Tenant not paying rent and not answering any of my calls - please advice

**Snorkerz** · 27-01-2013 09:53 AM

In that case, there is no doubt there is a tenancy and your solicitor is right.

Does your tenancy agreement state that you can use section 8 (ground 8 or 10) to regain possession?

**ruddy345** · 31-01-2013 11:27 AM

Contact and email the council and say rent hasnt been paid for x amount of time. Send the proper section 21 start proceedings and copy a letter to her and to the council. COntact HB and let them know as well. Good luck!

**Brb** · 01-02-2013 08:10 AM

T & LL seem as clueless as each other.

Suggest if you want to get this resolved is to go to the council together. In a NICE way mind you. Explain that you are very concerned that the claim will not be backdated and if T paying rent on another tenancy it is possible for her to claim for the overlap. It HAS to be asked for though.

No you shouldn't have to help a T with their claim so much but the alternative is no money coming in and you don't have a clue how to bring the tenancy to an end legally.

Do NOT change the locks.

**geek84** · 07-02-2013 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by Brb

T & LL seem as clueless as each other.

Suggest if you want to get this resolved is to go to the council together. In a NICE way mind you. Explain that you are very concerned that the claim will not be backdated and if T paying rent on another tenancy it is possible for her to claim for the overlap. It HAS to be asked for though.

No you shouldn't have to help a T with their claim so much but the alternative is no money coming in and you don't have a clue how to bring the tenancy to an end legally.

Do NOT change the locks.

Hi folks

I’m just giving you an update on my situation and would like further advice from you kind folks out there, in terms of what I need to do next-

I have now found out that my tenant (who signed a short term tenancy agreement in November 2012 and has never paid any rent or deposit, and had assured me that she had put in a claim for Housing Benefit), had in fact never put the claim to HB, and hasn’t paid a penny towards the rent or deposit up to date.

She has in fact only put in her claim for Housing Benefit from the end of January 2013. She now claims that ‘something went wrong with the first application’ and that I should now get some sort of rent payment within the next 4 weeks. Do you think that is possible?

Assuming that I do get the rent payments from January this year, what about the period when I didn’t receive any rent – November 2012 to January 2013. Is it worth approaching the HB people and showing them the short term tenancy agreement in an attempt to persuade them to back date the rent due? Of course, they might say we only received the application in January this year, so we can’t do that. If that happens, should I go through the courts in order to obtain the rent covering the period November 2012 to January 2013? Of course, in that case the tenant might say to the courts that she has not got enough money/savings, so cannot pay up or the court may give her some ridiculous order to pay off £2 per week to make up the rent arrears. If I decide to take this route, how long would it take and would I incur any costs?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

**thesaint** · 07-02-2013 13:08 PM

Originally Posted by geek84

Hi folks

I’m just giving you an update on my situation and would like further advice from you kind folks out there, in terms of what I need to do next-

I have now found out that my tenant (who signed a short term tenancy agreement in November 2012 and has never paid any rent or deposit, and had assured me that she had put in a claim for Housing Benefit), had in fact never put the claim to HB, and hasn’t paid a penny towards the rent or deposit up to date.

She has in fact only put in her claim for Housing Benefit from the end of January 2013. She now claims that ‘something went wrong with the first application’ and that I should now get some sort of rent payment within the next 4 weeks. Do you think that is possible?

Assuming that I do get the rent payments from January this year, what about the period when I didn’t receive any rent – November 2012 to January 2013. Is it worth approaching the HB people and showing them the short term tenancy agreement in an attempt to persuade them to back date the rent due? Of course, they might say we only received the application in January this year, so we can’t do that. If that happens, should I go through the courts in order to obtain the rent covering the period November 2012 to January 2013? Of course, in that case the tenant might say to the courts that she has not got enough money/savings, so cannot pay up or the court may give her some ridiculous order to pay off £2 per week to make up the rent arrears. If I decide to take this route, how long would it take and would I incur any costs?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Is this a different tenant?

**theartfullodger** · 07-02-2013 13:16 PM

There is a similar/related thread at another place where the following has been asked...
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4387935

There was a legalistic arguement earlier in the thread about rent frequency and S8 arrears criteria. This is relevant.

OP: what does the tenancy say about rent? Is it
* £X per month (or 'monthly')
* £X per week
* £X every two weeks

or what?

My advice in this situation would be to serve a S8 as soon as validly possible (which depends on the answer to the Q above.)

This in itself will incentivise the tenant to start paying rent! And if they don't, then you can evict, learn a serious lesson (you really did lay yourself open to this) and move on with a new tenant.

Could you kindly answer, please??

Cheers!

**geek84** · 07-02-2013 15:56 PM

Originally Posted by theartfullodger

There is a similar/related thread at another place where the following has been asked...
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4387935

Could you kindly answer, please??

Cheers!

Hi artfullodger

Thank U for your reply.

Yes, I did have a similar thread - it was an oversight and sorry for the confusion!!