What do you do when your tenant does not pay rent?

Question

I am a 1st time landlord and have a tenant who paid the deposit and month 1 rent, now it's month 2 and the standing order hasnt come through yet - I've spoken to him and he apologised and said he'd get the money for last monday - but its still not there... what should I do?

Answer 1

I'm assuming that as you have a tenant who is not paying the rent, you want them out. This is a fairly simple process.

As soon as the tenant owes 2 months rent (the day that month 3 rent is due and has not been paid) you need to issue a section 8 notice immediately. This sould be done through a solicitor as the notice must be completed perfectly to hold up in court.

The Section 8 notice gives the tenant 14 days to pay up the rent and/or vacate the property. If after the 14 days, this has not happened, you then apply for a court order. Depending on your local small claims court avaiablilty this may take anything up to 2 months to get a hearing but is usually less.

On the date of the hearing, if there are still at least 2 months rent owing, the Judge will have no option but to make a possession order under Ground 8 of schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1984. Usually this will give the tenants 14 days to vacate, if they still do not leave, then you can get the bailiffs in.

If on the date of the hearing there are less than 2 months rent owing, you can still get them out on Grounds 11 and 12 of the above act which relate to having some rent outstanding and persistant late payments. The judge does have descretion in this case, however, will usually side with the Landlord.

The whole process, if done through a solicitor will cost around £400 to £500 which is worth it to get out a bad tenant.

Good luck!

Answer 2

You're stuffed. You have to serve legal notice through the courts. It can take up to 6 months.

You aren't allowed to keep calling the tenant, because it's unsolicited and invading privacy.

You can't enter you house or property without permission from the tenant. Otherwise you're breaking the law.

The law is set-up to protect the tenant from dodgy landlords. It's a pain.

My brother had a situation like this and I managed to resolve it within a week. It wasn't really legal though. I made sure the tenant knew he had two options and only one would let him walk away.

Answer 3

Check your local laws but in my area am from WI we give 5 day notices if they pay within 5 days they are fine if not you can start eviction process it depends on your rental agreement I recently kicked tenants out for failure to pay utilities we had a week to week agreement which meant I could give him a 5 day notice with a no cure clause but I was nice and gave him 2 weeks and shut the lights out after 5 days he was a jerk tho he actually said he wasn't leaving until I had the sheriff drag him out was a nightmare I would try to avoid actual eviction process if you can is ridiculously expensive. Just so you know it's illegal in most pla ces for a landlord to turn off utilities for non-payment of rent but I was able to turn off the lights because my tenant had taken the utilities out of his name and put them in mine. One good thing is you have your deposit so at least you aren't losing money yet alot of people just use that as their last months rent Good luck it's not fun being a landlord Maybe you can help me out know anyone who wants to rent a 2 bedroom in a small town in WI?

Answer 4

If the tenant signed a lease stating when the rent is due & is late paying you have every right to evict him. If it's only the second month he's been living there and is already having problems paying rent, things will only get worse in the future.Kick him to the curb, literally!!

Answer 5

What does it say in the rental agreement about not paying on time? I assume you are a Short Assured landlord. You can take steps through the small claims courts to recover debt. You can evict your tenant by following the correct legal process, if he is in breach of contract.

Answer 6

Laws vary from state to state. You can ask the Majestrate judge in your county and they will tell you the 'legal proceedure' to get this peson out of your house. Nobody likes a deadbeat and letting it go he will only get further behind and view you as a pushover. It's best to let law inforcement handle it, you can get in serious trouble taking it on yourself. Get a copy of your tenants ss number so when you win a lawsuit against them and they don't pay you can file through the IRS and garnish their tax refund. They won't even know until you've already gotten it. Not pay rent is a cut and dry reason to evict.

Answer 7

Contact citizens advice, they will give you all the informaiton you require,

Or you could inform you tenant that you are charging them for everyday late the payment is, ive heard of landlords doing this

Oh and you cannot have them removed from the property until they have failed to pay 3 months rent in a row, depsite what others mite tell you.

Answer 8

Like the third answer above, you send them a letter stating that rent is due in three days or they need to be out of the apt. in three days or you will begin eviction proceedings. Then you file for eviction. Generally, the threat of the pay or quit letter is enough to light a fire and they will take you much more seriously in the coming months.

Answer 9

Beat him with a stick.

Only joking, ask him for cash. If he hasn't got it, tell him he will need to move out. Unfortunately though the law is on the side of the tenant, in as much as he could not pay for 3 months beofr eyou can take him to court, and even with an eviction notice you would have to force him to leave. He could claim squatters rights.

Its very sdifficult and can be messy

Answer 10

Serve notice to pay or quit. Follow up with formal eviction through the local courts if payment is not immediately forthcoming.