Apparently good tenant turns bad; now on DSS

[Jayne]

I have a question about gaining possession with a tenant who is now DSS.

When the 6 month AST agreement started on the 25th October 2004 my tenant provided good work refs and also paid 6 months rent up front. The AST agreement ended on the 25th April 2005 (10 days ago). I issued Section 21 Possession Notice 2 months before end of AST. Now the tenant is refusing to move out and claims to have a whole host of problems including no job, no where to move to, depression, single parent, 3 children, etc.

What's the best course of action here - is at to follow the Accelerated Possession Procedure? Am I likely to get possession? Am wondering what difference the fact that my tenant is now DSS will make to the court. Paperwork I have seen at the property indicates that my tenant has been claiming housing benefit for several months. Since she stopped paying rent on 25th April when the AST agreement ended then how do the DSS know that the landlord is not in receipt of any rent? Have never dealt with DSS before - its just the way its turned out this time! Many thanks.

[MrWoof]

When the 6 month AST agreement started on the 25th October 2004 my tenant provided good work refs and also paid 6 months rent up front. The AST agreement ended on the 25th April 2005 (10 days ago). I issued Section 21 Possession Notice 2 months before end of AST.Your AST actually finished on the 24th April, this is the date that should have been on the tenancy agreement and your S21 should have read 'after 24th April'. If this is not the case then you must reissue the S21. Providing you have done this, ask your local county court for form N5B, follow the instructions that come with the forms and simply hand them back to the court (with a cheque for £150). If the paperwork is correct then a notice to quit will be issued by the court which can be backed up by bailiffs if necessary. Your tenant can then take this to the local council who are obliged to rehouse him.
If you don't want to go down this road, you can ask your tenant to have the housing benefit paid directly to you and he can pay a top up if necessary. Housing benefit is paid by the local council, not DSS but they have no responsibility to you, that's why you need the tenant's permission for HB to be paid to you, they will supply the necessary paperwork though. You could point out to the tenant that it is in his best interests to take this route. People on this forum are divided on the issue of HB tenants, personally I am happy with them but I am in a minority.

[Paul_f]

Mr Woof. Please be careful here. The AST does not necessarily end on 24th April, it could quite conceivably be 25th - I won't go into all the reasons.

Jayne is obviously not familiar with the hoops she has to jump through with HB claimants, but suffice to say that even after she obtains a possession order through the courts she will almost certainly have to use a bailiff to evict the tenant at further cost; the reason being as has often been posted before, the tenant will make themselves voluntarily homeless if they move without being evicted by a bailiff's warrant.

In the meantime there is no reason whilst the local authority should not be still be making rent payments, but they could of course be going directly to the tenants who is not passing the money on to the landlord.

[Jayne]

Mr Woof & Paul F thanks very much for the advice. You are right - I don't know the in's & out's of dealing with HB claimants. I took on a tenant who had a job at the time and I intentionally avoided HB claimants but I suppose losing your job can happen to anyone. I understand about the need for the court order and the baliff. I know that the LA are making payments to my tenant (her friend informed me about this!) but the tenancy finished 3 weeks ago and she has not passed me a penny since then. Seems that there is not a lot I can do about getting any of this money even if I get in touch with the LA? Do I have any bargaining power here with my tenant?

[Muse]

Not much help at the moment, but you can request all HB payments are made to you once the tenant is 8 weeks in arrears. I would make contact now & start the ball rolling.