Tenant has stopped paying rent!

Reply to the comment left by Amanda Osborne at 22/07/2023 – 11:47
Oh Amanda, I feel your pain
It is absolutely disgraceful the cheating and lies some of these bad tenants get away with.
I suppose if your eligible for legal aid you can afford to do/ say whatever you like?

Reply to the comment left by Amanda Osborne at 22/07/2023 – 11:47
Hi Amanda I feel your pain. Just going through this myself early stages. I do have 1 solution which may help maybe someone can confirm. All these costs you should out them as an expense, it will lower your tax bill. Not sure if this is allowable expense, someone conform.

Reply to the comment left by Amanda Osborne at 22/07/2023 – 13:08
Amanda why did you not raise the rent and say market rate?

Reply to the comment left by Trapes at 17/07/2023 – 14:14
Tracey, – you need far more help than a blog site , even as good as P118,

We give initial free advice, but Counter claims are a lot of ( professional ) work and expensive to defend
( but nowhere near as expensive as losing ! )

Reply to the comment left by Happy housing at 22/07/2023 – 16:18
Initially the tenant’s HB covered her rent so direct payment worked perfectly. However as her HB reduced when children grew up the council were not obliged to keep HB paying rent. It was down to tenant to make up the difference. So market rent was irrelevant. The council claimed only HB could be paid to the LL direct and that amount was dependent on tenant’s personal circumstances. I imagine the partner was meant to contribute as well. The tenant did not go on to UC until 2022. What is also so wrong with the entire system is that her adult children continued to live at the property but refused to contribute and nothing I could do about that either. In the tenant’s actual words to me “it is their lifestyle choice to claim benefits as they do not want to work”.

But 1 thing missing Amanda, upon yearly renewal the council ask for a renewed tenancy agreement. If you do not confirm to sign this they dont get any money?

Use a UC47 so that the rent will go to you directly.

I would also complain to the Legal Aid Board, RICS and the Law Society for misappropriation of Legal Aid (taxpayers) Fund, and sharp practice by her solicitors regarding their overall conduct i.e. late service of documents, notice etc and you not having sufficient time to appoint your own surveyor/ legal advisor etc.
As for the District Judge impartiality- do not be taken in by any such claims. A District Judge can and does make bizarre and perverse decisions so make sure you offer or indeed provide any bolt holes open.

Reply to the comment left by RCJ at 22/07/2023 – 17:26
That was my understanding and experience until reading this thread, I thought 2 months of arrears it was mandatory, but multiple people he have had it declined based on T’s response.

Reply to the comment left by Happy housing at 22/07/2023 – 17:07
There was no problem receiving the tenant’s HB directly. My tenant was classed as vulnerable (!) and HB was paid direct to me from the start of the tenancy. At that time her HB was sufficient to pay her rent in full. Any payment suspensions were usually due to the tenant failing to provide documentation when council requested eg bank accounts etc. HB is not based on whatever rent is being charged. It is based on an individual’s circumstances, dependents etc. These things obviously change. It is then up to the tenant to make up any shortfall between HB and rent. In my case the tenant’s HB decreased slowly over a period of time but she failed to make up any shortfall.