Advice needed for recovering rent arrears from a tenant with their own properties but pleading poverty!

Landlord Discussion Legal
1

Dear fellow forumites

Heres the quick bit I need help with… how to recover outstanding rent and legal expenses from a tenant who claims they have no money but has hidden the fact that they own multiple properties from the council and me!

My tenants A & B (UK National and European National respectively) finally signed a deed of surrender and left my property in the summer, owing me more than £13k (outstanding rent, legal, removal and storage of furniture under Tort Law etc).

The whole saga would be a fascinating human interest study if it hadnt cost me and my family so much financially and emotionally. We were amateur landlords with just a single property. Never again!

Tenant A managed to secure council accomodation as ended up genuinely homeless and claimed absolute poverty. Heres the rub, Tenant A wrote to me when they first moved in to my property, informing me that they owned and let 3 properties and understood the challenmges of being tenants and would therefore be model tenants themselves. I’ve done some investigation with the land registry and have managed to confirm shared ownership by Tenant A of at least one property.

In addition, whilst the tenant is married and signed the tenancy jointly with Tenant B, Tenant B moved back to a property abroad that I believe is individually owned by Tenant B.

Now that my family has recovered from all the events of the summer, I have licked my wounds and sent a Pre Action letter stating that I intend to take Tenant A to court for the full amount owed. I have received a lengthy and very detailed response claiming the debt is approx £6k and stating that Tenant A can only pay me back at £5.00 per week. These payments have just commenced.

Please can anyone advise on pursuing a CCJ and whether the fact that the tenant owns properties (probably not declared to the council), can help me recover the debt desppite the claim of poverty? I believe I am best to ignore tenant B and their property abroad as they are unlikely to return to the UK in the near future.

Any advice very gratefully received!

2

I think you start with MCOL and then when you get the court order in your favour, you attempt to enforce it, probably by asking the court to order the ex-tenant to come to court for questioning about their income.

3

Thanks so much for prompt response. So reject the offer of £5 per month. Follow through applying for a ccj, then…. I’m a bit lost but I suspect it will all start to make sense re getting an investigation of income. I had heard that you can apply for a charge against a property from the court?

4

sounds to me that you need solicitors advice to put a charge against his property