letting a house

[lordleofric]

to someone with a ccj. Would you? A letting agency has found us a prospective tenant but he has a ccj. The tenant was surprised to hear this and has offered a large deposit (six weeks) and to find a guarantor. He is in full employment.
We are in two minds.

If in doubt reject it, get someone that at least has a clean sheet to start with.

Oh, and nobody is surprised by a ccj.

I once had a ccj. I had no idea. It was for a property I hadn't lived in for a while for water rates. The water company realised the error and went through the whole process of getting it removed so it would never show on my records. So you can have one, not know and be legit.

A friend of mine had a CCJ and he didn't know until he applied for a mortgage. Turned out that Blockbusters took him to court in his absence (because he no longer lived in the property) for late return of videos that a flat mate had been guilty of (but the video card was in my friend's name)!
6 months deposit is the whole tenancy period in advance, I don't know what more can go wrong? I would give him a chance

I had a ccj without realising after a car accident and my insurance company failing to provide my current address to the woman who claimed against me for the damage to her car. They sent all the documents to my old address so I failed to respond and it got issued without me knowing anything about it. It only came to light when my credit card company called to tell they were reducing my credit limit due to the ccj! I went mad. It took nearly a year to get my insurance company to admit the mistake and get it removed from my credit file. My credit score is normally excellent so it can happen. Maybe find out a bit more about it if you're unsure.

Difficult one. Take a larger deposit and give them a break ? I know someone who leases to a bankrupt - best tenant they ever had as the guy really wants to make up for screwing up in the past so pays 1 month in advance with 3 months deposit..

I took a tenant on last year who has a CCJ, with her dad as guarantor. She was consistently late with the rent for the first six months, until I sent her a letter asking her to pay it on time. She has also complained about numerous things, which I think are unreasonable.

I think ultimately she can't really afford the house, as she was complaining about how much her heating bill was at the end of the winter, and was asking me to make the house more insulated etc. I have done what I can with regards to this.

I let her have the property as I wanted to give her a break, and thought she would be ok. But she has been a very difficult tenant and I will not be renewing her contract. When the AST runs out, I am intending to keep it rolling on a monthly basis, and see how we go.

If your person has a good job, then that's a good start, my tenant is self employed and has found it difficult to make enough money. Have you had a reference from a former landlord?