UK Landlord Forum / Life

I'm currently doing my first eviction and thought I'd share some silly mistakes I've made along the way and see if any advice or comments can keep me on the right track. I'm using Landlord Action as my eviction agent (landlord assist never bothered to send me the starter pack email and were always engaged).

First one was even though my tenant has been in arrears for three months he made a one off payment that means financially he is only one month and twenty days in arrears. So I can only serve a Section 21 and have to wait ten more days for the Section 8.

Second one was on the Agreement I don't stipulate an exact date for rent payment. We just went for a verbal agreement it would be the first of the month, Doh!

Lastly (and worst of all) I didn't provide the Prescribed Information correctly to the tenant from the DPS. This is a multi page download that must be filled out and presented to the tenant for counter signature (if possible) with all 11 pages of explanatory legal jargon within 30 days of deposit submission. I didn't know it even existed and just provided the tenant with the basic details of who had his deposit and reference number.
This leaves me liable to a payout of three times the deposit amount and loss of the deposit and paying the tenants legal fees....

It'll be cheaper to let the Section 21 run, accept the loss of rent and not contest the deposit return. All completely self inflicted. New landlords beware. 

Hi McLovin,

Sorry to hear that you are experiencing trouble with your current tenant. I hope that it works out in the long run for you.

I noticed that you mentioned that you can't serve a section 8 notice until the tenant is in 2 months full arrears. This is not true. You can actually serve a section 8 notice at any point as long as they are in rent arrears. It is only when you go to court that the judge will want to wait until they are in two full months arrears. You can still go through the process of getting everything ready if you believe the tenants are going to default further and be in two months full arrears by the time you reach court. Also document everything as this will help give the judge a full and clear picture of what has happened and everything you have done to help resolve the issue with the tenants.

A verbal agreement is still an agreement. It would help if it was in the tenancy agreement but it doesn't have to be, as long as it was agreed verbally then you have a date. If you tenants has clearly made payments on this date from the start then stopped you have enough proof to show that this date was agreed.

Regarding the deposit, unfortunately the DPS don't make it clear for private landlords as to their responsibilities and apart from reading the full terms and conditions (which lets face it, no body reads) then it doesn't clearly state what you need to do. May be a check list for landlords would help.

I know you didn't ask for advice but thought i would try to help for any issue that you may face in the future.

Hi Dave thanks for your kind advice and wishes. I was speaking to a friend who rents a flat out and she had some kind of advice ( sorry I can't remember where from, but it was a paid for service) who said not to bother with a deposit at all as they were so difficult to claim back and preferred tenants to pay additional rent up front.

I'm a bit dubious about that advice but having read some of the more extreme cases of lost deposits on here I can understand why.

Thanks once again.

Good morning McLovin,

Deposits of late have become one of those subjects that landlords hate, and i can certainly understand why. The deposit schemes don't seem to give landlords any confidence when dealing with resolutions. 

As a landlord essentially you have two options either to take and deposit and lodge it with one of the deposit schemes or not to take one at all. Both have there pros and cons and i would suggest really considering both.

If you choose not to take a deposit but rather take two months rent in advance, you will need to be careful that you use this as rent and not as a secret deposit. If it can be proved that this spare month is sat in an account and not used as rent then the tenant could still make a claim that this is being used as a deposit. Now just because you don't have a deposit doesn't mean the tenants are not responsible for any damaged or outstanding rent. It just means that you would have to chase then through a court of law which can be very costly and time consuming. You can find insurance products that will help cover the costs and take care of the whole process. Something i would suggest you have if you choose not to take a deposit.

With regards to taking deposits, this is the avenue i would rather take. The fact that you hold £hundreds of the tenants money i think in some respect prevents the tenants from defaulting on their rent or cause damage to your accommodation as they have the constant thought of their deposit in the back of their minds. As long as you lodge the deposit and supply them with the prescribed information then you are covered. The only issue is when you need to make a claim. As an agent by trade i have never really had an issue with deposits as it basically comes down to the information you supply to the case examiner at the start of the dispute. As long as you supply the right documents and a covering letter giving your reasons for the deductions this normally gives them a full picture helping them to make the right decision.

Again i hope this helps and if you ever need any further help then visit my website at www.direct2landlord.co.uk