Possession Order Hearing

Hi Ian

I don't know the answer to your question.

What I do know though is that you should have the money order and instruct the a High Court Enforcement Officer to collect the debt on a no-win-no-fee basis - see >>> http://www.hceoa.org.uk/
.

You should demand that the tenant's solicitor withdraws the application immediately, and tell him/her you will notify the Legal Aid Agency forthwith of an abuse of legal aid money.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "10/06/2014 - 08:10":

Touch wood I haven't had a tenant who has been late with their rent for more than 2 weeks. I have a standard letter that they will get where I will just have to change the name, date, property address and amount outstanding. I will send it to them within a couple of days of their rent being late. I know other landlords might not agree but I have to pay my mortgages on time so why should my tenants be allowed to pay their rent late after all I need the rent to pay the mortgage - right.

However, with all these rent arrears stories it is making me a little concerned. I have never worried about rent arrears as I have always taken out rent guarantee insurance. These have varied between payment from day one to one month excess (which hasn't bothered me as the excess would be covered by the tenant's deposit).

My problem is I have never had to test these insurance so I don't know just how good they are. Has anyone made a rent claim on their rent guarantee policy and how did it turnout? Is it that these insurance don't pay out or is it that landlords are not taking out rent guarantee insurance? I have paid between £135-£430 per property pa (depending on the type of tenants). For this they have insurance me for upto £50k to cover rent arrears and eviction costs. Assuming these insurance do pay out why would all landlords not guarantee their rent? Even at the top end of these premiums when one considered the potential loss aren't they a must have for all landlords?

Reply to the comment left by "Anonymous " at "10/06/2014 - 09:55":

I'm an agent.

If I manage the property and sell the landlord a rent guarantee I'm so confident the insurers will cough up that if a claim is necessary I pay the landlord from my own funds and await reimbursement from the rent guarantee.

I can do that because I manage many hundreds of properties, I know the policies intimately, and my staff make sure we comply with all the T's and C's to the letter.

If you're buying a policy yourself the onus is, of course, on you to make sure you've read the small print and complied with all the T's and C's. If you have then the policy will pay out. If you've missed something you'll be on shaky ground.

Be particularly careful if the company selling the policy didn't carry out their own referencing checks on the tenant and relied on yours or a third party's reference because the onus is on you, not the rent guarantee policy provider to make sure the references meet their minimum standard.

Like you I wonder why landlords wouldn't have a rent guarantee (unless their portfolio is sufficiently large to spread the risk and make it cost-effective to stand the occasional hit). Even though I'm MD of a reasonably large agency who knows the lettings industry inside out I buy a rent guarantee for every one of my own properties. I see it from the inside and I think its bonkers not to.

However, the fact remains that plenty of landlords decide to save a few quid and take a chance.

Reply to the comment left by "Steve From Leicester" at "10/06/2014 - 11:02":

I will always ensure that the company that carried out the referencing are the company that are offering the rent guarantee. I read the T&C (several times) and do everything they ask me to the letter and if there is anything I am even slightly not sure about I'm straight on the phone to ask for clarification. I was just making sure that they do pay (as I've never had to claim and you only know how good an insurer is when you have to claim!) and it's not landlords not taking out the insurance. Also, I still don't understand why I would, even with a large portfolio, take a chance - surely I could negotiate a blanket price for my whole portfolio but maybe as I only have a small portfolio I'm being naive.

When I say "I pay the insurance", what I actually mean is the tenants pay the insurance in their administration fee. If I use a letting agent, most of them offer this and if they don't mention it I ask them if they do it and if they don't be sure they will make arrangements to get it for me - if they want my business that is and if they don't, there are plenty of agents that do.

Where I find the tenants myself I will charge them an administration fee. I will make them fully aware of that this includes rent guarantee insurance but as I am not charging anymore than they would be paying if they paid an admin fee to an agent I don't tend to find they have a problem with it. Therefore my rent is guaranteed, and if a tenant is considering not paying my rent the eviction has that covered.

I have made 2 different rent guarantee claims and have been paid out on both occasions. I have always been charged £50 per policy for this cover and that amount does not vary for any reason.

Both references were done by the agent (different agents for each claim), the first being settled immediately but claim number two was held up for months due to an incomplete reference by the agent, however, due to much pressure applied by my broker and the missing check being done retrospectively and without finding any anomalies I was eventually paid the full four figure sum.

Neither claim has affected premiums paid since, nor has it affected my landlords buildings/contents premiums either.

It does amaze me that people do not put in there AST a page covering late or missed payments for which there will be a charge..Visa and MasterCard do and they are computer driven... As most people are greedy and do not want to pay the landlord or agent for there lateness and are advised at the time of signing that this will come out and bite them if they cancel a SO or fail to pay on a particular date ie In my case 6 days of pay date they will be charged (£20) etc.. I have been doing this for over 20 years and found no problem through the courts if it becomes necessary.. Good luck