UK Landlord Forum / Life

So, rent was due yesterday and I received 'that' text.  Hi, sorry blah blah blah, insert excuse here, tell a good story there and can I pay next week.  I phoned the mortgage company with the same story and they won't take payment next week instead (joke).

Anyway, they've been good tenants up to this point, they are young and naive and according to my Mrs I'm a soft touch.  She said, if it's not paid tomorrow then issue a section 21, which I thought was harsh.  When I was renting, back in the day I don't think I was a day late with paying and certainly didn't ask for a weeks extension.  They are in month 6 of their AST and have asked for another 6 months aswell, probably not best timing for a rent payment extension.  Instead of Monday, I text back to say it needs to be Friday at the latest, which was agreed in a reply.

If it's not paid on Friday what action would you take personally?

If there was any rent arrears / late payments and a Section 21 was able to be served, then I would do so on principle. Only if I thought that the property would be incredibly hard to re-let would I reconsider. My fear is that any rent arrears quickly snowball. What has happened or not happened to cause the first late rent payment? What is to mean it won't happen again, or they'll not be able to recover, ever?

As we Landlords know, rent is considered to be a priority debt... you pay your rent before other debts. If Tenants cannot pay their rent and they are treating it as a priority debt, then something could be terribly wrong.

I do not think that I would ever be minded to giving another fixed term to Tenants who had been late or had some arrears. Never say "never", right?

All that said... no Landlord should ever be in the position where their mortgage can't be paid if the Tenant is late... but I'm not assuming you are, I realise you were having a laugh... but I think some Landlords are.

Obviously the route of communication is text message, but you could consider a more formal "Reasons for Non‐Payment of Rent" note / letter being sent to them... might get them thinking... "As you are now in arrears with your rent payments we would like to do all we can to help you resolve this situation and to get your payments up to date as soon as possible... blah-blah-blah..."

Quote from: Hippogriff on June 10, 2014, 10:42:00 AMWhat has happened or not happened to cause the first late rent payment? What is to mean it won't happen again.

As we Landlords know, rent is considered to be a priority debt... you pay your rent before other debts. If Tenants cannot pay their rent and they are treating it as a priority debt, then something could be terribly wrong.

I do not think that I would ever be minded to giving another fixed term to Tenants who had been late or had some arrears. Never say "never", right?

All that said... no Landlord should ever be in the position where their mortgage can't be paid if the Tenant is late... but I'm not assuming you are, I realise you were having a laugh... but I think some Landlords are.

Change of pay from work frequency.  I know some LL's sail that close to the wind, which is crazy IMO.  I've got months of mort payments in waiting aswell as the deposit which is in the insurance scheme, so effectively I have access to it if needed.  Basically they were asking me for a loan for x period, my other half said that they need to pay and should be asking friends/family to help them rather than us.  It's the thin end of the wedge if they can just send a text on the day it's due and for it to be ok.

You're right... while the text asks the question "is it OK to pay next week?" it's really not a question at all. What if you had replied "no, rent is due today, please pay today"? Obviously they couldn't pay on that day, or they would have. Likely they knew prior to that too, but only told you at the last minute... and that's what it amounts to, they told you that you weren't getting the rent. Thin end of the wedge, indeed.

I would pick up the phone or go round.

Agree to what they are offering providing they can make the date next month is due, without fail.

Face to face you get a better idea of what is the truth, plus you can have a nose, if everything is fine, and they dont look like they are on the bones of there arse then you can relax a little....

I think they are fine Bob, just a cash flow problem for a week, I hope.  I don't want to give the impression that a text to the LL will solve any future cash flow problems.  A slippery slope I don;t want to be on.

It is amazing though how people can have all the trappings of wealth, have take away meals, holidays etc and not have enough cash to manage a weeks change in pay dates. They are probably "saving for a deposit" as well and won't let that £150 a month to their savings account miss!

Hope it works out.