UK Landlord Forum / Life

Help pls tenant has not paid rent since October and he paid deposit in installments then asked me to use deposit for a months rent he did not pay    is now looking for x3 times deposit he never paid his rent on time  I have issued section 8 and 21 notice the section 21 notice is due on the 9 Feb he has done this before. I Have run out money and time ?? He won't answer emails or phone, what will happen if change lock ! I'm at my wits end he has played  me like a piano he is not a tenant he is a conman thanks for looking

Whatever you do, don't change the locks (I'm assuming this is an AST tenancy, not a lodger in your house). If you change the locks you can be done for unlawful eviction.

If the deposit wasn't fully protected when you issued the Section 21, then it's invalid so you may as well forget about it. If you haven't already done so, protect the deposit now and issue the prescribed information. That will demonstrate that you've acted in good faith (albeit belatedly) while your tenant, in failing to pay the rent, has not done so. If your tenant did take you to court, he would probably only be awarded 1x the deposit, rather than the full 3x, which is the most that anyone could be awarded and tends to be reserved for more egregious cases. Of course, you can counter-sue for the arrears of rent, which would probably more than cancel out any award from the court in respect of the deposit.

In any case, failure to protect the deposit doesn't preclude a Section 8 eviction, so you can press on with that route in the meantime.

Beware of overdoing the phoning and e-mailing: it could be construed as harassment. If your tenant won't answer phone-calls/e-mails, how did he get in touch with you to demand  3x the deposit? If it was by letter, write back and attempt to negotiate. He's not going to get 3x the deposit and you're probably not going to get all the missing rent, but you might be able to come to some arrangement whereby he leaves quietly and you don't pursue him for the remaining rent arrears.

Thank you Simon for the advice louie