tenant not paying rent

[SaylorTwift]

My partner bought a house then relocated ,for work several years ago.
He moved 200 miles away, then met me.

He now lets that property out and we rent a property ourselves and have 2 young DCs.

He is not in the position to sell at the moment or the house will make a loss and there is currently low appetite for that type of property in that location.

So, we are not landlords by choice, only due to circumstances. We don't make any money on the rent, it just covers the mortgage.

Money is tight and a month without rent/untenanted puts us under a lot of strain financially.
I know we should have savings to fall back on but due to one thing or another and starting a family very quickly we just don't have any.

We have tenants who have been in the house for around 5 months.
A nice seeming family of 4, both parents work good jobs.

Rent is now 7 days over due, they have changed their phone numbers and removed their Facebook profiles.
Letting agent can't get in touch with them.

We do know they are still living in the property.

I have a very bad feeling about this, they always paid well and communication was good.
Just 3 weeks ago they were asking about making improvements to the house.

What are our rights, and what can we do?

certainly confusion at the very least!

Hopefully the OP will get some answers.

He emailed us. I have emailed but no reply.

I agree about making it harder for other renters, I have known a lot of honest people having difficulty finding somewhere.

We rent ourselves so I can see it from both sides.

I would never want to annoy or upset my landlord, I would feel terribly worried and bad about myself.
and I would make rent the priority if I had money problems like we are going to very soon.

I have had my friend do a thorough Facebook search and they are both completely gone now, she was able to find him yesterday.

Agent hasn't been able to get in touch since arrears started. I'm hoping she will catch them when she pops over there

OP head over to forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?s=c9e9b856375ddf02137799ecffbc1658&f=16 or landlordzone for advice. Do not attempt to enter the property against the tenants' wishes.

It doesn't sound like being a landlord is a good idea for you in the longer term.

(As an aside, you say you are not making a profit since the rent only just covers the mortgage. You can only deduct mortgage interest for tax purposes, not the capital repayment part. So if it's a repayment mortgage you are in fact making a profit. May not be relevant to your situation, just thought I'd mention it.)

Who are you searching for on Facebook, the foster carers or the plasterers? Whose name is on the tenancy?

Thank you awake.
You are right about the profit thing.
I will have a look on that link now.

I really don't want us to be landlords, it's a complete nightmare. I just want to have stability for the DCs not be at the mercy of a monthly rent payment.

If it was my house I would have don't it differently but it's DH's and he was too young to make proper decisions and didn't know where his life was going and it's ended up how it is now

You say that the agency is a well known one, quite big in their field. I would have thought the agency would insist on the tenants having a guarantor? If so, then the agency should be making efforts to contact the tenants regarding the late rent and if unsuccessful, to pursue the guarantor to pay the rent.

It's not standard on most tenancies to have a guarantor for rent (perhaps for students etc it might be).

However, many agents offer a "rent guarantee" ie to cover rent if tenants fail to pay.

Unfortunately you sometimes just get shit tenants. I had one with fake references. Just goes with the territory.