A seemingly new scam for landlords to be aware of

Hi, I would like to highlight tenants taking advantage of the landlord and Universal Credit and the likes of Shelter, the local housing office and Citizens Advice Bureau being complicit in helping them defraud the landlord and government.

In October 21, I let a flat to a ‘Spanish’ couple who were actually Romanian but had official paperwork having lived in Spain for some time.

Not that this is relevant other than when you consider the issues landlords have in Spain recovering properties that have been squatted in, it is almost impossible to regain possession of the property.

They paid rent in October and the deposit, missed November and told me work had not paid them and asked me for a proof of rent letter, which immediately made me think Universal credit rent claim.

They did not pay me again.

I gave them a section 8 notice when the arrears were 2 months, that was ignored, then I took court action which they ignored.

I asked UC to pay me direct due to 8 week arrears but they refused and continued to pay the tenant after discussing my request with the tenant. I requested this each month – in March, April and May – and then gave up. ]

Court eviction date set for 22 July, ignored, and the tenant told me to my face ‘I’m not going anywhere unless you want to give us another house!’

He speaks fluent English, Spanish and Romanian and he believed he could not be evicted or could at least appeal and drag it out longer having had advice from the CAB.

Fortunately, they failed to advise him as to when to make any spurious appeal.

Bailiff eviction date yesterday, on arrival they first tried to tell the bailiff with Google Translate that they can not speak English until I reminded the guy that he had spoken to me before – then he walked off and left his wife to carry on in Romanian.

They told the bailiff they had not received any correspondence until the bailiff pointed out that he himself had delivered a letter a few days before and he could see it opened on the floor in front of him. The bailiff firmly gave them 30 minutes to get together their stuff and the address of the local housing office.

The woman then says ‘I will stay here whilst my husband goes and sees what they can offer us’. The bailiff laughed.

When they left the property they had no sense of shame or embarrassment and were just laughing with all their compatriots who turned up to support them, which I suppose having had free rent for 8 months in a nice apartment and getting a bonus cheque every month off the UK government would make you laugh.

And they are off to do the same to the next unsuspecting landlord.

They will sit as long as they can and know nothing can be done to them. They are not worried about CCJs with various IDs and names and know the system will keep supporting them and paying them regardless.

To add insult to injury, the emergency housing officer who they went to see then telephoned me wanting chapter and verse of their eviction proof, I had served papers on them and copies of everything. I laughed and said they have been legally evicted after 3 court hearings and I’m not prepared to spend any more time and money on them thank you – if you now thinks its unlawful perhaps you need to contact the court.

None of this wasted time and money and court’s time and fraud would have happened if the Universal Credit payments were made to the landlords, its as simple as that.

The anti-landlord stance is driven by local authorities and CAB etc even though they need landlords on their side.

I’ve had enough and am getting out.

Chris

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