Tenant not paying rent

[Chestrockwell]

A property I manage for a family member has a Tenant had 80% rent paid by universal credit paid into his account directly

Payments stopped in January but didnt realise until May, she said the council/UC whoever stopped paying and said she was struggling and promised she would try pay it off and get the council to pay off the arrears. We sympathised as shes a young single mother in a time where the smallest tesco branded ketchup costs 1.35 in tescos, everythings gone up.

We served section 21 last month as it just got to much, owes nearly £10,000 and every week she has a new excuse.

Today, the landlord said what if shes keeping the money for herself that shes supposed to pay for the rent so I called universal credit today and they said she requested the payments directly for herself, wouldnt give any other details but this would have been from January!

I seriously doubt the tenant has saved that money, I also doubt she has any money either

I looked online and the person on the phone said you can take them to court for the arrears but even if we do and give it to debt collection agency, how are they going to get money off someone who has no money?

Anyone been in a position like this before, is that money gone forever? The rent for that propery was the landlords retirement/pension, hes not some rich landbaron

[TownIdiot]

As the expression goes - you can't get blood out of a stone.

It's more than likely she's spent the money as you suspect

[Puzzles]

In my experience you’ll have to go through the long process as the council will tell her to stay put until the bitter end.

In this day and age my landlord clients are very quick to start proceedings for non payment.

[Puzzles]

Oh and agree, the chances of seeing the cash are very slim.

[Big_Dog]

You might want to be getting on with a section 8. ! am 11k down so far, with still no date from the bailiff.
I have been waiting 3 months so far for a bailiff.
The council will not rehouse my tenant until she has a s21 a s8 and a bailiffs letter.

[Jimjimhim]

It should be classed as some sort of theft, landlords need more powers to quickly get these people out.

[Rusty Old-Banger]

Jimjimhim said:

It should be classed as some sort of theft, landlords need more powers to quickly get these people out.

Tory scum. Starmer is letting a rapist out of prison so you can take his place for using language like that.

[Chestrockwell]

Big_Dog said:

You might want to be getting on with a section 8. ! am 11k down so far, with still no date from the bailiff.
I have been waiting 3 months so far for a bailiff.
The council will not rehouse my tenant until she has a s21 a s8 and a bailiffs letter.

I was worried it might come to that.

One thing I don't understand is, the council having to rehouse the tenant will cost money, why dont they just use that money to pay the rent for the tenant and save all that hassle?

How has nobody in the government, scratched their heads and thought, hang on a sec, why dont we make sure the rent payments go directly to the landlord. We make sure the scummy types dont blow the rent money on cigarettes and cocaine. While doing that, we save a load of time on those cases, save hours on admin and the phone lines will be availabe to the people who actually need help. I spent over an hour on hold to today to universal credit, 20 minutes on the phone to the person, Imagine the tenant couldnt over ride the payments for rent.

[Wish]

Play her at her own game. When she’s out go and steal the front and back doors.
She wants to play silly games of fraud then let the games begin.

[cb31]

Chestrockwell said:

I was worried it might come to that.

One thing I don't understand is, the council having to rehouse the tenant will cost money, why dont they just use that money to pay the rent for the tenant and save all that hassle?

They already have paid the rent for her once, the criminal tenant just decided to keep it for herself and not pay the rent. The council should rehouse her in a jail, why should the taxpayer bail her out time and again? Taxpayer money should be spent on deserving causes, not criminals.

[Wings]

I recently served a Section 21 (6a) possession Notice on asingle mother with two children, due to several breaches of her tenancy agreement. One breach covering an additional adult salary earner occupant in the rental property. Tenant normally paid rent directly to me, but on service of the above Section 21 (6a) tenant stopped paying the rent.

Many landlords make the mistake of not understanding when a tenant becomes two months in arrears, it is when the tenant fails to make the second month payment. Which in my case the tenant failed to pay her rent on 6th October (first payment date), and the 6th November (second month payment). I then in addition on 7th November served a Section 8 Notice.

Last week I submitted an online application to Universal Credit, stating that the tenant was two months in arrears, non payment on the 6th October and 6th November. Today I received a rental payment covering the 6th October direct from Universal Credit

[Chestrockwell]

Jimjimhim said:

It should be classed as some sort of theft, landlords need more powers to quickly get these people out.

Some supermarkets put steak in plastic security boxes yet people with nothing can steal money from the council and steal living space from landlords.

