Getting A Ccj

[cassa333]

Hi,

Does any one knoe if you can take someone to the small claims court for unpaid rent?

I have a tenant that has not been paying her rent and realy just want to know if I can go to small claims for rent owed once she has gone?

Or is it better to make a loan agreement and when she doesn't pay that get a ccj?

Thanks

[Buenchico]

Start here for general advice
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/rent-arrears.htm
and then click on the 'Small Claims Court' link in the penultimate paragraph.
(That, in turn, has a link to the online claims system).

Chris

[cassa333]

Thank you :)

[Peter Pedant]

The short answer is yes. - by the way how do you know she is gonna go ?

however you may feel a better outcome is to get the tenant out and get one in who pays the rent

in which case a CCJ ( which doesnt in itself produce money) you may feel is secondary.

your immediate danger is that the tenant fails to pay and stays


For eviction and backrent - go through Possessions Claims on Line PCOL

all the usual suspects have posted on this before hand


Loan agreement - non starter. You are owed rent not a defaulted loan

[Peter Pedant]

....


and the usual suspects posted........ in answer to your question of 7th Feb 2013. The answers havent changed.

[cassa333]

Thank you.

I thought I had asked something similar before!! I foget so much so easily, sorry :( I did get the section 8 and 23 but held off serving them because she started to pay the rent again. However I want the 23 in place if she stops paying her rent again.

When all is said and done we are prepared to give her notice even if we lose money and my uncle says that will just make her not pay anything before she goes.

The tenant has now started paying the rent (well she did last month but is due again this weekend) but is proposing to pay the arrears off at a rate that will take over 4 yrs.

I want to 1. up the repayments to get repaid within a year 18 mths TOPS 2. when her tenancy is up to give her a 6mth one with the section 23 and if she doesn't pay up to get her out at the end of the 6 mths and then persue her with a ccj for the remainder. 3. return her rent day to what it was before. (We agreed with the tenant about a year ago that although her rent is due on the 20th of the month she could pay on the 31st only because her work pay went into the bank then). She stopped paying the rent when she lost her job (she has a new one now). So as far as I'm conserned she should now pay the rent on the due date not the week late one.

My Uncle who thinks he is the font of all knowledge says to leave the tenancy at 1yr let her pay off in the manner she wants (4yrs) on the date she wants (a week late), and give her a loan agreement as we won't be able to get rent back on a ccj as a loan doesn't come under the rent act. ((I have no idea about this ))

I'm not sure he truely knows what he is doing as he didn't know to get the section 8 and 23 untill I found out about them on here. He just said section 23 because the rent hadn't been paid.

[Peter Pedant]

If she has money in the bank on 31st and not other wise
then take the rent on the 31 st. Easy one - quite common actually.

Remember there is no come back on rent paid late (eighteenth century case - means you can't sue for it)

DON'T renew the tenancy - get a new one (tenant)

If she has offered a repayment schedule then a judge may not grant an eviction for rent arrears but may - he has discretion on that one
BUT you can get her out at the end of the tenancy (or the run-on period) at the end of the lease. (much less discretion)

Renewing a lease on a bad payer - you are courting (ha! pun intended) trouble - giving a year's tenancy to a bad payer is landlord suicide.


Converting rent arrears to a loan - I have no experience in this - it looks as tho' you are going to go to court anyway in the future when you get sick of no rent/ rent arrears and you would be much better doing it on straightforward grounds of ending a short hold assured tenancy under the 1988 act.

So in short end the tenancy. (now-ish)

You may well have to walk away from the rent arrears

[tonywiltshire]

Do you mean sections 8 & 21 of the housing Act 1988, in your supplementary information?
If you do mean these sections and not section 23 which is concerned with committee functions, my advice would be to cut your losses and get a new tenant. There are bad landlords and there are bad tenants if you have the latter you will be far better served by finding a new tenant who pays the rent. To gain possession you must ensure the section 8 or 21 notice is properly prepared and worded.
If possession is the most important I would use a section 21 notice provided the fixed period of the tenancy has expired, if the fixed period has not expired and there is at least two months rent owing use section 8.