Tenant not paying rent

[sallythesheep73]

I've been renting out flats to tenants for more than 10 years but never had such a PITA before..
This chap has rented from me since last Feb and 30% of the time pays his rent late. He is finally moving out in a month's time but has not paid his rent for March or April. I have written to him asking him to pay. I have offered him a payment plan but he says he cant pay anything til May.
My suspicion is he doesnt plan to pay anything. He asked me to take the deposit
1 month's rent. The place is in an OK condition (when I last saw it about 4 weeks ago).
I'm at the end of my tether.
I've asked him to suggest a payment plan but he doesnt respond.
Do I now apply for a County Court Judgement and keep my fingers crossed I get my money?
How do I ensure he moves out? Do I also need to apply for eviction.

I've always had decent tenants in the past who have paid!! Many thanks

Join a landlord association and get their advice.

It is vital that you do all the paperwork correctly if there is any danger of having to go down the eviction route.

CCJs probably only work as a threat to those whose careers or reputations would be harmed by having one on file. In general if you get him to leave without having to call in lawyers, I would take the hit on the lost rent and mark it wdown to experience, and get landlord insurance next time.

Are you in Scotland or England?

And how much of a deposit do you have?

In England

1 months rent = deposit = £450

He now owes 2 months rent

Ok I only know the laws up north as I know English laws are different. Presumably you will cover one months rent loss with his deposit?
Can CAB help with advice?

Issue both sec 21 and section 8. There's a good article in landlordzone today explaining to overgrown student politicians why landlords use sec 21 in cases such as these.

You need him out and the tenancy properly terminated. Any rent back is a bonus. Next time get rent guarantee cover.

Been there done that- it's awful. Def issue a section 21 and section 8 (there are different timing requirements on each so you'd need to check which one goes first or whether you can do both simultaneously). Don't bet on getting any rent. Be glad to get your house back- we were close to not getting that!!

Btw if you have the energy at the end, apply to have the ccj lodged. That means he will have trouble doing this to the next landlord.

The ccj will otherwise not show up on any checks.

He owes more than 2 months rent and we are beyond the first 6 months so as far as I can see I can issue both a section 8 and a section 21.

What is the advantage in issuing both? I see that Section 21 they have 2 months to get out and section 8 I am giving 2 weeks notice before court proceedings can start.

Can I apply for the CCJ now (for 2 months rent) or do I need to wait til he has left / been evicted?

Saw a show on this one night, sadly there is very little you can do. He has all the rights and if he walks without paying there is very little you can do. Just get him out of there fast and cut your losses. Amazes me tenants have so many rights.

Event him and take him to court for the rent (is he paying bills and council tax?) if not he could also be in breach of his tenancy agreement.

Section 8 can be easily played and you may never get him out. Section 21 works if you get the paperwork right.

Do you have any legal cover as part of your landlord insurance?

Hopefully you have all the correct paperwork to protect his deposit etc in place ? If anything has been missed and it goes to court I believe you will lose and potentially be subject to a large fine.

You need to serve a s21 and a s8 simultaneously. The reason for serving both is you really want to rely on the s8 which is owing at least 8 weeks or two months rent at the time of issuing the claim and at the time of the hearing. The problem is some tenants are clever and pay immediately before the court date to bring the rent owing down to below 8 weeks. That means you have to start again or continue with the hearing on the grounds of rent being paid persistently late, or the ground of some rent owing. Have a quick look at the grounds online anyway. If they do pay to bring the rent owing to below 8 weeks then you can continue with the s21. It's about covering your own back. Of course you cannot issue a s21 to end before the end of the fixed period, it must end on or after the fixed period. Hope that helps.

Forgot to say of course a s8 is mandatory so the judge has no choice he has to give possession. With a s21 possession it's mandatory, but rent being paid persistently late or some rent owing is at the judges discretion so you may not get your possession order but will probably get a money order of some form.

useruserbored - no. I have been renting places out for 16 years and been lucky enough to not have this hassle before..

AnyFucker - 'Hopefully you have all the correct paperwork to protect his deposit etc in place ? If anything has been missed and it goes to court I believe you will lose and potentially be subject to a large fine.' I dont understand this. Deposit is held by 3rd party DPS. I am avoiding using his deposit as rent, although he is asking me to do so. I dont like the idea because then there is nothing I can do if he leaves the place a tip...

Jon66 - I have filled in the S8 and S21 and will post them tomorrow. The update is that I messaged the tenant and his parent last night and his mother said she will pay some of the rent today. This means the S8 will not be valid but I figure I might as well still post it. But as you say I have the S21 to fall back on and I can prove he has been persistently late paying rent..

af is right, lots of paperwork and proof needed or your sec 21 will fail. current gas safe ( if gas), evidence of service of how to rent, epc , deposit prescribed info and form exactly right.

then it is possession order and bailiffs.

Op, you need to be able to prove service so they need to sign for it.

How can you not have landlord insurance?! Are you even registered as a landlord?!

I don't understand why you'd not cover yourself right from the start?!

Landlord insurance is not the same as rent protection insurance. I have the former, but have never been able to get the latter on any of my tenants - anyone earning under £30k in London is deemed ineligible. Funnily enough those earning more aren't interested in a shared flat.
I did have to do s21 once for my parents granny flat - it was smooth and the court was very helpful, but did take a while and come to bailiffs. Who were also very polite but firm.

landlord registraton is not mandatory everywhere. it is in some of the london boroughs but very little enforcement, so demand and ignorance keeps the slumlords in profit.

not knowing the business and stil shrieking about it is the domain of a certain overgrown student politician. dont do it.

Who is this person you speak of SS ?

there's an excellent article on landlordzone explaining why section 21 is not actually 'landlord whim' but the only way most landlords can evict non payers and wreckers.