Not only, is it not a crime, the tenant has to remain in the place until the victim jumps through hoops, pays thousands on court fees to get a piece of paper to finally evict the tenant. The council then spend money to house the thief after and they get away with it.

What sepeates us from third world countries is how civilised we are and our laws, thats why people risk drowning in the channel just to come here over places where the problems landlords here face dont exist.

However, I cant help but think, the logic councils use is the dumbest and most wasteful thing I have seen. The only winner is the person who doesnt have to do anything, maybe I should quit my job, give everything up and live like these people, just get free money and free housing with no consequences. I might do it when GTA6 comes out

Edited by Chestrockwell on Monday 25th November 21:01

[Saleen836]

cb31 said:

Chestrockwell said:

I was worried it might come to that.

One thing I don't understand is, the council having to rehouse the tenant will cost money, why dont they just use that money to pay the rent for the tenant and save all that hassle?

They already have paid the rent for her once, the criminal tenant just decided to keep it for herself and not pay the rent. The council should rehouse her in a jail, why should the taxpayer bail her out time and again? Taxpayer money should be spent on deserving causes, not criminals.

'Young single mother' it's like a get (stay) out of jail free card

[Wings]

Big_Dog said:

You might want to be getting on with a section 8. ! am 11k down so far, with still no date from the bailiff.
I have been waiting 3 months so far for a bailiff.
The council will not rehouse my tenant until she has a s21 a s8 and a bailiffs letter.

Have you requested a High Court bailiff, took me just three weeks from Court's repossession date.

[Macneil]

How did neither you nor the landlord not notice she wasn't paying any rent at all?

Of course she's in the wrong, but if you had been more diligent you'd have nipped it in the bud?

[Chestrockwell]

Macneil said:

How did neither you nor the landlord not notice she wasn't paying any rent at all?

Of course she's in the wrong, but if you had been more diligent you'd have nipped it in the bud?

I know and I cant believe I let it go this far, the UC/Council whoever were paying the money in every month like clockwork, it was only he got a letter because his mortgage payment bounced twice that we checked, by that point it was 3 months, since then been playing catch up, she lied to me she said they stopped paying her and theyre going to pay it back shes got to wait etc. She sounded so sincere at the time, said she wants to stay and not uproot her daughter.

It was only after I read that people can redirect the money to themselves to check

When I say manage, I sorted the contract, deposit and general admin stuff, inspections etc. I'm no expert at this and nor is the landlords. I guess thats why landlord have such a bad name and are having their rights revoked, because of people like her, just take advantage of the system, making landlords more dilligent and firm, thus creating the issues we have now, its a process designed to make sure the landlord is the recipient of a 10 inch d*ldo

[DRichardson]

Whilst the tenant is completely in the wrong here perhaps landlords partially get a bad name for not taking the business seriously and being experts.

[Southerner]

It isn’t difficult to see why small, private landlords are jacking it in in their droves. As government increasingly places all of the cards into the hands of tenants, so inevitably the temptation for some of them to play silly buggers gets greater and greater, as more and more people decide they have nothing to lose so may as well play the game. Councils actively encouraging this behaviour in order to protect their budgets is, frankly, abhorrent.

My OH has suggested in the past that we invest in a buy-to-let, I’ve told her I wouldn’t touch the private landlord game with a bargepole. The sad irony being that as decent, honest private landlords are slowly discouraged from investing or are driven out of the business through potentially ruinous experiences with disinterested tenants, we’ll end up with a rental market dominated by companies and property barons, which helps nobody. The need for rental stock isn’t reducing any time soon, but the quality of the landlords almost certainly will.

[Southerner]

DRichardson said:

Whilst the tenant is completely in the wrong here perhaps landlords partially get a bad name for not taking the business seriously and being experts.

That fails to consider that many landlords are just normal working people who’ve invested their savings into a deposit on a buy-to-let for their retirement. They’re never going to be “experts”, just normal folk hoping they don’t get royally done over by thieves. If they weren’t making up a decent chunk of the market it leaves just the unscrupulous and the corporate; I know who I’d rather rent from.

[DRichardson]

Southerner said:

That fails to consider that many landlords are just normal working people who’ve invested their savings into a deposit on a buy-to-let for their retirement. They’re never going to be “experts”, just normal folk hoping they don’t get royally done over by thieves. If they weren’t making up a decent chunk of the market it leaves just the unscrupulous and the corporate; I know who I’d rather rent from.

Sorry but this is business with valuable assets and risks and responsibilities - it's not a hobby if serious about investing for retirement.