My Tenant’s Rent Is Late (Rent Arrears), What Should I Do?

I meant to add - when you make the payment date change request, provide direct evidence of the your changed payday and the funeral expenses.

Thank you for your responses. I feel terrible for asking him to do this now, this is my first home away from my parents and I feel a little dumb for the fact of thinking changing the payment date would not be a big issue. Maybe because we’ve managed to move all our bills across to the 28th fairly easily. I’m not sure a credit card would be a smart idea, purely for the reason that I wouldn’t want to pay debt with debt. We’re usually very prepared for emergencies but with my partner only having his Mum as family it’s also difficult to ask for help. Its fine if he says no, like I said I’ll look to raise the funds another way. My parents could possibly help me, I just thought that instead of getting into debt it was a reasonable request to just simply change the date from now on. I genuinely had no idea how much of an issue this was so thank you for your advice, I only now wish I could retract sending the email about it yesterday. We love our flat and have worked very hard to make it a home, I honestly didn’t ever think we’d be in the position, if only for 23 day’s! I’m terrified he’s going to be offended that I’ve even put this request in and serve us a notice for eviction! Thank you again for your reply’s.

@Ashley

Do not feel bad, it all depends on the type of Landlord you have, I have Landlord and Tenant clients, I try not to judge but rather just help each one in their situation. Some Landlords take the "lord" bit too seriously, some tenants seem to think that they can trash a property, luckily most are middle of the road decent people.

As Mandy said, some agents are the problem, your Landlord's details should be on your tenancy agreement, if they use the agent's address then yes a Land Registry search may provide the address or it may still be listed as the property you live in.

I think most decent Landlords would be happy to consider your request, but they may quite reasonably want you to cover the difference over time.

I had one Landlady client that tolerated many bumps in the road from a family she let her house to, they went into arrears up to £11k over 12 years, they got it down to £7k then wife decided to bail. She decided not to take the tenants to Court, her logic was that she paid £168k for the house and paid mortgage for a year. After that the tenants had paid more than double the mortgage in rent for 12 years and she sold the property for £328k. To her they were good tenants, the husband even came back and painted the property to help it sell.

What many Landlords do not get is that a tenant that will treat their property as a "home" is worth their weight in gold because they will look after it as if their own. You sound like just such a tenant and do not worry about your parents, the bank of mum and dad is what keeps this country running.

Don't worry about the email, I suspect that the Agent will just tell you that you need to pay the rent on time.

I have contacted the bank of Mum and I’m paying the rent on time. Spoke to my letting agent and told them not to bother my landlord with the request. I suppose I saw my rent as any other bill thinking it was so simple to move the date so I’m lucky to have found this thread so thank you. The last thing I’d want is to leave my home :)

@benji
The funeral is next week so we have the quote for everything written down and everything is to be paid Monday. So we haven’t already paid for it, just set aside the money we need. I wouldn’t be too cynical, some of us are decent people :)

Thank you again guys

@Ashley

Well done! Do not worry about @Benji I am afraid it is two factors, one is years of experience being a Landlord, dealing with a wide range of tenants from the sublime to downright nasty plus of course something that is best explained by watching this

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107050/

Problem tenants is an understatement.. tenants left in August with five months rent areas. while I hear I'm going to pay, i will call you back, its just not happening. They obviously have left and moved on leaving a trail of debt, I forgot to register their deposit (yes i know) so in that situation what chances do i have legally of recovering the debt. Their parents are guarantors again, how far can i push this to recover the bill. From beginning i have said to both tenants and parents that i will not add any interest for late payment as that will not help them clear the 5k bill, hoping that would give some incentive to speed things along. I am aware that not having registered the deposit really doesn't help and they are full of the ways to miss and avoid any responsibility for bills.

@Georgina

You are in a better position than most, you have guarantors, but as always with debt you have to make sure they have something to lose before you take enforcement action.

You can go after the guarantors, check their address on Zoopla first to figure out when it was last sold, if it has not been sold since they signed as guarantors. If not then spend £3 to get copy of title from Land Registry site to determine if they are owners, i.e. they have something to lose. If they are local go their house, see if they have cars worth over £2000 plus your debt.

Then you just write them a letter before action saying that your attempts to get payment of arrears from their offspring have failed and you are now putting them on notice that if payment is not made or agreement entered into within 14 days then you will be proceeding to take them to Court.

Your agreement not to charge interest was subject to them servicing the debt, they have not made any attempt to do so, so you can put it in your claim. In these types of claim interest is calculated daily but your tenancy agreement may have stated different.

