Tenant done a runner

[Eve]

Only paid 1/2 last months rent as said she had problems, this morning agency phone to say she has put keys through letterbox and a letter to apologise to say she can't afford rent anymore.

On one hand its annoying, I have to now pay for cleaning etc and she owes me nearly £500 .. on other hand, she could owe me a lot more and I could be having eviction issues.

Agnecy suggested I go through small claims to try and recover the amount owed.. I wonder is it worth it?

isn't there a deposit to cover that a bit ?

.. yes there is deposit as well, so agency will deduct cleaning, inventory checks etc and I will get whats left.

Agency have marketed property straight away and at higher rental.. overall could be a lot worse.

Presumably the agency have her forwarding details so you could lodge a claim. iirc it doesn't cost very much to use Small Claims and can now be doen online, you coudl also add in loss of income for notice period, unless you relet it sooner.

no forwarding details.. but we know where she works so that where details of utility bills outstanding will be sent to.

If you've got a forwarding address, you could try Money Claim Online www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome. You use the same login as for an online tax form (or register if you don't do one).

They charge a standard fee, depending on how much you're claiming and it all gets handled by Northampton Court. If the person contests it, the case gets transferred to a local court and you might have to go to a hearing. Otherwise it all gets handled online. You can claim interest if you want.

I've got a claim going through at the moment (for 2 months unpaid rent - and that's after the deposit was taken into account). After the tenant moved out we found he'd broken the gas hob and fire and wouldn't let the gas safety people in to do the check (was in the house with key in other side of door). He also had the meters changed to prepay keys without permission.

Broadly, you submit the claim, they have a certain time length to respond (admit all money, part owing or none). If they admit it or ignore the claim you ask for a judgement. If it goes in your favour then you can get a warrant of execution (bailiffs) to enforce the claim. There's a £100 fee for the warrant. I'm not sure how long it takes to enforce it - haven't got there yet.

If you need the cash could you clean the property yourself, not much fun but don't agencies normally charge quite a lot for cleaning?

its turned out not so bad,

its been re-rented this morning at a higher rent and as last tenant was there for 6 years, I'll take the opportunity to freshen place up whilst its empty for a few weeks.

I've been with same agency for 10 years house has been rented, they contacted their waiting list and was rented again in 24hrs.

Taking deposit into account am out of pocket a months rent.. thanks Cokefan.. I'll look into that.