New to letting.

[Cuddly Cow]

Hello
I am not a landlord (yet) but I am helping an elderly relative who has rented out 3 houses for a number of years. I got involved after a series of poor tenant management issues, the most recent of which was a tenant absconding with 4 months rent arrears. My relative is not up to date with tenancy issues and I have had a difficult time trying to convince her of the need to follow strict tenancy management procedures in order to reduce risk to rental income. 2 problems:-

1) The abscondee and his spouse have not left a forwarding address but I know the address of his mother in law. If We pursue a legal remedy, would a judge accept papers served to an address where the defendant does not live? (He lived there before he moved into our house).

2) My elderly relative has allowed a new tenant to move into the house without signing a tenancy agreement or paying the full asking deposit. I suggested £500 plus one weeks rent in hand. The new tenant took advantage of my relatives generous nature and did not bring the full deposit, but just short, citing that she could not access enough money as her bank is in another town.My elderly relative is very trusting and gives the benefit of the doubt very easily.

The property is in England, the tenant moved in last week and the prepared tenancy agreement (not signed yet) details the deposit amount, the weekly rent and that the tenancy is AST for 1 year from the date the tenant moved in. My relative expected the tenant to visit and bring the rest of the money but she did not turn up. My relative is intending to visit the property to sort this out with the tenant this week.

I am at my wits end that my elderly relative keeps trusting total strangers and undermines my efforts to help her manage her properly. Just for info' my elderly relative does not lack capacity, so a power of attorney is not appropriate. She inherited the properties c 20 years ago and has managed them badly for all of that time although she keeps on top of all repairs / servicing, so is a good landlady in that respect.

Sorry this is a long post.
Any advice please?

[JK0]

Relative either puts you in sole charge, or you wash your hands of it.

[Cuddly Cow]

The houses are hers. She relies on that income.

[DPT57]

I agree. Back off and leave her to it.

[mariner]

She won't welcome your interference in her affairs. She may question your motives
Sign her up for NLA/RLA Membership and complete their LL training Modules yourself, Membership approx. £100 for 1 year.

[ram]

You cannot help those who refuse help.

I have tried, and you get nowhere.

Sometimes you just have to let go, and live your life for yourself.

[RedHitman]

All the things she is doing/not doing are leaving her open to a legal minefield which she could be sued for and lose a lot of money.

As as much as you want to be involved, if she isn’t accepting your help or advice then sadly you’re best of staying out of it and leaving her to it.

[theartfullodger]

The houses are hers. She relies on that income.

No she doesn't rely on it: She takes daft risks and makes stupid decision exposing that income so she CANNOT rely on it.

Give her a firm, stiff, talking to: If she won't see sense, walk away. Sad but...

[Cuddly Cow]

......I would walk away under other circumstances but properties may one day be mine and I want to learn landlord craft and also protect the assets.

In in the past, the properties have become physically degraded (some cupboard doors missing etc) and my relative treats this as 'wear and tear'. Unfortunately, the market value of the properties has decreased because of this sort of theft / vandalism so they do not realise the market rent of other properties of the same size in the same area. I have decided to step in to protect my inheritance. I would not bother if it was someone else's inheritance.

I would still like advice about how too track down the absconded tenant though. I believe he claimed HB but the local council are not interested; as far as they are concerned, it was paid to him and they don't care that this was fraudulent as it did not go towards his rent.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Not only that, my elderly relative thinks I cannot recover the debt. If I prove that wrong she said I can have the money. I am very incentivised.

[RedHitman]

It will be incredibly hard to track them down. And even if you do, getting payment may be even harder.

If if you want to learn “landlord craft” then do everything opposite to what your relative is doing.
(In all seriousness, join NLA/RLA, buy some books and educate yourself. ‘How to be a Landlord’ is a good start. You can get it cheap off Amazon).

[mariner]

There is no incentive. Only LL/Agent or their Solicitor can legally pursue T for Rent arrears, you can only advise LL. You hope to inherit, but nothing is certain at the moment.

[JK0]

Just for info' my elderly relative does not lack capacity, so a power of attorney is not appropriate.

Power of attorney is entirely appropriate. They cannot be signed once relative has lack of capacity.

[Cuddly Cow]

The relative (LL) is my Mum and she is just as keen to pursue this tenant as I am. She realises her mistake in giving him the benefit of the doubt. We are tackling this together, even if she finds it hard to accept my help with managing the new tenant properly, at least we agree about the one who got away.

Thanks everyone for the kind input.

RedHitman, I have already started following your advice of educating myself. Joining this forum is one of my self-educating activities (among others) as I hoped to benefit from the wisdom of experienced LL on this forum

[Cuddly Cow]

@JKO my mum is generally competent and would not consider a power of attorney at this stage in her life. I dare not even suggest it, she is defensive enough when I want to talk about anything sensible. She would fly off the handle if I suggested that.