If I were you I would see the tenancy deposit thing as entirely separate, look at the pages below and the comments I have made, basically if you are a novice Landlord you might get away with a 1x deposit sanction.

If the tenant has the audacity to raise deposit issue comment on the pages below and I will walk you through the negotiation.

In your position I would see them an entirely different things, the fact is that the parents are more likely to have the money or to have leverage. So going after them makes the most sense.

You can raise in the small claims Court as it is under £10k (naming all four of them as defendants or just the parents) , you will not get legal costs but you can ask the Court to consider the interest as it is part of the debt.

Usually the very real threat of a CCJ will scare the parents into paying, if not your tenants, but if not you will have a CCJ which you can enforce, but it is only worth doing so if they have the money.

Sometime sending completed Court papers that you are about to file does the trick, I would send these as a final letter before action. It will show the Court you have them every opportunity to settle.

These are the tenancy deposit issue pages:

https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/i-havent-protected-my-tenants-deposit/

https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/tenant-threatening-legal-action-tenancy-deposit/

Just had a bad experience with a tenant. Seemed like a nice hard working couple renting privately with income sufficient to cover rent comfortably. Reality they upset neighbors with noise, rows and loud music. The police were called several times.They began to pay the rent late and then stopped altogether with excuses and promises after a late payment in January. I issued a late rent notice and suggested that as a young couple a rent arrears eviction would be recorded against them on credit reference agencies which would never be forgotten by computers. I got lucky they decided to leave only owing one month and one week of rent. What they did do was to avoid seeing me on the first day they were supposed to move out even though someone was in they refused to answer the door. Then they moved out very early in the morning and I didn't get there in time to catch them and get a forwarding address or do any of the other things on check out. There was damage as well. Not too bad though. I think they will also have left other debts to utilities. I have let the suppliers know the final readings and they assure me that the debts will not fall on me. I have also started trying to get their deposit paid to me from the DPS although their new website does not really cover the things they need to know. Notified them of these shortcomings. Good news is that the deposit will cover exactly the rent and some of the damage. Bad news is that the tenants are unlikely to want to be found or reply to Email from DPS. Therefore as far as I can see I shall have to make a "single Claim" with a legally witnessed document after about a two week delay and then wait for a month before hopefully getting the deposit paid to me.

My situation now is to find new tenants there are two who enquired about the house 6 months ago but both are DSS claimants. My thoughts are to give one of them a chance but with a much enhanced referencing. What I have in mind is to request a meeting at their present address to see how they live now possibly even talk to their present neighbors then to very carefully and personally go over their financial position including possibly bank statements etc. They could obviously refuse, well so be it, I can also refuse to take them. I believe they are living locally at present and simply want to move to a house rather than a flat. Part of my checks will be to examine the motivation for moving.

Any comments here would be appreciated and I will further update the story when all is complete.

@Graham Ireland

One word of caution, what evidence do you have that they have surrendered their tenancy?

Did they email you something or write you a letter?

A rare but very real trick is to "appear" to have abandoned a property then to return and accuse you of forced eviction, saying they were on holiday or visiting sick relative.

I only mention this in case.

It is very sensible to visit a tenant at their former property if possible, be aware that if they are in a Council property they are delivered in unpainted condition with no flooring, no curtains and no appliances.

I suggest you visit the pages on this site about DSS and the comments which can be quite inflammatory but realistic from both perspectives.

The things I would bring into my decision making are the

LHA rate for my area and how it compares to the rent I am asking. Bear in mind the LHA rate is the 30th percentile, so the majority of private rents may be considerably higher. Expect this to be £250 a month on a house.

The occupancy ratio, if you rent a 4 bed house to a family with 2 boys close in age they will be expected to share a room so the Council will only pay the LHA rate for a 3 bed house, depending on the area that could knock another £250 off their housing benefit.

Request a budget and the tenants last 6 months bank statements, if they baulk at idea, tell them they can redact the descriptions if they provide 12 months worth.

You will then be able to see how they conduct themselves financially. Do they spend ridiculous amounts on Sky or the Gym which are foolish expenditure for anyone on DSS.

Remember that even the most nasty tenants can be charming if they want.

Speak to at least the last three Landlords and ask the simple question, "would to rent to them again".

Personally I think renting DSS is potentially risky in metropolitan areas and generally in the South of England. I am not saying don't to it but get an understanding of the values of the tenant. Again look at the finding tenants articles on this website to get ideas, e.g. stalking their social media!

