Final inspection

Landlord Discussion Legal
1

Hi, a bit of a long story but my tenant is vacating my property this week.

However he owes me £1333 in rent arrears. He has been on universal credit since he took possession and was signed up for a 6 month assured short hold tenancy. I agreed for him to pay half rent from March-May 2020 due to COVID-19. He stopped paying the rent in July due to money problems. He has been set up with an IVA and I receive 3 quarters of the monthly rent payment directly from Universal Credit into my bank account. However, the arrears are constantly accruing and despite trying to arrange a mutual repayment plan, he has been consistently non compliant.

I served him with a Section 21 notice giving him 3 months notice.

The lounge carpet was ripped during the time he has been there and needs replacing. He offered to replace it but I refused as I felt he needed to live with the consequences of his actions until he was evicted.

He has also been quite verbally abusive and questioning of my abilities as a landlord.

He is asking for his deposit back - he informed me that the rent arrears will be returned to me via the IVA and therefore he is entitled to his deposit. I wasn’t going to return it as I need a new carpet but feel I didn’t give him the chance to replace it.

I’ve 2 claims ongoing with my insurance and a solicitor has been appointed; one for possession of the property and the other, rent arrears.

Now he is agreeing to leave voluntarily, even though his eviction date was 7th October, I’d like to know where I stand regarding the arrears and the damaged carpet. (The rest of the property was immaculate on my last inspection).

I’ve even told him I need to inspect the property 3 days after he’s vacated it due to COVID-19 restrictions and to minimise the risk of any possible infection, so I think I’ve followed protocol all the way.

Any advice would be appreciated, as my solicitor is not answering my emails.

Many thanks

2

Would have thought you were entitled to the rent arrears. You shouldn’t have to rely on an IVA to claw them back. That’s if an IVA would cough up on arrears anyway and why should you wait any longer than you already have.

I understand that emotion came into it on your knee jerk reaction to him replacing the carpet. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and would have been better to have let him replace it at the time as he’s not going to do it when he’s leaving.

I understand that the amount you can claim for a carpet is the amount minus a set amount for the age of the carpet. If he offered to purchase a new carpet at the time then at least that is an admission that he ruined it which may help.

We had to endure tenants confrontation and aggression too and it’s highly unpleasant and unjust.

Someone else might know more.

3

Sue him for the arrears via MCOL the moment he defaults on the IVA

4

I might be a bit late to the party here but he can’t pay his rent arrears in an IVA unless you (the creditor) agrees to it. It was a priority debt whilst he was still living in the property (and so would receive a bigger chunk of the IVA payment) but not after he’s left and so you’ll receive (likely) next to nothing on it over 5 years. After that time, by agreeing to the IVA payments, you agree to write off what’s left outstanding.
Please bear in mind that IVAs can be set up with a payment as little as £5 which is to be split across ALL creditors.

There’s a little more to it than the above summary and would vary depending on circumstance (of which yours I know very little) but hope that provides some help to you or anyone else reading this thread.

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