HCEO’s What has been your experience?

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "16/07/2015 - 22:15":

Any advise please, i have a tennent owes me £8000,000 bayliffs coming on 23rd to evict went to properety sunday tenent refused to speak to me and phoned the police. they had attended with alarms and sirens going offf. they spoke to the tenent who said she is being re-housed by the council and she has to stay in the property until thursday when classed as homeless. i have an e-mail from the police saying everything she said to them. her car is outside with a sticker on it to be removed and the police stated that it was not there job but a civil matter. i was escorted off my property. what will be my options, i dont think it will be the sheriffs.....

Firstly, you have to consider what assets the tenant has and their financial position regarding work etc.

Do they drive and if so, what is the value of the car? If it less than circa £2,000 on Autotrader it may not make financial sense to remove it once you consider an auction value, possibly without keys, log book, MoT and service history. You will need to check that the vehicle is free of finance also.

Does their partner work or do they have a family of means. We often find that it is not the tenant themselves that actually pays. They get help from friends or family.

Is enforcement using bailiffs/HCEOs your best method of recovery. If they have no assets of value and work it could be that an Attachment to Earnings is a viable option. Or in some cases as Luke mentions a charging order could be a useful tool.

David,

As is clear, you know your industry very well and there are limitations placed upon you in following the rules correctly.

Evidenced by the frustrations and lack of understanding shown here in this thread, perhaps The Sheriff's Office should advertise in a more frank and in a brutally honest fashion, thus managing expectations.

I imagine your immediate reaction would be one of concern for a potential loss in instructions, but I'm sure that were you to very clearly advertise that HCEOs generally only have success in one out of every five cases, customers would look at the relatively low fees, still take the gamble although not be disappointed when it didn't work out.

Quite correct Luke and it is something we are putting into place.

Reply to the comment left by "David Carter" at "20/07/2015 - 09:24":

Hi David, 118 members and forum followers. I am glad I posted this subject as it seems that we all have learned a little more about how HCEO's work. More importantly it has highlighted the fact that the HCEO route is not the miracle answer to recovering debts. The very helpful responses from David, Luke, Robert and others may lead us to reappraise our choice of what action we need to take to suit our individual circumstances. I might just add that, although I did not refer to any particular company in my post, it was in fact David's company i.e The Sheriffs Office.
I will be contacting them again shortly to further air my concerns with regard to their performance to date. I did not intend to, nor did I, go into all the details of my specific case on the forum.

CCJ aren't worth the paper they're written on. Who's going to follow it up? No point if tenant is broke which they all say they are!

Reply to the comment left by "David Carter" at "08/07/2015 - 15:51":

I contacted the Sheriff's Office about 2 months ago after reading about them on this site and am so disappointed. In my first telephone call I mentioned that I only had the ex-tenant's mother's address. No-one told me that I needed a current address. I was quickly told how to pay £60 into their bank account which I did the same day. Now I have made more enquiries and decided to first trace my ex-tenant and use a different enforcement company as I have had no advice or assistance from SO. I have requested my £60 be refunded. Even bigger disappointment. No contact and no refund. Now chasing SO for my money. Think this is the biggest con for landlords that I have come across.

the one thing in my mind I am always wondering, first they said the car can not be seize, and then they said if I pay them cost of removing the vehicle , then they can seize the car, I asked they explain why, no answer for that.

Reply to the comment left by "Jack Ass" at "06/08/2015 - 19:29":

At least they can't get finance. it is down to landlord to follow. But it will cost you money.
The court make the order but doesn't do anything , what is point to make a order?

Reply to the comment left by "Gail Nelson" at "12/08/2015 - 18:30":

Please shall your experience with us, which company do you use to trace your ex-tenants and which enforcement company will you be using ? Are they any good ?