With regard to the DPS you might well find they crawl out of the woodwork, so get photographic evidence of the damage just in case they invent some dispute about the rent.

Many thanks David got Emails confirming departure date plus photos with date of damage and utility meters, all keys provided returned, could have copied them of course. On good terms with neighbors who would alert me by text if they suddenly appear again. With regard to the DPS the main part of my claim is the rent arrears £842 of £900 deposit tenant acknowledged this by email with promise of payment on a date which was missed.

Thanks for the DSS tips, have taken on board all the comments on your blogs plus all the other landlord and tenant comments to come to a balanced opinion plus my extra effort that will be applied to try to avoid bad tenants. I might also try to have a quick word with the present neighbors to verify their general conduct. My property is low end of the market so only two bed and priced carefully by reference to the locally requested rents on rightmove. Basically I am just above the low end price with one or two premium attractions such as reserved parking.

I have taken on board your advice to retain some capital. At one time I was thinking of buying another property with a BTL mortgage but after much application of worst case scenario spread sheets decided against it. I judged that in the worst case I would have needed to sell that property after 5 years and I really didn't need the extra stress of the BTL mortgage.

Many thanks for your very witty blogs they are very readable and contain a lot of down to earth wisdom.

@Graham Ireland

I am not "the landlord" he is a much funnier guy!

I am just a fan of the site, add comments when I think it may help.

Looks like you have it handled, definitely change keys between tenants, every time.

I was defending a client who turned my stomach (don't always get to choose), it was on a property damage case. I do not think he had washed in weeks, anyway the Landlord alleged he had gone back and trashed the place and the Court believed the Landlord.

It was a clear cut case, he had a history of bad texts with threats made and a neighbour saw him and a several others enter the property after it was left empty.

@David

Very interesting reading. I think the Landlord must be too busy :) as i sent him a message and no reply :(
I have a long standing problem with tenants but this last couple are a total nightmare. I payed an agency to find them £360. All seem well when they moved into the property 2 years this April. They have turned out to be tenants from hell. I think one would call them professional/rogue tenants.

I always register the Bond with DPS, however on this occasion I did not, simply because I thought the agents had done so (my mistake) only found out when I checked the Bank statement.
Over the months payments became late and they paid irregular amounts and not as agreed on the tenancy. I sent messages and phone calls. Then the phone calls about things not working etc.
House checks and to arrange repairs were a nightmare - they would arrange a day/time and there would always be a last minute text message " cannot make it today, we will arrange again" it just kept going on and on. I would send a registered letter every time I wanted to visit. I was always understanding to their hardship (job loss) and illness. Until it became clear it was all lies, especially from him. By Christmas they owed £1345, I was told I could not proceed with Section 21 until I became registered. I applied for registration and then no agency would take these tenants on. so to proceed with the eviction I had to become a licensed Landlord. I did the course. I felt I was going mad as soon as i found something out, something else would crop up or I had been given the wrong advice. I contacted my insurance company and they appointed a solicitor in January. They are taking so much time to sort out the problems. Never call me back, never answer my emails until a week later. I wanted to them to issue Section 8 but no they sent the tenants Section 21.
I have had no rent from the tenants since January 2 .. so now the arrears is over £3000. I was advised by the solicitor to contact the DPS to pay the bond back to the tenants in full. This I did arrange. I received a council tax bill for the property. I contacted the council and they told me the tenants had moved out February 14th //I was shocked and angry. I drove to the house and it appeared empty, no curtains etc. I phoned the tenant and he said "yes, we have been given a council property, and will move the rest of our things by the weekend." Weekend came no call. Monday no call, sent a message asking about the keys. On the 16th March received a message" we have not cleared the house yet and will let you know when it will be." ..Another two weeks went by and still no word from them. I messaged the tenant about progress and he came back with "it will be after the Easter Bank holiday and will be in touch over the weekend. I spoke with the Council and they are sending the demands for council tax to them at their new address. I mentioned to the tenant that they are still liable for rent and council tax. No answer and have sent emails to the solicitor and no answer from them either.

I guess they want me to get angry and change the locks or enter the property - I am not going to, however.if no keys next week taking court action. They are quite nasty vindictive tenants.
The stress of it feels as if in a nightmare. It has affected my health and I must say these are the worst tenants I have ever had. I have the happy thought "NOT" of when I get the keys facing all the hard work putting it right again to sell! sell!

