tenants owing rent

[ruggief]

Hi,
I have tenants whom have done a midnight flit owing rent, my agents who say they did a reference check don't have a forwarding address. How can I pursue them for the money they owe me?
Any help or information please as my agents aren't doing anything.

[Kathyan]

I know this is too late but I would always recommend taking out insurance for this type of thing. We let our house out for four years and had Letsure insurance which covers you in case of tenants leaving owing rent. It costs around �11 per month (maybe more now as it was 2 years ago!) but well worth it for the peace of mind alone. Good luck in finding them.

[ruggief]

Hi Kathryn
thanks for the quick response, we do have this insurance but it only kicks in after 3 months, we're owed 4 months so have kept the damage deposit we had which is equivalent to 1 month so we're still out the 1st 3 months. I think it's happening so often that insurance companies won't pay out immediately.

[Kathyan]

Sorry about that. I thought they paid out whatever! As I said it's over two years since we let out house and we had two really good tenants who paid their rent every month on time. I guess we were lucky! Good luck!

[Law Man1856]

ruggief,

If they have not paid the rent the police may help you trace them but it is not criminal so it will depend on your local force policy regarding this.

Try the electoral role

If they have not paid the Council tax you might catch them at court.

GOOD LUCK

[cascarelli]

ruggief, ask your Agent what other information they have on the tenants. If they've done a proper credit check then they will have details of the tenant's employers and possibly other details. We don't use Agents but have an 'application form' which asks for NI number, car registration etc. It's not infallible but does make the tenant think twice about doing a midnight flit as we have a lot of info about them.

I'd ask the Agent to supply all the credit check information that they have, and see what you can glean from that.

Good luck.