UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi. We have a self employed tenant who had just missed his rent. When I contacted him yesterday he said he's had depression and anxiety and has been in Hospital twice over Xmas and cannot work. He is self employed and therefore no money is coming in. He is seeing someone on Friday to get some assistance re the rent. I'm assuming it's the Council/Universal Credit (?) but he was vague. My question is, does anyone know how long this procedure is likely to take? Days? Weeks? If at all? Should I be calling the Council? Thank you x

If you're able to, issue a correct Section 21 right away... you do not have to act on it, but do it as a precaution. Then see what comes of Friday. He might be vague because he isn't aware of how the system works. You don't need to ask us about delays in benefits claims... especially Universal Credit... it's all over the news. You might get satisfaction in due course, but you may need to decide, now, whether you're going to be harsh or lenient. The fact the Tenant didn't pay rent, but didn't contact you to explain, and you had to contact him, does sound alarm bells to me (a reasonable Tenant would pro-actively make you aware of the problem)... it is a perfectly natural thing for people to change dramatically when life takes a turn for the worse... head-in-sand, nasty-pieces-of-work, lying, prevaricating, unbelievable excuses, promises never met but replaced by others.

Is the tenancy in its fixed term?
Did you protect any Deposit correctly and on time?
Has the property, if required, got a GSC?
EPC?
Everything done by the book?

Thank you so much...we went abroad this morning which was pre booked ....we are just looking into all of your advise. Thank you again x

Do try to face to face meet with the tenant and explain your intentions.. if it's a genuine case of depression an S21 landing unannounced will probably just make things worse. The benefit system will take too long for you to believe, and the court system will take slightly longer.. try to avoid either by mutual agreement if you can.. 

But all of this will still be true when you get back.. so forget about it for now, have a good trip and come back ready to face some music..

Thank you..we're heading home today. He promised to update us on Friday so my Husband is going round this evening to speak to him. Again thank you for your advise xx

Quick update...the situation would appear a lot more serious than he led us to believe but he is aiming to get back to work in a couple of weeks. However he has advised he will pay this months rent at the end of January and next months rent a couple of days late. This we can live with providing he sticks to those dates. If he doesn't then we will have to look to giving him a months notice to go. We're not horrible people but like many landlords we have financial obligations linked to the flat. Thank you for your advise.

That's a fair attitude to take,especially if he has been a good tenant in the past.It is now up to him to keep to his side of the agreement.

Thank you