Advice needed on tenants owing rent and repair costs

[Moneyangel22]

Hi,

2 months ago I served a scetion s21 notice on my tenants because they have failed to pay the rent for the last 2 months.

They replied giving me one months notice and moved out last weekend owing the last 2 months rent.

On inspecting the property last night they have left it in an awful state. The entire house needs to be cleaned from top to bottom, there are stains on the carpets and some items have been broken/damaged. There is also a garage full of rubbish which I will need to get removed. They also erected 2 wooden structures for a dog which they did not have permission to have at the property.

Overall I will need to spend money to get the house in a fit state for new tenants. I have their security deposit, which unfortunately I did not put in a protected scheme because I did not know that I had to do that at the time. (I know, I know, I should have made sure I knew what my responsibilities were), but I am a good landlord and made sure everything that went wrong in the property was fixed asap etc.

Overall these tenants will owe me a few hundred pounds by the time I have sorted everything out and I was wondering how easy it would be to claim that back through the small claims courts?
The tenants have not left a forwarding address suprisingly so I would have to track them down first.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Snorkerz]

Hi,

2 months ago I served a scetion s21 notice on my tenants because they have failed to pay the rent for the last 2 months.

They replied giving me one months notice and moved out last weekend owing the last 2 months rent.

On inspecting the property last night they have left it in an awful state. The entire house needs to be cleaned from top to bottom, there are stains on the carpets and some items have been broken/damaged. There is also a garage full of rubbish which I will need to get removed. They also erected 2 wooden structures for a dog which they did not have permission to have at the property.

Overall I will need to spend money to get the house in a fit state for new tenants. I have their security deposit, which unfortunately I did not put in a protected scheme because I did not know that I had to do that at the time. (I know, I know, I should have made sure I knew what my responsibilities were), but I am a good landlord and made sure everything that went wrong in the property was fixed asap etc.

Overall these tenants will owe me a few hundred pounds by the time I have sorted everything out and I was wondering how easy it would be to claim that back through the small claims courts?
The tenants have not left a forwarding address suprisingly so I would have to track them down first.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.For your own protection, you need to return the deposit in full. Then you can put a claim in via www.moneyclaim.gov.uk.

I assume you have a signed condition report / inventory from when the tenant moved in?

If so, cleaning should be easy to recover.

Outright damage should again be easy

Anything that is 'wear and tear' can not be claimed, but if it is above fair wear and tear then you can claim the difference.

You can submit a claim using the last known address, but will have difficulty enforcing it if you don't know where they are. It may pay you to find them by hiring a 'tracing agent' - the AST may allow this fee to be charged to the tenant.

[Moneyangel22]

Update:

I got judgement by default as the tenants didnt have their mail redirected so couldnt reply to the claim. I found their new address by chance and so sent bailliffs round and also forwarded their mail on to them as soon as I knew their new address.
They hired a solicitor who has applied for the judgement to be set aside and the claim reissued to their new address so they can defend. The solicitor also offered me a settlement in instalments which initially I agreed to but they have already missed the first payment, so I would like to continue the claim.
A hearing has been set for this month to discuss their application to set aside the judgement. As soon as I had their new address I had intended to reissue the claim to their new address, but does this mean I cant do that now? or can I, as that is part of what they are applying for anyway??

Thanks