@Sophia

Well I am not a fan of agents so I am not surprised, but in your case where your health is suffering it is worth taking out a fully managed service. Not only does this save you grief but you can sue them if they screw up, just make sure it is clear that they do everything, including legal obligations.

I am a believer in maintaining the normal structure of the Landlord Tenant relationship, not the lording aspect but regular inspections, at least bimonthly. They say familiarity breeds contempt but so does absence. This is something the right agent can do on your behalf without being onerous, some agents are a joke, they have an A4 page of tick boxes but just ask tenants rather than checking anything more than seals on bath. I put this down to the level of staff they employ.

In the world of the entitled and the offended I wonder if we need to have psychometric testing for tenants! It does seem that their goal was what I predicted in my previous messages to you.

With many Landlord clients I see the thing that turned what seemed like a perfectly reasonable day trader into a tenant from hell (e.g. something they were not expecting to pay for), but yours do sound like they have been coached.

Unfortunately it is not over, in my opinion the Solicitor gave you bad advice; you gave up the only leverage you had, unless you did it with a settlement agreement? Otherwise they can still come after you for the sanctions for not protecting the deposit, paying it back does not get you off the hook unless it is part of an explicit settlement agreement that states so.

You can read more about your failure to protect the deposit here:

https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/i-havent-protected-my-tenants-deposit/

and here

https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/tenant-threatening-legal-action-tenancy-deposit/

Rent arrears have to be nipped in the bud and with shock and awe, some little sweeties think their landlords are their parents or their bank and will bail them out.

If they were unemployed and claiming housing benefit then after 6 weeks of arrears you can apply to the Council or the Job Centre (latter for Universal Credit) for their Housing Benefit to be paid direct.

That would have slowed the arrears, if they had got over two months then you have grounds under section 8 but you also have grounds under section 8 for repeated failures over a period of time. The problem with Section 8 is that the tenant can pay back just enough to get below the 2 months and your case is stalled.

You can still go after them for Discretionary grounds rather than Mandatory ground and if you have enough of them then you might find a willing Judge. They are human and they take a dim view of arrears when there have been other grounds, you can read more about Section 8 grounds here:

https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/section-8-evicting-tenants/#grounds

Now your tenancy agreement was a contract, it will have terms that state how the agreement may be terminated, moving out was not one of those terms. Moreover leaving their stuff in the property just extends their debt. It would be a good idea to remind them that they are still bound by the contract until it is terminated and to give them a statement of what is owing.

You were right not to change the locks, I would not advise that unless you have a written communication from them or the Council. For them to have got a Council property so quickly they must be classed as vulnerable, maybe pregnant or mental health condition, or this illness you mention. Most Councils reach out to Landlords to get an idea of tenant conduct

How you proceed now is going to depend on what is more important to you, getting a new tenant in by reaching an agreement with them where you give them something off the arrears or you bide your time, go after them for breach of contract and damages to the property.

Enforcing a CCJ is not easy if they do not have any money or assets, first you have to find them, then you have to take them to Court which costs money and then you have to win before you can start to enforce it.

An approach I have seen work is to approach them saying you want to make them an offer to settle arrears with a discount, you take a hit on some of the arrears but in the settlement agreement as well as stating the payment schedule for the debt, you include that it settles all and any claims under Housing Act from both parties, you can explicitly include S213.

If they give you written notice to quit the property you can (with notice) put their stuff in storage and go after them for the cost of it, but you need to take photos and video of the condition of their stuff in situ first. You then have to list their possessions and say they will be disposed of within 28 days if not collected from your lock up by arrangement.

I can imagine how stressful this has been, you need to consider your health when you decide on the way forward. Some people want blood, but others see this as a learning experience. They take more care with the next tenant, make sure they follow the processes like deposit protection and serving the prescribed information and documents. They also draw up their own guidelines, for example how they will deal with rent arrears the first time it happens and thereafter.

What is key is to document anything and everything and to sent them a letter informing them of any breach, they also toughen up their tenancy agreements, for example applying a charge for cancelled appointments for Landlord/Tenant obligations. Whilst these need to be reciprocal if the Landlord does not turn up to be valid, they can be taken as a breach and applied against the DPS as a deduction from the deposit, subject to proper documentation of the breach.

@David

Thank you David for your quick reply. I agree, my solicitor has given me bad advise all the way. As I mentioned my solicitor said to pay them back the bond, never mentioned anything about a settlement agreement. It has been nearly three weeks now since I last spoke to my solicitor and still no response to my emails - a complete waste of time and money.

