UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi my tenant was 7 days late with rent in November, I txt him & he said bank had cancelled all his standing orders by mistake so did direct transfer & got rent within a couple of days.  Decembers is now 22days late, he's blamed the bank again, then said he done direct transfer again, after 5 days still no rent, more messages where he was going to get his mum to pay to me, but didn't, then was going to get cash out but would take couple of days as he can only withdraw £250 per day, was going to drop it in to me st work, but didn't.  I've now sent 3 further txts to meet him to collect cash & 3 phone calls leaving voicemails to the same effect & had no response from any of them. Should I now send letter giving him 7 days to pay or I'll take legal action or is that a bit heavy handed?
Am I able to call him to try to speak to him at his place of work?
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

You don't say how long he has lived there,and what is the status of his AST,has it gone into periodic?

I don't think it is unreasonable at all to send a letter after 22 days,especially given the hassle in November.Not responding to you is infantile,and does not auger well for getting this sorted.If possible I would issue 21 even if he does cough up,you can always revoke it if he changes his ways.Good Luck!

Hi thanks for the reply, he has 2 months left of his third 6month tenancy agreement, so he been in there nearly 18 months now. I tried twice yesterday knocking on the door but got no answer, I'm starting to wonder if he's even still living there. What about ringing his at work to see if I can speak to him?

You can serve 21 after 4 months.Others on here may know more about what constitutes harassment,but I would hold back on any more texting or calls.A proper letter,not recorded delivery,but keep proof of postage.You could stick a small strip of Sellotape across the door he uses,then check later if it has been opened up.

Tenant harassment is covered in the Protection from Eviction Act 1977:

“The landlord ..... shall be guilty of an offence if—
(a) he does acts likely to interfere with the peace or comfort of the residential occupier ......,or
(b) ......
and (in either case) he knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, that that conduct is likely to cause the residential occupier to give up the occupation ..........”.

It’s very grey and the question the landlord needs to ask is whether the conduct is likely to cause the tenant to leave.  This was really designed for landlord threats, cutting of the power etc.  You could say too frequent calls could be harassment but it’s bit hard to claim harassment..(but not impossible) unless you made some threats or were abusive in your communication.

In reality (I suspect this is the first time this is happening to you (the OP)).... you need to switch your energy elsewhere becuse unless the chap is on holiday and yet to return it doesn’t look like communication is going to work...
(1) get the paperwork started serve a s21 - sometime this in itself opens a dialogue
(2) start prepping the court papers submission or if you don’t know how to do this then find out or find someone who does
(3) do try to ascertain if the tenant has moved out (notice on door)
(4) get your deposit claim ready
(5) keep record of your communication etc...

Thanks for the replies.
I have just drafted a letter asking him to get in touch & if he doesn't & januarys payment is not received then he will be in arrears by 2 months & I will have no option but to start eviction process.
Fingers crossed this works, though I'm not holding out much hope. Difficult to serve notice if he's not living there as he won't get any of the letters.  I do have an email address for him, do you think I could send it to him via email??

Send “it” by email...you mean your chasing letter or the eviction notice?

The letter? You could serve it by email as it’s not a Notice per the Agreement but you’d be better off serving by post (get certificate of posting) that way you can include it in the eviction package as properly served per agreement.  Doesn’t hurt to do both.

The S21 eviction Notice? You need to serve that per the terms of the agreement and as required on the N215 form - which does allow for email (so check whether your agreement allows email). 

If you serve anything by post always get a certificate of posting.