CCJ obtained against tenant. Now need to trace him and get my money.

CCJ obtained against tenant. Now need to trace him and get my money.

17:29 PM, 8th March 2015, About 10 years ago 53

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Hi guys,

This forum has been of great help to me since becoming a landlord. I hope you can advise me on the following issue as well. CCJ obtained against tenant. Now need to trace him and get my money.

I had to take my tenant to court over unpaid rent and managed to secure an order of possession under s.21 grounds 10 and 11.

The court has also kindly applied a CCJ for unpaid rent of £3,142.11 and also court costs of £280, I’m just waiting for the bailiff to set a date and kick the guy out.

Now I am perfectly aware of the fact that the tenant would have obviously vacated the property by the time the bailiff come, packed his bags and will be gone for good. Nevertheless, I am absolutely determined to get back every penny that is owed to me.

How can I go about tracing the tenant? Can you recommend lawyers or services which can do this one my behalf on a no find no fee basis?

Once found, what are my options? As far as I am aware, he doesn’t work and lives on housing benefit and other forms of benefit. Can I contact the council where he resides to have some of benefits diverted to me?

Is the tenant likely to obtain social housing as a result of the eviction? Surely not. Especially with a CCJ? When is like to the council some.months ago they said they will have to contact me for a reference if he applies for social housing.

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Kugan


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Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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10:47 AM, 14th March 2015, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Kugan Lingam" at "14/03/2015 - 10:45":

Why has it taken so long for a possession date?
.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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11:04 AM, 14th March 2015, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Kugan Lingam" at "14/03/2015 - 10:46":

24 hours notice is acceptable but if the tenant refuses access then you MUST NOT enter the property without a Court order.
.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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11:09 AM, 14th March 2015, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Kugan Lingam" at "14/03/2015 - 10:46":

I re commend you to give 72 hours notice and to post the letter first class and obtain a certificate of posting from your post office which is free. Do not use recorded or registered post because your tenant can refuse delivery. And you will not be aware until it is too late. Do not post by hand unless you have an independent witness who will be prepared to back you up in Court if necessary. Do not rely on text or email.
.

David Asker

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11:57 AM, 14th March 2015, About 10 years ago

Just coming back to the locksmith point, as long as your Dad ensures he has the right equipment with him it should be fine.

However we have seen landlords use builders before that were unable to get into the property without damaging the door and frame significantly.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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12:08 PM, 14th March 2015, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "David Carter" at "14/03/2015 - 11:57":

It is very easy to get into a Yale type lock. If you drill a hole in the lock barrel immediately above or below where the key goes in, insert key and turn hard with a pair of pliers then you're in. It takes seconds. Before anybody asks, no I'm not a professional burglar LOL. I have seen it done many times though by locksmiths and am now confident to do it myself.
.

Dr Rosalind Beck

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15:56 PM, 15th March 2015, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Kugan Lingam" at "14/03/2015 - 10:45":

Hi Kugan. Yes, you're on the ball about the 42 days - that sounds about right. But you have to make sure you attend if there is a hearing at the last minute as the judge will not advocate for you and could easily still give the tenant longer if you're not there to say that he shouldn't. If the guy does try and pull this off at the last minute it would be useful to have the document ready - maybe someone else here can explain what's necessary - to save me having to go and find it in my old files somewhere. The statement we gave the judge mentioned all the relevant dates which showed that the tenant had no right in law to stay any longer. All the best.

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11:23 AM, 26th March 2015, About 10 years ago

I managed to eventually evict tenants who were not paying their rent. The council then very kindly gave them a nice council property nearby!,in fact I found out later on that they were not paying ANY of their household bills.These people were cute, by either putting ownership of valuables in the non working partners name and by the working partners car being on lease, it was tricky for me to find a way of recovering the nearly £4000 of back rent and costs owed. However I went to court and obtained a ccj for the amount owed against the working partner.She has a good professional job in the NHS,and after getting a n attachment to earnings following more court visits ( which meant her taking time off work)payments of £100 pcm are being taken direct from her wages, the debt is now down to £610. My point really is that if your tenant(s) are not fully employed in a proper regular job.You have little chance of recovering any unpaid rent that might be owed.The court system is not really fit for purpose and very slow.I managed to get some sort of justice, but the money doesn't make up for the lost nights sleep. Its so very difficult to judge whether people move in with the intention of non payment,Sadly in my experience up till now its English people who give the most trouble,Eastern Europeans in my experience just work hard and pay their rent, without trying to hide behind laws which they now know is likely to protect them no matter what,, at least in the medium term. If the labour party win the election and bring in a guaranteed 3 year tenancy and/or abolish section 21 then God help us landlords.

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14:14 PM, 26th March 2015, About 10 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "chris mccauley" at "26/03/2015 - 11:23":

Thank you Chris. Glad to hear you managed to action the CCJ and start to get back what is rightfully owed to you. I am praying that my tenant will get a job within the 6 years at which point I will do my best to track him down and do what you did. At the moment I am trying to get through to the court so that the CCJ gets registered but they are not responding to me at all. How did you go about getting the CCJ registered? I hear mixed advice on this but apparently a CCJ can't be registered unless it is "enforced"?

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14:33 PM, 26th March 2015, About 10 years ago

Update: Just had the following response from the Romford County court:

Dear Sir/Madam,

The Court will only register the Judgement once you apply for the enforcement proceedings. There are various types of enforcement if you go to http://www.justice.gov.uk then click on forms and look for leaflet number EX321 this will explain the various types of enforcement you can make.

Regards

Romford County Court

-------------------------

This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever come across in my entire life.

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15:08 PM, 26th March 2015, About 10 years ago

Hi Kugan,
I was under the impression that all ccj,s were logged under experion or some such national log and that ccj,s expired after 6 years.?so i don t know how important this is to have registered. However as i said in my previous post,from my experience its virtually impossible to recover debts apart from via attachment to earnings enforcement by the court,

This person may well have an income,but if its casual,or self employed then its impossible to prove what they are earning as they are not being paid via a proper wages dept. I know how it feels o have been ripped off in this way,your only comfort is that you have your property back.which is why i attach so much importance to fighting any change in the current property recovery system section 21 or if you want to risk it section 8 both of which which are already biased against landlords.
P.S.The TV show about high court enforcement by high court bailiffs is a route that appears easy,but when i tried they said that the local county court judges would not usually allow cases to be sent up to the court. Perhaps this has now changed?

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