To be honest I don't think they have moved into a council property, more like private again as there seems to be a pattern in their behaviour. When they were due to move into my property they were a few weeks. I did make one big mistake by not registering the bond within 30 days, I always have done.

I just hope with the council sending them demand letters that they come to their senses.

I cannot thank you enough for all your help and guidance. This blog has given me more information than any one, so once again much appreciated David. I shall update as this weekend I should be having a phone call. However, I am not holding my breath :)

Sophia

Thank goodness I've found this as I was about to get the boys round to intimidate my tenants. Not really, but I have the added complication of the tenants being relatives so there's a massive element of emotional manipulation going on too. So far they are 4 days late with the rent for the first time and the excuses are ridiculous. They are on £40,000 a year and yet they are 'waiting for a cheque to clear' and they don't get paid by cheque (who does nowadays). The first excuse was 'I didn't realise it was the 1st' which they said on the 2nd. I never in a million years thought this would happen haha. Honour amongst family eh......thanks for the rant!

@Michelle

4 days is nothing, wait until you have not had a payment for 4 months!

This is a business, the lesson for you and others is NEVER RENT TO FAMILY, at some point or other they will regard you as a bank.

The way I would handle this is to write them a letter in accordance with your tenancy agreement that formally informs them of the consequences of their failure to pay.

A letter like this is firm and lets them know this will not be tolerated going forward. This is an example:

"Dear Mr Smith

I am writing regarding your missed and still outstanding rent payment of £1500 due on 31st May 2018.

In accordance with our tenancy agreement I need to make you aware that your failure to pay your rent is causing me financial hardship, risking my credit rating and as a result I will be incurring charges from my Mortgage company as well as interest charges. Again, in accordance with the tenancy agreement I will be passing these costs onto you and will hold you responsible as well as any long term impact.

Regardless of your reasons and excuses I must also advise you that your late payment and any future failure to pay rent on time can be grounds for eviction under Section 8 of the Housing Act.

I would like to think that this is a one off blip but, with respect, whatever your financial issues are they are not my problem; your rent should be your most important priority and you should make your own credit arrangements with your bank to avoid going short.

Please can you email me your firm proposals of when you will be paying the rent arrears in full, I would also expect a commitment that this will be the first and last time that your rent will be paid late.

I must also advise you that if the arrears are not brought up to date within the next 7 days and/or rent is not paid on time again I will have no choice but to issue with a formal notice under section 8 of the Housing Act, which will be the first stage of formal eviction proceedings. Such proceedings would not only result in eviction but also a County Court Judgement which could drastically affect your credit record.

I look forward to hearing from you at your nearest convenience.

Yours sincerely

M A Smyth"

Thanks very much for the advice and quick reply. I'm hoping that I'll be in a position to sell the house during the next couple of years and don't think I'll ever rent to anyone again, especially family!

Hi, i am just finding this excellent page as i am looking for some answers to a new problem i have with a tenant but sadly i think it has to do more with my state agent. One year ago i began to rent my home and i let a estate agent that was recommended highly to do the job. They found the tenant, an older lady that has with her 2 grandchildren under the age of 4 and the rent is being pay by her son and father of the children. Since the first month we began to have complaints about the bathroom that by the way was just fully renew so we were quite surprised it had problems, anyway, the problem was to be found under the bath and it was a leaking, so we send the repair guy intermediately but the lady refused to let anyone entry for around a month and a half due to different excuses and the estate agent said nothing could be done until the lady allow access to the repair guy. Then, when the repairs were in progress, the lady stopped allowing the people again to finish the job week after week, and this keep going on for just under a month. Strangely her son began to threaten us that it was unacceptable and that he was going to complain to the council, so in the end, my agent told us to give them one month for free rent as a sign of good faith and we did. The repair finally was finish. After a few months then we began to have more complains about the mold; again we went to try to fix it and the lady did not allow entrance to assess the cause initially. It took about 2 months for the lady to allow us to fix it with a external dry wall, it required 2 rooms, the main bedroom and a second bedroom to be fixed, the tenant just allow us to fix one room but not the other, again the son keep saying how useless we were and how his poor mother had asthma which she was suffering from but again they restricted access. The agent, well, again said it nothing could be done. Now, looking at their payment history they have never paid the rent on time, the agreement was the 3rd of each month, but this month it has been the worst, they are 13 days late and still no payment, her son informed us via the estate agent that he couldn't pay because he is in china working and he was supposed to have paid last week, I have to keep chasing the estate agent up for information. What the agent did say was if he did not pay then he was going to have to serve them with a" 21 section" or something like that ( sorry, i don't really know much about the law and after this week i am beginning to know more thanks to your blog and other pages). Well, now after reading your blog i am quite worried as i have just learn that the Energy performance certificate has not been done as the lady did not allow the guy to perform the test and until now still has not allowed it to happen but the agent said again it cant be done until she allows entrance. So i guess my questions are, what are my options here? is it not going to be possible to serve them with eviction as the energy performance certificate was not given to the tenants even they did not allow it to happen? how can i make my tenant to allow access for any repairs? do i have to take it to the council? can they make me responsible for the repairs not been done even the tenant is the one who did no allow it to happen? and is the agent responsible for any of this as he is the one, we are paying to manage the property who was supposed to be in charge of this?. How can we encourage to provide more than the minimal communication with us, as he does not respond always with the full answer that we would like? Many thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my many questions. I really appreciate your help and guidance where possible.

