My previous tenant suddenly gave notice that he was leaving the country, and vacated the property (in very poor condition) at the end of September. At that point, he had already defaulted on rent and was paying in dribs and drabs, so to some extent I was not unhappy that he left. I should say that I had been supportive towards him when he lost his job until he found another one.
Long and short of it - I incurred over £2000 to get the property to a lettable condition. Rent arrears were a similar figure. He does not dispute any of this. In response to my request to settle the outstanding amount, his offer is to pay £150 every month.
What recourse do I have to recover the full amount from him, considering he is not actually in the UK any more?
Even if I accept his offer, it will take him a couple of years to repay the amount at the earliest, and there is no guarantee that will not just disappear at some point. Am I basically up the proverbial creek? I want to be sympathetic to his financial condition but not at the expense of hurting my own.
You could take him to court but that may just result in a repayment plan anyway and then there are legal costs
You could ask for 250/month and then split the difference at 200?
And add on 400 quid to the total as interest - if you are going to allow him to pay for longer you should be compensated.
You can set up some sort of legally binding repayment plan and ask if he can provide a guarantor for it in case he is unable to make the payments. If you have landlord insurance with legal cover they may be able to help
And get it set up as a standing order…
If he ever wants to come and work in uk again it’s in his interest not to have a CCJ against his name.
The fact he offered a payment plan and hasn’t just scarpered or refused to reply is maybe encouraging