Is there any way to recover debts from benefits tenants?

When you say ex tenant did you have to go though eviction or did they leave fairly easily but with just a load of unpaid rent? With a debt of about £10k is this just rent or other fees? It will cost you to enforce and you may not get anything. Unfortunately if they don’t have any tangible assets it’s very unlikely you will be able to recover this. I’m not even sure you can push for bankruptcy. Hoping that this is at least a 7 year stain on their credit file. Did they move into council house or another PRS landlord? Others might have better suggestions but AE will likely fail. £50 is pathetic but might be your best option for now.

Simple answer: No.

Many years ago I had an attachment of earnings in place. £50 a month. It stopped after 1 month because the ex-tenant left work.

To cut a long story short I got my money back (less court fees) after 10 years!
Used a private investigator to track her on several occasions as she kept changing jobs, left the country for a few years, re-married (name changed) etc, etc.

Court were not interested in helping, just said when you know where she is working re-submit an application and we can look at it. They even had the cheek to say on one occasion, she is not earning enough now to do an AoE as here new rent she is paying is £125 more now than when she rented from you. (the fact she now had a husband assumed helping with bills not taken into account)

Nowadays, I would only take on tenants who had good jobs, a guarantor, some money or assets that could be seized.

I'd say it was unlikely you will get anywhere with the courts. This is why going forward you need to be extremely selective with tenants or sell up IMO.

Are they listed on here?

https://www.trustonline.org.uk/

Most tenants evicted for arrears aren't. The judgement is only entered if it is 'enforced'.

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/enforce-a-judgment

Debts owed by former tenants, can sometimes be recovered, even if they are in receipt of benefits. This is our process:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rkhu1hbx2vu09mattbzhb/CHT-Shergroup-Debt-Recovery-Process-Dec-2022.docx?rlkey=v1nr5avrci545hj0g23hczmeb&st=3dl5mx1m&dl=0

While this process doesn't work every time, overall it does seem to be an effective debt recovery strategy for rent arrears. However, you may need to have clauses in your AST or other documentation that allows this type of debt recovery.

Try asking for a managed payment to landlord (MPTL) if the tenant is on benefits or they can agree to ask for it themselves

A ray of hope:
Although 15 years ago I had a tenant who I had to evict for non payment of rent.
The procedure for eviction took over a year.
The bailiffs finally evicted the tenant. He gave no forwarding address.
Jump 8 months and the tenant sued me for his deposit. I counter sued as I now had his new address and won.
He said he had no income. However it was proven he did earn money as a taxi driver. He was ordered to pay £100 a month.
To disregard a court order for payment is a serious offence. He paid £100 for just over seven years.
Although I would have preferred the whole incident never to have happened - I can say the Court system did work.
My conclusion to this is if you know you are right and the tenant is legally wrong and owes you a lot of money whether in rent or damage - (mine was both), PERSERVERE and go through the LEGAL PROCEDURE - you will win. Finally, if the tenant badly damages your property take PHOTOGRAPHS before repairing the damage. Evidence is very important. Also never write disrespectful letters to a tenant no matter how appalling they treat you and your property. I hope my experience gives you hope.

Personally, I'd take the £50pm. You've done well to get that far. I don't know if it's worth asking the court to reconsider now... if that's her earnings... thats her earnings... I would maybe ask to reconsider in a year, or ask to have interest added on annually, or something because we all know with the cost of inflation, £50 in 17 years time, will probably buy you a loaf of broad, vs £50 today, which can buy you a loaf, some butter... and some jam!

Reply to the comment left by Robert M at 25/10/2024 - 12:34
Robert are you Sherwood ? This is all really useful. I have a CCJ for just over 2000 stg, the person whilst not native British is still in UK. I need to take the next steps on this. Also I was battling tenants that owe 3-5k in damage on a property. I did not receive the final letter from the Court and the court has close my case - I need to pay 300 stg to grovel to reopen the case then another 200 to proceed. They are from deepest darkest offshore 1 I traced, all 3 attended court and there was a guarantor - I only summoned 2 on the joint AST. I'm really angry they are getting away with this. Then a third case - spotty faced and smart alec type owes up to 10k. Had a debt collector who didnt proceed as they promised and he's now said sue me. So 3 cases I need help with.

Reply to the comment left by Lisa008 at 03/11/2024 - 13:28
No, I am not Sherwood, (or Shergroup).

We do use the services of the debt collection company, Shergroup, with the process that my post links to.

We do not offer any sort of debt collection service ourselves, but we have developed a process for instructing Shergroup to collect debts for us, (and details the stages of the debt recovery process, and the costs at each stage, if applicable).