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The Residential Landlords Association (RLA) provides a useful Landlord Advice Team service to landlords with problems. Most of their advice covers two important categories: evictions and deposit protection. Every week, the RLA posts an interesting report on the ‘call of the week’, which serves to highlight an unusual or complex landlord problem. The advice given serves as a useful reminder to other landlords on how to handle difficult problems.
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Deposit Queries
A recent report discussed the case of a landlord who ended up contacting the helpline not once, but twice. The first call related to a deposit. The tenants had paid a month’s deposit and been given the keys to the property, but had failed to pay the first month’s rent. The landlord wanted to know whether he could use the deposit to cover the first month’s rent. The answer to this was a firm “no”.
Rent Arrears and Anti-Social Behaviour
The second call revealed that the situation had escalated, as the tenants had still not paid any rent. Unfortunately, the tenants were also causing problems at the property by holding loud parties and neighbours reported they had been spotted dealing drugs.
The RLA’s advice was to serve a section 8 eviction notice using grounds 8, 10 and 11 for rent arrears, and add on ground 14 to cover the anti-social behaviour. Because of the anti-social behaviour, the landlord only had to give 24 hours’ notice, so he was able to regain possession for rent arrears very quickly.
If you have problems with tenants you should ask for advice – and the RLA helpline is well worth a try.
