantor. Leave the tenant off and go after them as claimants 1 and 2. The agreement they signed must set out the terms under which they become liable to pay eg after one months rent not paid?

This. Get some legal advice on how to proceed.

It's the whole point of having a guarantor so yes I'd chase them for the money

Of course they are - that is the whole point of getting a guarantor. I mean this kindly - what else haven't you done your research on? I don't think running a residential lettings business is for you.

Get some legal advice. Check to see if you have legal cover through your insurance

So please explain how you think rental properties become available then?

Really? You have no sympathy for someone whose property has been trashed and who has had hundreds of pounds effectively stolen from them?

You sound nice!

Yes OP, the guarantor is liable. I would claim everything you possibly can from them. Go on Landlord zone for advice.

@clpsmum that's a stupid response. I am a very long term tenant of nice houses and it's an attitude like that that means there are now real issues in private letting

Yes I too would rather their was more choice due to good social housing- but at the moment that's not where we are and don't exactly like the fact that other individuals have all the power- but that's the score

I myself ended up paying 2 months extra on a property we decided to leave early due to the fact the landlord massively upped the rent and then couldn't let at the price he asked - but that's the contract and we knew this was always a possibility when we moved somewhere else before our contract was up.

Wow…. Who put 10p in you today @clpsmum !

I rent my house out and live with my partner. I keep it for my financial security as women are always advised on MN.

@judeinsussex yes chase the guarantors. If you let it again get some landlord insurance to cover non payment. I'm Vaht nearly a year where tenants didn't pay. All covered including legal costs.

So basically you're saying you support dishonest behaviour leaving someone with significant losses? I'm sure you do, until it happens to you right? This kind of behaviour undermines legítimate agreements, tenancies, contracts etc.

If agreements like these all become unenforceable then we all suffer.

Very clever how the abject failure of successive governments to address the housing shortage and create more social housing gets turned around onto private landlords. Instead of getting angry with government, vilify ordinary people. It becomes home owners vs renters, divide and rule.

Give these people a ring:
https://www.ast-assistance.com/

Also look up & join the Facebook Landlord group(s).
Get wised up. Knowledge is power.

Do you have an official documented guarantor's agreements?

Thank you for all your replies - some nice - some not so. Some replies were deleted before I even saw them but I can probably tell by some of the remarks left by others who did read them, that their tone was not 'encouraging'. To others - thank you for all the useful advice and for championing my cause!

Yes, guarantors did sign an agreement at start of the tenancy but when the tenancy agreement ended, tenant stayed on (but paying nothing) the guarantors said that their responsibility as guarantors had ended (as the agreement term had come to an end). I didn't see it this way, of course, as I presumed that they would be guarantors for as long as tenant remained in my property and until such time as she handed back the keys. They are, naturally, doing their best to wriggle out of their responsibility and its especially irksome when I have seen on the internet the sort of home they live in. Much bigger than my little place. So, the problem that I have is that tenant just stayed on beyond the date that the agreement had come to an end.

Here is the order of things:
I think that the guarantors had agreed with her to pay her rent for a year as she out of work but I was told that she was looking for a job (yes, I took on an unemployed person!!) Not very wise but I like to think that I have a heart and I wanted to give the person a chance, especially as she came with two guarantors. Thanks to her, I have learnt my lesson and would never take on an unemployed person again. Never. I think that the guarantors had told tenant that they would pay her rent for a year but by that time they would have unexpected her to have found a job. There is lots of work in this area - all sorts. (I believe that she had some kind of work for a while but lost the job due to not hearing her alarm clock in the mornings!) Guarantors got mad - probably - and decided to withhold support once the year up. She didn't care - she got to stay in nice property, sleeping in until non (probably) and the only person affected was me.
Knowing that she would have no-one paying her rent, she gave in her notice to leave the property at the end of her tenancy agreement saying that she wished to return to her family.

I accepted this notice and very quickly found a fully employed, new tenant who wished to move in asap (later to be disappointed of course- due to first tenant refusing to go, even though she had given her notice to me!!). I wonder if she had a thought for other disappointed tenant, even though she had shown her around the place herself? Of course not! I think that she knew what she was doing from square one. Not as green as she was cabbage looking, as they say.
About two weeks before agreement ended she had been over to the Council who, of course, told her that I did not have many rights (I only owned the property after all) whilst she had plenty. They advised her to rescind. She did this (and I and the agents gave her no hassle whatsoever because she was within her legal 'rights'). When this legal eight weeks came to an end, she stayed on and on so Section 21 Notice served. She still stayed on so I had to ask for an Eviction Order through the courts (costing me £355) and the court wrote to her asking her to attend a hearing. She decided to leave before the date of this hearing to return to her family. I could then gain entry and was shocked by the state of the place. It was in an appalling condition. Dirty washing piled up in all the rooms along with all her other, rotting possessions. I and a friend wore rubber gloves before handling anything. I could save nothing - not even the furniture. She hadn't even bothered to do the washing up or clean out the fridge. Its not as if she was doing much after all!
I wrote to the guarantors, recorded delivery, several times telling them that they were responsible for the rent and there would be a court case. This correspondence always sent recorded delivery. No replies to date.

I asked for help through Citizens Advice but was flatly told that they do not help landlords! Great.

I then researched the use of a lawyer and found one for which I pay £80.00 a year for unlimited advice, over the phone, with a lawyer. I firmly believe that there is just the one lawyer there (when he's there that is or its Answerphone). When I did manage to get him on the phone and told him of my concerns over the guarantors' agreement and sent him a copy, his reply was that he thought it could be viewed as contentious. He suggested that the guarantors would claim that they were guarantors for as long as the tenancy agreement lasted (which is just what they are claiming) whereas I thought that they would be guarantors for the whole time that the tenant was in the property and returned back the keys to me. Lawyer said that he hoped that the judge would understand what had been intended and that I should be alright. Tenant left when she knew that she would need to go to court under the Section 21 Notice so at least I could then get in to view the place and get it ready for the market once again. I forgot to say in my earlier message that the place needed re-decorating too. Yes, I was left with quite bill and I'm still out of pocket as I can't afford to put the place right without a tenant -so its Catch 22. By the way - for those less sympathetic readers - most of whose messages were deleted before I read them - I worked from the age of 17 to 67 without a break - thereby giving me time to save up for a deposit on a small property which would help with my retirement income and on which there is still a mortgage.

If I ever get out of this mess I will definitely consider Landlord's Insurance - in fact I wouldn't do it without. This has made me want to sell but the market not good and I would have to sell at a loss.

I will now complete the forms again, leaving off the tenant completely and just naming he two guarantors. If I get anything then it will help me to put the place back into good condition, before I know what to do with it. I must say that this experience has put me off letting and its a shame as i always charge a fair rent and if same tenant wishes to stay on an extra term then I would not put rent up. Once I hear back from court - for my second attempt - I will report back.

Thanks everyone.

Take them for as much as you can get, OP. Claim legal expenses as well - get a solitcitor.

Apparently it depends on what the guarantee agreement says, some are open-ended and will refer to liability 'under this tenancy/agreement'. The guarantee may also say the guarantor must pay for any repairs if the tenant(s) damage the property or costs such as cleaning service costs. Citizens advice might be able to help if you cant afford a lawyer.