Recovering rent arrears

Wollydog

Hi all,
New to this so best with me.
I need some advice with regards ups previous tenant.
He has been renting off us since 2011, however his lease expired and we foolishly never got round to renewing it.
He was in receipt of rent allowance and to be honest we always had some sort of trouble re rent.
Basically this last time he was about 4 myths in arrears, he told us his rent allowance had been stopped bla bla bla don story, we hung in and basically he just left and left a massive mess in the apartment!!!
During the clean up we found a rent allowance stub saying he received s cheque in September, which we dhould have received but did not .
We have reported this to the welfare but my question is , is there any way we can recover the rent arrears without a lease or rent book .
Thanks for reading as I know it's quite long!!!!

odds_on

He has been renting off us since 2011, however his lease expired and we foolishly never got round to renewing it.

Actually, it is up to the tenant to decide if he wants to sign a new fixed term lease for more security or to continue on the Part 4 rights he acquired after being six months in the property.

is there any way we can recover the rent arrears without a lease or rent book .

If you have registered the tenancy with the PRTB, you could make a claim with them. However, you will have to have his current address as the PRTB will have to send certain documents relating to the claim to him. The PRTB do not provide a search service to see if he has rented somewhere to provide you with his current address.

You cannot make a claim through the small claims court (and you would still have to provide his current address even if you could use the smaill claims court.

Looks like you might have to chalk that one up to experience, and move on.

dissed doc

odds_on wrote: »

Actually, it is up to the tenant to decide if he wants to sign a new fixed term lease for more security or to continue on the Part 4 rights he acquired after being six months in the property.


If you have registered the tenancy with the PRTB, you could make a claim with them. However, you will have to have his current address as the PRTB will have to send certain documents relating to the claim to him. The PRTB do not provide a search service to see if he has rented somewhere to provide you with his current address.

You cannot make a claim through the small claims court (and you would still have to provide his current address even if you could use the smaill claims court.

Looks like you might have to chalk that one up to experience, and move on.

If he is still claiming rent allowance then surely some sort of right is there to pursue him for fraud? The landlord knows his PPS number, and that means it's likely the PPS number has his new adress attached to his new rent allowance.

The_Conductor

To be honest with you- while you are entitled to the rent- realistically, given that he is on social welfare and of limited means- you will most probably expend more time, effort and money chasing this, than you will ever recover from him. Social Welfare are not going to make good the difference- its not going to happen. Your case is against him- and no-one else.

Cases like this- are one of the reasons why its not a good idea to pay rent allowance directly to tenants- and why landlords are often loathe to let property to RA tenants. Thankfully issues with RA tenants are experienced in a small minority of cases- however- its the few bad apples who tar most tenants availing of the scheme, and make it so difficult for everyone else.

OP- you have the property back. Mark it down to experience, take the hit, clean up the mess/redecorate, and relet the property- and be more careful next time.

djimi

The_Conductor wrote: »

OP- you have the property back. Mark it down to experience, take the hit, clean up the mess/redecorate, and relet the property- and be more careful next time.

Indeed. Allowing a tenancy to run 4 months into arrears is just ridiculous. A 14 day notice of arrears should have been promptly issued once the first month was not forthcoming, and if payment is not recieved in full after the 14 days then you issue a 28 day notice of termination. The notice of arrears and the threat of impending eviction should be enough to kick start most people, and if its not then you are better off without them anyway, which is where the 28 days notice of termination comes into play.

mitosis

djimi wrote: »

Indeed. Allowing a tenancy to run 4 months into arrears is just ridiculous. A 14 day notice of arrears should have been promptly issued once the first month was not forthcoming, and if payment is not recieved in full after the 14 days then you issue a 28 day notice of termination. The notice of arrears and the threat of impending eviction should be enough to kick start most people, and if its not then you are better off without them anyway, which is where the 28 days notice of termination comes into play.

The trouble is, even doing it by the book, the tenant who is problematic will continue to be. There is no recourse for landlords in this country that is of actual practical use. If the tenant decides not to pay his rent, as in this case, it can still take years and a lot of money to get him out. And you will still never see your rent.

djimi

mitosis wrote: »

The trouble is, even doing it by the book, the tenant who is problematic will continue to be. There is no recourse for landlords in this country that is of actual practical use. If the tenant decides not to pay his rent, as in this case, it can still take years and a lot of money to get him out. And you will still never see your rent.

Dont get me wrong, Im aware of that, but if the tenant is going to dig their heals in then its better to start early and be three months further into the process rather than letting arrears build up for four months before trying to sort it out. You have to go by the book either way, so you may as well start the process as soon as you can.

Ray Palmer

It depends on how you got paid.

If it was via the bank you have a record if it was cash and you have no tracking of the payments it may be difficult to prove he didn't pay.

D3PO

you already opened a thread on this. Stop spamming

Wollydog

D3PO wrote: »

you already opened a thread on this. Stop spamming

As I explained at the beginning of my original post, I am new to this forum and posted twice by mistake, I'm not spamming.
Thank you for everyone else's advice. It has cleared some things up for us in relation to this.

odds_on

dissed doc wrote: »

If he is still claiming rent allowance then surely some sort of right is there to pursue him for fraud? The landlord knows his PPS number, and that means it's likely the PPS number has his new adress attached to his new rent allowance.

Nobody will give his new address if the records have been updated - data protection and all that.

ABajaninCork

OP - I'm very sorry for your trouble. It's people like your ex-tenant that makes it so bloody hard for RA tenants like myself to convince the landlords that we won't drink out the rent money and don't live like pigs!