Recovering Money

[eric35red]

Need advice.

Tenant is departing on 30th September. In fact has moved out already but is supposedly officially exiting on 30th??

Previously tenant been good but "fell on hard times". Was before the TDS date so I held the deposit and allowed him to use the deposit (fool I know)

He then used my rent to put deposit elsewhere and pay his first months rent and got the place despite me giving Country properties a less than positive reference.

So now he has continually promised to pay up but never leaves any money. The only official letter was one I sent him agreeing the date of his leaving.
He owes 2 months rent £1200, cost of cleaning and sorting the garden, circa £300. What is my best and cheapes route for getting this money back. He was on an AST that has rolled over.

[johnjw]

eric35red,
The cheapest and probably best way to chase the money owed is by using Money claim on line - just use Google to find the site.
You'll find MCOL easy to use. Fortunately you do have your ex-tenant's address - this is often a problem with people running away from debt.
I think the cost is about £30 and you can add this cost to your claim. It all takes a little time because the tenant is given the opportunity to rebut your charge.
It will become clear to your tenant, that if he agrees to pay, he can avoid having a CCJ against his name. Hopefully, this is what will happen. If he doesn't pay up and you get judgement against him, he will have to pay an agreed amount per week/month. That way, your chances of recovering more than a small fraction of the amount owed, are quite slim.

[eric35red]

eric35red,
The cheapest and probably best way to chase the money owed is by using Money claim on line - just use Google to find the site.
You'll find MCOL easy to use. Fortunately you do have your ex-tenant's address - this is often a problem with people running away from debt.
I think the cost is about £30 and you can add this cost to your claim. It all takes a little time because the tenant is given the opportunity to rebut your charge.
It will become clear to your tenant, that if he agrees to pay, he can avoid having a CCJ against his name. Hopefully, this is what will happen. If he doesn't pay up and you get judgement against him, he will have to pay an agreed amount per week/month. That way, your chances of recovering more than a small fraction of the amount owed, are quite slim.

thought about this but wasn't sure whether the section 8 and 21 notices must have been served. Given that he has left the property it is slightly different. Didn't want to go down this route only to find its thrown out as I didnt send the tenant something I should have.

[johnjw]

Giving notice is not an issue as your tenant has left your property. Your concern is simply to try to recover the debt.
MCOL is well suited to this purpose. Try filling in the forms - you should find this quite easy to do.
Presumably you have already sent your tenant an account showing rent due, rent paid and rent arrears. If not, send one now - otherwise your tenant may well claim that he wasn't aware of the situation.

[eric35red]

thanks for this, thought about just sending him a formal notice of intent with a date to pay and see how he responds first....lets see

[Izzycam]

Thanks John for that advice, I've never heard of them before but another nugget of info has come from Landlord zone.