Who do I issue a summons to ?

Reply to the comment left by "Landlord Geoff" at "11/11/2014 - 15:33":

Don't know anything about this Geoff were is it at and did you have to register ect?

Reply to the comment left by "david Earnshaw" at "11/11/2014 - 16:28":

Pudsey Civic Hall , but "all seats sold" and a waiting list.

Geoff
landlordgeoff.weebly.com

Reply to the comment left by "david Earnshaw" at "11/11/2014 - 16:27":

I had a similar experience about a year ago. When the tenants left the property it was discovered the all of the white goods had been removed (Sold) and also a suite of office furniture had been removed (sold) Part of the tenancy agreement allowed the tenants to have use of these items for the duration of their tenancy.
The damage to the property and to the replacement of the stolen goods amounted to some £9000.00.
On advice from our solicitor we issued a summons against the Joint tenants and the guarantor shortly after the tenants moved away to the USA. The debt recovery a agents
started to arrive. The tenants had jointly amassed debts of around £30000.00 with loans and credit card. The guarantor (The tenants brother) had to appear at court, because the tenants did not want to come back the UK, I presume because of the collection agencies.
To finish, a guarantor who has secure full time employment is as important as the Tenancy Agreement. So go ahead and sue both tenant and guarantor. Best of luck.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Smith (Barrister-At-Law)" at "11/11/2014 - 12:15":

Hi Mark,
Would you agree that in general guarantors should be UK home owners?
I'm having this discussion with a letting agent at the moment who appears to disagree!

Reply to the comment left by "Dom Glynn" at "12/11/2014 - 09:41":

Hi Dom

Being a homeowner doesn't count for much if that homeowner has negative equity or has bad credit.

My general rule is that if you can't get RGI with or without a guarantor then decline the applicant. That doesn't mean you have to buy RGI of course, that's a commercial decision, but if an RGI insurer is prepared to take on the risk that should generally give you some comfort too.
.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "12/11/2014 - 09:46":

Good point Mark, thanks. However, I would always run full credit checks etc on the guarantor as well.
I think that generally home ownership does add value to someone's worth as a guarantor.

It is worth remembering that if you do decide to obtain a charging order against a guarantor you can still enforce a judgment using an HCEO at the same time. Better still the costs of the charging order can be recovered from the debtor too.

This is especially useful where there is negative equity in the property or when you do not want to wait for the lengthy process in getting a property sold.

However this is all going to depend on whether the guarantor can find the funds to pay or has enough goods to seize and sell. It is always going to be a commercial decision though.

Having said that, at just £60 to instruct the HCEO is the most cost efficient method in such matters.

I always prioritise having a guarantor in full time employment. We have recently successfully sued a guarantor and got an attachment of earnings awarded (had first £100 cheque a few weeks ago). In the past we were under the impression that the guarantor or indeed tenant must earn around £1,000 net per month for an attachment to be awarded. However, this time the instruction said that we would only receive the money in months when the guarantor had received take-home pay of £1,600 per month. Luckily for us he seems to get about £2,200 per month. I have no idea why there is this high threshold though. Maybe someone else knows more? It makes me think the guarantor should only be accepted if they have this sort of income then. I don't really care about home ownership as my understanding is that you could wait a lifetime until they sold the house to get anything....

Reply to the comment left by "Rosalind " at "11/11/2014 - 14:00":

I avoid the problem of forgetting to renew the Guarantor agreement on issuing a new agreement by including the Guarantor as a party to the letting agreement, with the Guarantor's duties and responsibilities clearly stated. Then if/when a new agreement is to be issued, I pull up the previous agreement and make the necessary tweaks.

I also have the agreements signed as a deed; I am not sure it would be legally binding on guarantor if just signed as a contract.

Having said that, my normal approach is to roll over to a Statutory Periodic Tenancy rather than issue a new agreement.

Reply to the comment left by "Rosalind " at "12/11/2014 - 13:01":

Hi Rosalind

Unfortunately people can lose their jobs the day after they become a guarantor. That's why RGI is such a good deal for landlords who can't afford to self insure.
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