Does anyone have any ideas on my predicament?

I rent a house in Scotland and the tenants have been there since 2013, so they have an old Short-Assured Tenancy (SAT). About a year into the tenancy they started paying their rent two weeks late. After initial excuses this continued. I decide not to do anything about it since the payment regularly appeared, but just two weeks late. About three months ago no rent was paid and the tenant gave a really lame excuse. The money was eventually paid but now they have started paying a month late. I am sure this will be the normal pattern from now on but their lack of communication always has me worried about when and if I will receive the rent each month.

I could let this run but am worried it might be the prelude to rent being paid even more erratically or at some point not at all. It also causes me acute anxiety as every month I have this sense of fear that I’ll have to play run around to find out when they are going to pay.

Evicting them would be easy since it’s a SAT and I can use a “no-fault” process with no reason necessary. It’s a family with two children of primary school age.

So my dilemma is – they pay but never on time. So is it better to have the money rather than no money at all if I evict them and they just stop paying?

Does anyone have any experience of this or suggestions on what I should do?

Serve notice now.
In the unlikely event they start paying the rent on time, every time, no excuses, then don't act on it.
It is partly your own fault for letting them think the rent is optional.
With the scrapping of "no fault" evictions now in Scotland, you would not have been able to evict under the new rules.
Could you cope with dealing with this every month of your life for years and years?

Evict.
It's not going to get any better.

@Benji

For the new private residential tenancies:

"Ground 12: Rent arrears

A mandatory ground. If there have been arrears for at least three consecutive months and at least one month’s rent in total is owed on the day of the hearing.

It is discretionary ground if less than one month’s rent in total is owed."

@Mandy,

So the tenant reduces the rent to £1 less than one month's owing just before the hearing and the landlord has to start all over again.

Or the tenant makes up a counter claim.

It can take years to evict a determined rogue tenant.

In John's case above, he has already been putting up with this for 4 years before approaching breaking point and deciding to evict. Luckily, he can still evict under "no fault", otherwise it could be another 4 years or more before getting his property back.

@Mandy,

You also(conveniently?)missed this bit from your quote about Scotland;

Scotch Missed?

"It is not mandatory for the tribunal to make an eviction order if the rent arrears are due to any delay or failure (wholly or partly) in payment of rent caused by problems with relevant benefit payments."

I don't think there has ever been a "DSS" tenant who has not had at least some problem with benefit payments.

@Benji

Agreed it's certainly not ideal. However, I disagree with your assertion that it would not have been possible for John to evict under the new system, just a lot harder. And no, I am NO fan of the private residential tenancy and the removal of no fault eviction, IMHO the only good thing about the new system IN THEORY (and that remains to be seen in practice) is the introduction of possession cases being held by the Housing and Property tribunal.

@Mandy,

You are quite correct Mandy, it is possible.

I misinterpreted your post as claiming "no fault" evictions weren't necessary as there were other grounds for eviction. Apologies.

And let's not get started on proving the near impossible grounds for eviction under ASB!

@Benji

Tell me about it! I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has used the new Scottish system to evict, as the new "housing court" is supposed to resolve the issues around evicting under non arrears grounds, though no doubt it's going to be the same old situation with professional tenants submitting false pleas to schedule hearings and delay eviction.

Following on from comment #76 above - I served notice and they have two months to leave. They contacted me today saying that they had found a new place and wanted a reference. They say that if I don't give them one they will stay beyond the -ish date (which means I have to go down the court order route to evict them). I have told them again and again that I will not give them a reference if they owe me money and they haven't yet paid this months rent. So I am effectively being blackmailed into providing an untruthful reference. Even if I give them one there's always the danger that they then pay no more rent until the end of the tenancy having got what they wanted.

