UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello,

First post and boy it's a long one . . .

I rent out a property in Glasgow and i have had major problems regarding payemnt from my tenant. She paid by Standing Order for the first six months anmd since then (approximately ten additional months) she has been late by at least two weeks and on one occasion she was five months in arrears. She is currently up to date but i anticipate the situation repeating itself unless i take action. I also want to move back into the property but i will expand on this later in the post . . .

The current lease means i need to give my tenant three months notice but i'm concerned that when i do this she will stay in the property for that period and not pay the rent. If this happems where do i stand? Can i enter the property and change the locks after say, one month? The is also damage to the flat; ripped wallpaper, stains on the carpet and she simply hasn't cleaned or maintained it so the deposit will already be allocated to paying for this damage (i hope)

The second part of my message relates to switching from a Repayment mortgage to Interest Only. If i am up to date with my mortgage payments can my mortgage company refuse to switch me from repayment to Interest Only? The reason for wanting to switch is that i want to move back to my property in Glasgow at the weekends so my Son (from my ex-partner) can stay with me at the weekends but i will keep my main residence in Manchester due to work commiments. Just to mention that i rent the property in Manchester but own the flat in Glasgow.

The financial implications of running two households are pretty eye-watering so i need to minimise cost where i can. Would this be deemed a justifiable reason for wanting to switch the type of mortgage i have? I have had repayment issues in the past six months, would this affect the decision massively?

Hello markosbravados

Scottish law is not my speciality, sorry, but in E&W, any landlord who illegally evicts a tenant gets a good hard spanking from the law (figuratively speaking): You probably won't go to jail, but if you think money's tight now wait until you see the size of the damages awarded against you.  I don't see any reason why Scots law should be significantly more lenient then E&W law.

In E&W you are legally entitled to persue any unpaid rent privately through the court.  It's slow and expensive (as in you fork out costs now which get added to the amount owed which you might get back later).

As for the bank, they can refuse or allow according to their own agenda.  There is no "right" to be allowed to switch to an Interest Only mortgage.  You can only resolve this one by going and talking with your bank.

I'm sorry but this is probably not the most positive advice you were looking for.