UK Landlord Forum / Life

  Tenants contract was for  12 months from december 2014. My tenant has been sporadically paying the rent since November  2015. The property is handled by an agent. In April 2016 they ceased paying altogether. The agent has tried to get in contact  with the tenant several times to no avail. The agent wrote and asked for the rent but still  no communication from the tenant.  I was then informed by the agent that the tenant has changed the locks.  I questioned how he knew and he says that the next door neighbour told him athough I have my doubts and think he may have tried the lock himself.  I have since found out that the tenants deposit using a tenants deposit scheme was deposited in the agents name as he hadnt given the person doing my admin ( I live overseas) the tenants name and was only for six months , the tenancy agreement was for 12 months.  This i think now means I will not be able to serve a section 21 notice through a solicitor if necessary. Any advice or clarification would be appreciated.

A change of locks may be a smoking gun that other bad things are happening, and I understand your tennants are behind with payments... but I dont think there is anything wrong with them changing locks provided a) they allow you can access when requested, and b) they refit the locks when they leave. In other words, even if they had not changed the locks it would not solve your problem.

Thankyou for your reply.