UK Landlord Forum / Life

Our tenant as moved out owing us just over £2000 in rent arrears.
Is it worth pursuing through the courts to get the money back from the tenant?
Will it cost us more in the long run?
We have emailed the tenant several times but we are not receiving any response back!
Thank you in advance for your advice.

I'd guess it depends if you think the tenant has any money or whether you want to give them a CCJ to affect their future activity.

Quote from: Lou on January 19, 2023, 04:25:11 PM
Our tenant as moved out owing us just over £2000 in rent arrears.

Do you take a deposit?

If so, you can take (part of) the rent owing from there.

Is this the same tenancy as you mention here?
https://www.landlordforumproject.co.uk/landlord-advice-help/rent-increase-6842/msg35453/#msg35453

Many thanks for your swift replies.
The tenant is as far as I know on universal credit.
We did take a deposit which has already been deducted from the amount owing.

Quote from: Lou on January 19, 2023, 06:11:59 PM
The tenant is as far as I know on universal credit.

They can have up to £6,000 savings without their UC being reduced.

It's perhaps more likely that they don't have any savings, in which case it would take a long time for you to recover your £2,000.

Do they work? Even though they are on UC, they may still have a job.

You ask: "Is it worth pursuing through the courts to get the money back from the tenant? Will it cost us more in the long run?"

Nobody here can answer that. You need to find some info on the ex-tenant.

Who did they work for when you first took them on? I'd start there.

Do they have any social media presence?

He always said he had no savings and no job up to when he moved out in December.

He was self employed and worked from home

If you take action through the small claims process to try and recover the money owed, it will cost you about £115 (and some time and effort).
Assuming the tenant has little or no money, the most likely outcome is a CCJ against them, which will result in no money for you, but will inconvenience the tenant for 6 years (and flag up their poor payment record to any other landlord who checks).

You can't recover money owed from someone who simply doesn't have it. However, it is remotely possible that the CCJ would be sufficiently inconvenient that they'd want to pay it off if they come into some money (but it's very very unlikely).
But the process might make you feel better, and, once you've done it once, you'll be comfortable with starting the process much sooner if someone else starts to owe you money.

Only a  small percentage of money claimed successfully in the court actually gets paid.I got my claim against a rogue builder agreed 2 weeks ago.It is a year since I started the process.He is a limited company with a string of CCJ's outstanding,so I won't get my money back.However,it might just be one more nail in his coffin.For a fee of £6 you can get a report of CCJ history online.Wish I had done this before handing over a large sum.In your situation I would go ahead and claim.It does help with the emotional impact,and is very easy to do yourself. It could be of use to the next  landlord he tries to exploit.   

Thank you to you all for your help and advice.