Michele, start taking whatever you need to chill, you might be in for the long haul.

 I am at the end of an eviction process for our tenants to whom we let the flat out of sympathy/ kindness and because it had been empty for a couple of months; Eviction process started long after it was probably due, down to non payment of rent (after 2 years succesful). If your tenant says she will move and she does, be thankful. You can check her credit rating and position with the gas/electric suppliers, or maybe that's metered. to check her integrity. You are not responsible for unpaid gas/ electric. She is entitled to change the locks, but must give you reasonable access  24 or 72 hour notice, after which time you are entitled to legally enter, with or without her present (though I guess you need new keys!) Check your contract. Don't have nightmares about this, we had been succesfuly letting for 10 years and then........from 2004 .My tenants rent had had been irregular for 3 years but then dried up with all sorts of hardship pleas. We issued a section 8 and 21 notice in October 07 for tenants to quit by 17 Dec or go to court. they didn't, we went to court, 7th Jan. they didn't, they were given a CCJ and got a 14 day notice to quit and repay over £2000 back rent and costs. Still nothing but excuses. Bailiff instructed (due any day now but it couldbe 2-3 weeks) that's when the fire happened (but they didn't tell us). Firemen rescued some animals and a cat died. So the place is uninhabitable and I think they have taken whatever stuff they want, including light fittings and fire surrounds and it looks abandoned with an untaxed car on the plot. Still no keys handed back, but we have access. So I contacted the gas/electric supplier to discover that they too are owed hundreds of pounds. We have no recourse unless we want to issue further proceedings at our cost, also unrecoverable.  We don't actually have legal right of access unless the tenants surrender their keys until the Bailiff officially takes over. Aagh!  Then we can start all over. The "accidental" fire might have been a blessing in disguise as at least we have insurance and the place wants gutting.........so if your tenant goes and you lose a couple of months rent finding good tenants, be happy. The contracts set to protect us are actually worthless against a bad tenant. The experience tells us to: get a big deposit, really take time to know your prospective tenant and understand that your contract is worthless against a bad tenant! (and probably unnecessary for a good one) I just wish you good luck with it. ..and does anyone have any ideas how to create a tenant black list which protects future unsuspecting landlords?
I think we should all fit electronic key entry systems which only work if bills are paid and landlord has the master key!.............fromChris (becoming wiser), with distraught wife learning to cope with it

Hi, I have a problem with my tenant to whom I gave 2 months notice to move out by 1st March 2008. 

I have two agents that I have instructed to find me a new tenant and have been made aware by both agents that my tenant will not allow anyone into the property even though she has arranged viewings well in advance.  I told the agent to go into the property with the key and she has either changed the lock or added another lock to the front door.

She is also not moving out on 1st March and has informed me that she will be moving out on 8th March 2008.

Has anyone any advice please?  Is there anything I can do to get her to allow viewings in the property and also what I can do about her staying in the property longer than legally allowed?

Regards,
Michelle

Hi

I've been doing a lot of reading, as we where also wanting to withold rents.  Although you can, i personally wouldn't recommend you do that.

If you go on www.letlink.co.uk it gives you a break down of all the acts that you as a tenant are covered by and tells you what the best steps are, to take within the law. 

Last thing you want, is for the landlord or agent to get one up on you.

Seriously go on the website, its fantastic

Hope all works out for you

We have been without our gas boiler for approx 18 months,  meaning we've had no heat source or hot water. we verbally contacted our landlord but he insisted we paid to get it fixed, then he would give us the money back (we have no written contract).

After much research i now discover it is his obligation to fix.  The issue is, we are now moving out.  However we are bitterly fed up with him

Although we can not prove we contacted him to make aware of the situation. if he had maintained his legal obligation of doing gas checks annualy (which we can prove he didn't) this would have been picked up then and resolved.

Does this help us in our case, of trying to make a claim against him, specifically against not fixing the boiler?

Any help, advice, feed back would be so genuinly appreciated.

Thanks in advacne
I'm not



 

Hi All,

I'm new to this site only just found it.  I'm letting my house through an agent.  Sadly 2 months back my tenants stopping paying and are under obligation to move out at the end of Feb - 4 months without rent by then.  The agent claims to be following the guidelines Section 8 and Section 21 (but that doesn't pay my rent) so the tenant can't be evicted until the end of Feb.

Has anybody ever used a Debt Collection Agency to recover their outstanding rent?

Cheers

JFM

The managing agents of the property we started renting in the Summer have been shut down by the police for keeping rent payments from landlords and pocketing deposits from tenants. Now we have handed in our notice (directly to the landlord) we understand he now becomes liable for giving us our deposit back, even though it was paid to his managing agent who have spent it themselves rather than putting it into a deposit scheme! Any suggestions - is our landlord likely to realise the unfortunate position he's in or is he in a position to argue he's not liable to pay it?  The managing agent also kept 2 of the rental payments we made to them which they should have passed on to the landlord.

Hello

I privately rented aproperty last year and had 1 year tenancy. I had a lot of issues when I lived there, mainly no heating and hot water for 3 months (landlord wouldnt do repairs)and severe anti-social neighbours. I decided in July to give my landlady notice via email which she wasnt happy with.
To cut a long story short, she has been harrassing me at work saying I have stolen furniture, trashed the house causing £5,000 damage,abadoned the peoperty and kept the keys, and owe several thousand pounds of rent. She is taking me to court, when i saw her claim I was upset as she hasnt been very truthful and all neogiations I have tried with her have failed(before court papers issued )
She claims to have photos of all the damage(roof, stolen lightbulbs etc etc). I have a soliciotr appt on january for advice as i am defending the claim. I never had an inventory either -will that matter?
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

Hi 

My boyfriend and i split up, so i sent him off to the letting agent with the notice. The contract says after the initial 6 months we must give one months notice. 6 months been and gone, so we gave in notice on 5th December so we can leave 5th January 2008. They have now said as we moved in on the 19th, we can only leave on the 19th. I told them it does not state that in the contract anything about leaving the same day you move in, it says a months notice after the 6 months is up. I have rented loads of places before, with the same wording and never had a problem. They just said even if i go to citizens advice, they will tell me the same thing! Can anyone advise me please?
x

Hi all....

This is my first time using this forum and i look forward to your proffessional wisdom.

I have flat which i manage, the landlord does not wish to go through a solicitor and therefore would like me to arrange possesion of the flat, what do i do?

The facts:

Tenant is rent regisitered.
Current arrears 2500+ ( 6months)
I have sent numerous letters, in the past he used to let the arrears build up and then make a payment of half the arrears and thereby starting the whole story again.
The solicitor sent a letter 10 days ago- threatning possession with no further warning


What notice do is serve, after that has been serve do apply to the county court??

Looking forward to the help.

N

Our tenant has become an agent for a utility company and proposes to run this business part time from our property.  He has a full-time shift job outside of the house.  I naturally do not want the address of the house used in any form of advertising and he has told me that he has been allocated a free phone number so that the tel number of the house is not advertised either.  I wish to make an amendment to his tenancy agreement to allow him to do this but state clearly that it remains a residential agreement and that on no account should the address/tel number be advertised.  What is the best way to do this? 
Thanks for reading
Charente