Tenant spent HSE rent cheques

jarvis

Hi
I know there is similar threads on this already but looking for some help with my particular situation.

Tenant is in the rental property 3 years with her 3 children and has been receiving RA cheques.
My wife and I have just had a baby so took our eye of the ball.
No rent has been paid since April!!! The guy who is now living there (not on the lease) said cwo wasn't giving him the cheques and he'll sort it, I rang the cwo and she said she has given the cheques each month since March 1st!!!!

Turns out he has spent the cheques!!!
they owe too much money for me to just evict them, how can I go about getting this sorted. Does the cwo have any accountability seeing as this guy was never on the lease agreement, the girl renting was supposedly a single parent and obviously this guy has been there all along but wasn't supposed to be. cwo said this guy started receiving the cheques in his name since March 1st when they switched to family assessment. cwo never asked me was this ok, this could have been anyone off the street!!!

Any advice on both the tenants and the cwo?

the_syco

jarvis wrote: »

the girl

Tell the girl that she has X weeks to pay the rent since April? The lease is in her name, so she's the one liable for it.

Kosseegan

The HSE will be of no help in this situation. The quicker you get rid of them the better. There is a chance that you
could bring a criminal prosecution but I wouldn't bet on it. You can't afford to leave them there.

Ray Palmer

You really want to get them out of your place as quickly as possible. Forget about how much they owe you it is unlikely you will get this.

Once you inform the HSE the payments will stop and they won't have anywhere to go so they will stay put. Best bet is to get the HSE to make the cheques out to you in the future and maybe worth doing now.

Having them in your property is a major risk. It is next to impossible to remove a tenant quickly, legally if they decide to just stop paying. You are in more risk as they are likely to have no money to ever pay you back.

jarvis

How do i go about evicting them correctly or do I just give them a week.... Then what??

quozl

It's tricky and you have to do it exactly right.

Iirc you need to give a 14 late notice with the correct wording, available from PRTB, followed by 28 day notice. If you get the notices wrong then it's back to square one. Even after the notices, they can still refuse to move out, and you will have to wait for a determination order from the PRTB. Which, again, they may ignore. In which case it would be off to court to get it enforced.
That's off the top of my head, I'd strongly advise at least asking on Irishlandlord.com as this is a well worn topic over there. They probably also have it FAQd.

Good luck.

Tigger

it is crazy crazy that these cheques aren't paid directly to the landlord

it would ensure decent up to "code" landlords got paid .