Taking over from Letting Agent at Eviction Stage - Questions

Hello, I’m hoping to get some more good advice from forum users. First time letting out a property, nearly two years in – currently without rent for three months. Letting agent advised me that delay was simply down to Rent Supplement review. It now transpires that RS was cashable by tenant (news to me) and has been spent.


So I’m letting agent go and taking over. I’m hoping to get help with the following:


To be safe and follow PRTB directions to the tee I am going to proceed with intial arrears warning(!!!) , of one week, then the 14 day notice and the 28 day notice.


· Will a letter sent registered post be enough for the PRTB or would any claims by tenants that they didn’t receive them be taken seriously?


· It seems ludicrous in this situation to give any more than one week for the initial notification of arrears but to be safe in case of dealing with the PRTB should I make it two weeks?



· Any and all other advice you can think of - my personal debts are getting deeper by the day as I don’t want to go into arrears on the mortage as it might prevent me buying a family home in the future.


Thanks

If you send a registered letter, the tenant may refuse to sign for it. However, if you send it via "Swift" (I think that is one of the names for it), the Post Office guarantee delivery without having a signature on receipt.

There is no law on how long the "warning" letter should be sent before the 14 day notice is sent. If there is a fixed term agreement in place, there is no need to send this warning letter; it only applies to Part 4 tenancies.

However, it is no harm to send one and advise that if full payment is not received within, for example, 3 days proceedings will immediately commence for both eviction and the recovery of the rent arrears. Then send the 14 day notice after the 3 days - there is no need to wait for a week. Some landlords follow with the 14 day notice just a day or two after the warning letter.

SW rent reviews for the tenant are not the concern of the landlord. If rent is not received in full and on time, the tenant is in breach of their rental obligations. IMHO, too many landlords do not initiate rent arrears proceedings soon enough especially as the tenant could have 6 weeks free accommodation (if they vacate by the end of the notice of termination).

reserves said:

H..Letting agent advised me that delay was simply down to Rent Supplement review. ...

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A LL should not accept any delay. The tenant should fund any shortfall themselves.

It would be worth having a chat with the tenant. If you can encourage them to leave, because if they decided to overstay it could cost you a lot more than just the arrears.