Part of me just wants to get rid of these dreadful people but on the other hand I resent being blackmailed and forced to lie in a reference. It could always rebound upon me, of course, if the lie is later discovered by a landlord further down the line. So I am tempted just to say "no rent, no reference" and see if that works. If I'm pushed into a court order situation then they'll get no reference at all and will, quite justifiably in my opinion, have to leave with nowhere to go.

Does anyone have any experience of this type of situation?

@John luckily I have never been in the situation you describe, but bear in mind that any reference you provide must be truthful. You could provide a reference that simply doesn't mention the tenants' record on rent paying and other bad behaviour at all just whatever good points they have. A future landlord or agent who pays proper due diligence won't simply accept a written reference, they will want to speak to you too.

Although I normally prefer email over text, I ALWAYS phone a prospective tenant's last landlord, as even if they don't give me any more information, you will often pick up hesitancy and voice tone which won't be conveyed in writing. Also, people are more likely to blurt something out on the spur of moment or say something verbally that they won't put in writing.

Another thing you can do is upload their details to the tenant history/delinquent tenant databases, so any future landlord is forewarned (Google it, there are a few around).

Hey,
Thanks for this post - I’m a tenant - always been on time for my rent, but Ive just moved and paid the deposit and first months rent on moving in, and now for the first time ever am going to be about a week late on half on my rent as I’m self employed and three of my clients are late paying me.
Wondering if I should pay the half I have or wait till I have it all, and how honest I should be? I want to have a good relationship with my Landlord and in over 10 years of renting I have never been late before so it’s really bad that this is with a brand new Landlord. It should also never happen again as I earn more than I spend but obviously the deposit was a large chunk of money making me tighter so when my clients didn’t pay I didn’t have my usual savings to use.
Any ideas of what you as Landlords would prefer your tenants to do in this situation?

In reply to Kate

You come across as genuine and fully aware of your need to pay rent on time but on this occasion are having problems paying. I would be up-front with your landlord and explain the circumstances that on this occasion have prevented you from paying in full. Particularly stress the burden paying the deposit has laid on you at the start of this tenancy. I would pledge to pay on time next time. What I would not do is just not pay in full without any warning or make up another type of story; so be honest.

I am a landlord and in this situation would let you pay when you have the money but certainly by the next due date. The problem might be if your landlord has mortgage payments to make from your rent, but even then if they are managing their finances properly they should be able to sit out a short period of non-payment from you. What I would not tolerate is habitual late or non-payment of rent.

Incidentally you may have self-employment insurance to cover any downturn in your income that might assist you.

This is all about being reasonable, and if you are honest about the situation then it would be a very callous individual who would take any sort of action against you in this situation.

@Kate Really great advice there from John. As a small landlord the very worst thing is being left in the dark about rent payments.

I would add that as it's a new landlord, it might be an idea to arrange for your previous landlord to reassure the new landlord about your rent payment record (assuming the new landlord didn't get a reference from the old one, which frequently happens, though it shouldn't).

Cripes - as a landlord reading all the above who's only had one seriously bad tenant in the past 25 years (who I hope will be signing a Deed of Surrender and moving out imminently) - this is all pretty alarming stuff! In my case I've just the one rental property, which is the annexe to my one and only home. It's so sad that terrrible tenants wreck the future opportunities for other people wanting to rent good quality, well-maintained and affordable homes, as I'm sure many landlords come to feel that the hassle of letting just isn't worth it after a bad experience. Think I'll be going down the route of taking the "fully managed" lets option in future, instead of doing them myself!

@Gabby

It can appear as a minefield but I guess to be a landlord you have to be quite thick-skinned. Bad tenants can, I agree, make you feel as if it's not worth it but in my case I am looking beyond these outgoing tenants to a better future when I'll have new people in who will hopefully not be as bad (although there are no guarantees). I have never had a good agent but despite this will use one next time; at least there's less chance of a tenant developing a habit of late payments with an agent.

Don't let a bad experience put you off letting.

who not pay should be ashamed. I heard to talk about a new service, should be ADDPAID. If I understood right you can publish overdue payments, invoices ( and rent in your case) to affect their reputations and shame anyone for bad behavior.

