I'm a new landlord and 3 months ago we got our first tenant in via a letting agency...they did the vetting, aggreements, standing order etc. Now, we received our first months rent + deposite via the agent and the second months rent straight into our account from the tenant via bank giro credit and not standing order as agreed in tennacy agreement! This motnhts rent is now overdue, granted at the moment just by a few days, but when I called them to find out why and if there were any problems! The tenant said that he would speak to his partner and find out why we'd not been paid and that he'd get back to me. His partner did indeed call back and told me that they'd been burgled a week or so ago...phone and credit cards stolen! I find this hard to believe as surely being the landlord they should have told me, they called the Police so a crime number will be available. She also told me that she'd checked a statement and it showed money transfered but, then checked a more rescent one and it showed no money at all! It just seems starnge that they've cancelled the standing order and are now late with only the 3rd months rent and have a rather unbelievable story

Alarm bells are ringing and I'm not in the position to have non paying tenants, I have 1 property and their rent pays the mortgage...I don't want to seem heavy handed but this was bought as an investment for the future...we'd receive bad credit etc through no fault of our own!

Can anybody please help and advise...I'd be extremely grateful!