Bad Tenants Register for irresponsible lifestyles?

A bad tenant register (or good tenant register) is a FANTASTIC idea. But; haven't you noticed a deluge of rules, regulations, restrictions and obstacles making life more difficult for private landlords? Not until the pendulum is allowed to swing back the other way will any such register be allowed to be introduced. You can get a bad credit rating if you miss the window-cleaner, but that's the world of finance. As a tenant you can cost your landlord thousands, commit criminal damage, deposit filth for him/her to dispose of at their cost then disappear after lying to the neighbourhood about fictitious problems with the property and no-one bats an eye. Who cares about slander when it's a private landlord on the receiving end? I have bitter experience of ALL of this and more. People have NO sympathy for private landords. Only other landlords do.

Reply to the comment left by "Luke P" at "04/05/2017 - 13:26":

Hi Luke,

Yes, I'm aware of the fact a tenant doesn't need to give notice, if they leave on the last day of their fixed term.

I actually tell them all that before they sign.

I will let them leave before the end of a fixed term, but I won't accept less than 4 weeks written notice.

I offer the 1st weeks rent free if they sign for 6 months, which is recharged back if they leave early.

There is also a community booklet that they get concerning the notices required also.

So I don't accept being diddled by a tenant and I love giving references.

Seriously, despite my reputation on here, I'm a big softy really, but I ran garages for many years, so I'm no mug.

# Vote UKIP

Jill, I share your frustration re the council. Think I can beat it tho....... I had a (current at the time) tenant a couple of years ago who applied for a council house. The council rang us to question the reference we sent "what reference" we said. Cut a long story short, she forged a reference from us, inc signature of my wife. I asked them to send it to us, and yes a complete forgery. I called the council to confirm this, they said their fraud dept will look into it. In the meantime the council sent a ref form to us, so as you would expect it wasn't glowing. No prizes for guessing what happened next.......Yes the council re-housed her and she wasn't even homeless!! Absolute morons.

Reply to the comment left by "Steve Harris" at "05/05/2017 - 12:43":

We had a visit from the head of the Housing Dept of the local Council to our Landlords Association meeting who is new in post and wants to open up a line of communication, specifically for references, between them and us in the PRS, which on the face of it is great...the problem being that they have a duty to house these people and what do they plan on doing when they find the vast majority don't behave themselves and they're no in possession of a bad reference from the tenant's most recent private landlord?

It was pointed out to him that the LA would have to face the reality of the situation and perhaps either have to get tough or re-educate tenants...all seemed to go a bit over his head though.

Reply to the comment left by "Brian Jackson" at "04/05/2017 - 19:00":

Brian - you've been lucky to get any money at all via attachment of earnings. The one time I've obtained a CCJ, it was completely useless: the tenant - despite being able to afford to send two children to private school - was self-employed and said he had no capital assets that could be used to repay the debt (I suspect he owned property, a care etc but they had been put in the names of his parents of parents-in-law and it;'s very difficult to prove deliberate deprivation of assets).

Because he's self-employed, it was also for some reason impossible to obtain any money using an attachment of earnings order: no mechanism exists. I don't understand why they couldn't just reduce his annual tax allowance by the amount of the debt and reclaim the debt that way via HMRC, but it seems our lords and masters just aren't interested in the issues faced by private debtors, whether landlords or utility companies seeking payment. Whereas HMRC, of course, has multiple resources and legal options available . . .

Reply to the comment left by "Tony Atkins" at "08/05/2017 - 09:51":

If it's less than six years old and you've let it lie for a while (allowing for him to forget and accrue assets again), give it another shot. Use a track/trace company to locate, spend £60 converting it to a High Court Writ and have the 'paid-by-results-not-on-attendance' High Court Enforcement Officers do the same. If they're threatening to empty the contents of his house or seize his van (whether needed for work or not), then you can have some satisfaction. Other than the £60 to the High Court for the Writ, the only other cost you'd be exposed to is the HCEOs fee if they can't get anywhere...which is currently £66. Worth a punt...

"The Data Protection Act (DPA) sets out rules for processing personal information. It gives certain rights to individuals and it also says that those who record and use personal information must adhere to eight data protection principles."

https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/data-protection/

Zzz

Reply to the comment left by "Tony Atkins" at "08/05/2017 - 09:51":

You could take out a third party debt order to freeze the account he has been paying you from.
Timed to take effect just before the private school fees are due.

Reply to the comment left by "Scott Davison" at "04/05/2017 - 13:16":

"What’s the point of taking these scumbags to court?"

1. Financially, you have a good chance of being paid if the debt is on the CCJ register.- assuming your tenant selection process is half decent.

2. Morally, you have an obligation to stop them doing this to other landlords and business.

CCJ register here; https://www.trustonline.org.uk/

Reply to the comment left by "Monty Bodkin" at "09/05/2017 - 09:11":

I have a letter sat on my desk from a solicitor informing me that the person I was chasing for debt has now paid in full, but they're demanding to know how the hell I found them (I've filed the letter under b1N). The debtor hadn't made use of a solicitor until now, and I'm surprised they even bothered to send it on behalf of their client as the content is laughable, but she seems more interested in *how* she was found rather than having been forced to pay by the Sheriffs. All I did was a track and trace and then a second one when she moved again to try to dodge it...hardly rocket-science. Sheriff fees were an additional £1400 on top of the £3k she owed me (which was also substantially made up of Court fees).