Or better still use The Rental Exchange (though if you're a small landlord -defined as owning less than £500 properties - it's voluntary on the tenant's part. There are also delinquent tenant databases such as LandlordReferencing.co.uk or Tenant History.

Hello all, we have tenants who are causing problems for us.tenants dirty, leaving the property for days and now weeks unheated and unventilated, mold now starting to flourish in abundance, we only found out about that when tenant broke saniflo toilet with wet wipes and proceeded to use the bath as a toilet for over a week!
which has been rectified by myself and husband.this property is next door to us, we have always been friendly with the tenants so can't work out how or why this is happening. Now we fear that the rent is not going to be paid and we are fearful of the property being ever more damaged by the lack of heat and mold and general neglect, help ?

I let tenants into my property in the middle of November no charge they paid a deposit one month which I put the deposit into a bank interest account
they paid December 2019. They have not paid January and February 2020
I still have the mortgage to pay landlords insurances and Gas etc

They are leaving the property on the 29th Feburary,2020 and have damaged the front door (no animals allowed) the front door has been clawed to pieces by a dog)
Now they have asked for the deposit back . Even though they owe me £1,800.00 pounds for rent

As far as I am concerned they can run and jump for their deposit.

Pay me the rent and then I will deduct damage to my property from the deposit.

regards.

We have been landlords for over 20 years and at the moment we have some great tenants and the ones giving us problems are 1 pair on Universal Credit with over 2 months rent arrears and one single who pays sporadically on his terms and he has been with us for 3 years and now I'm getting fed up. I am a member of the NRLA and I rely on their legal advice, its the best I have found, well worth the membership. Your blog is a very good read. I think being a landlord and getting it right is the hardest job I have ever had.

We have had a tenant in what was my mother-in-law's bungalow. As soon as Covid happened, the tenant stopped paying rent, saying he and his partner were in financial difficulties. We were understanding and asked the letting agent to negotiate a payment plan. The tenant has refused to negotiate a payment plan and has refused to vacate the property. The Government has legislated against eviction of anyone, and has just extended the legislation for another two months.

As a retired couple, we live on the rent. We are currently owed more than £5,000. In another two months, we will be owed approximately £7,500. While we fully understand that renters are having problems, it is entirely unreasonable simply to transfer their problems to the landlord. The Government has provided financial help for tenants; but none for landlords. Why is it that, over and over again, those who have worked hard, saved and invested have to bail out those who haven't? It's because, having worked hard, saved and invested we have a bit of money which the Government can take; whereas those who haven't, don't. Not a good way to motivate responsible, socially beneficial behaviour, is it!

Can I just say, that as a tenant - this is a fantastic site into the world of problems that landlords face. I’ll be sure to share a link with all my tenant friends so that information asymmetry isn’t also capitalised! Great stuff!

You describe tenants as ‘unconscionable low lifes ’ . This speaks volumes. Diatribe about how wonderful landlords are and how abhorrent tenants are. Your blog reads as if we never moved out of serfdom. Possibly the most revolting article I’ve read.

Your language is atrocious in respect of tenants... ‘assholes’ ‘bullshit artists’ ‘unconscionable low lifes’ . Utter indefensible trash and I’ll happily take that appalling vocabulary out of context because you certainly don’t use the same language when talking about landlords, some of whom are appallingly shit and greedy, money fleecing landlords. Glad I got a response from you..your writing made
my stomach churn.

I can only assume Calum has never read articles about private landlords in the Guardian, particularly the comments to those, which describes ALL private landlords, without exception, as being scum simply by virtue of owning and renting out BTL property.

@The_Landlord morever, your blogging style is best described as irreverent and NO-ONE is spared!! :-)

Any chance Calum could take his Projection somewhere else and we could have some answers to the question.

I am trying to issue a claim for unpaid rent via MCOL and I'm confused about one thing - the interest calculation. For sake of argument:

- The non-payment period is from 21/09/19 to 01/12/19.
- To round up, let's say that's £3,000 in rent.
- I want to add the interest, which I understand is 8% according to the County Court Act.
- So is the calculation based on £3,000 from the START date of the unpaid rent (21/09/19), or the END date, when they moved out without paying (01/12/19)?

The reason I'm confused is because obviously the FULL £3,000 wasn't due on 21/09/19, so I'm wondering why I'd work out interest on £3k from that date to the date of my MCOL claim.

Perhaps that is correct but I don't want to invalidate my claim. Grateful if somebody can clarify, please.

Thanks in advance.

Cooey anyone still here, as it's been almost two years since the last entry?