Sometimes tenants turn out to be problem tenants.
Statistically this is a fairly low percentage – most tenants are decent. However this this is no comfort if your tenant is wrecking your property or failing to pay rent.
If you have a problem tenant, often the only real solution is eviction.
This is particularly so if the tenant is not paying rent. After all YOU still have to pay your outgoings on the property and the odds are that you will never recover any of the unpaid rent. You can’t get blood out of a stone.
The problems of delay in eviction
I have known landlords suffer very heavy losses of thousands of pounds of unpaid rent through believing tenants when they said they would pay, only to find several months down the line that they have no intention of doing anything of the sort.
Legal proceedings are not quick and if there is an issue, its best to get things going as soon as possible – if the tenants pay up or start behaving themselves, you can always withdraw the claim later.
But you cannot make up lost time if you delay starting the process.
The problem is that most landlords are reluctant to start the eviction process as it involves legal fees (both for solicitors and the court) – a cost they hope they will be able to avoid – if only the tenants would do as they are supposed to!
A solution
You can’t avoid the court fees – but you may be able to substantially reduce the other legal costs. AND get things moving quicker.
For many years I have offered landlords a DIY alternative – my Eviction Kit.
This is now part of Landlord Law Membership if you join as a +Plus member. Many landlords have saved hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds using it.
However, if you have never brought a court claim before, even with a detailed DIY Kit, doing your own eviction claims seems very intimidating. And court proceedings are, for many people, very scary.
To help you if you are in this position, I have developed a new type of Landlord Law membership:
The Eviction Special
The Eviction Special membership is for a fixed period of nine months and includes ‘one to one’ support built in:
- As soon as you join you will be asked to complete a detailed questionnaire about your case and to send copies of your paperwork to me
- I will then discuss your case with you on the phone (or Skype) and advise on the best approach for you to take and what you need to do
- I will then draw up a step by step action plan for you to follow – with links to relevant pages on the Landlord Law site and elsewhere – which you can refer to throughout the process
- You will also be entitled to up to three more telephone advice calls, which you can take at any time during your membership – for example you could use one of these to discuss the forms and paperwork before you send them off to court when issuing proceedings.
Having this support should make things a lot easier and a lot less intimidating. And help you understand the process and prevent errors.
The Long Term Benefits of DIY eviction
Although doing it yourself may seem difficult to start with, it comes with several long term benefits.
- You will save money – over and over if you have other problem tenants later
- What you learn about the process will help make you a better landlord
- You will be able to deal better with difficult tenants
- You will be able to take swift action without the delays that instructing solicitors and waiting for them to start work can involve
It will also give you more confidence generally – and also peace of mind as you are not dependent on others
The full cost of the membership and advice services which come with the Eviction Special membership is £620 but the Eviction Special costs just £360 (£300 + VAT).
And you get all the other Landlord Law membership benefits as well (tenancy agreements, videos, legal FAQ, forum help etc).
If you are interested in the Eviction Special you can find out more here.