NEWS & EVENTS

A city law firm has developed a fixed price service for landlords who are having difficulty getting tenants to pay their rent.

The economic downturn has led to an increase in the number of people seeking rental accommodation.   This is generally good news for landlords but there are instances where tenants, maybe because they have lost their income or any number of other reasons, cannot or choose not to pay their rent.

According to Caroline Gumbrell, Partner at city based Roythornes the first step is to speak to your tenant and establish, if you can, a  payment arrangement where not only do you receive the rent on time and in full in future but also an amount per month towards any arrears.

"It's always best to come to some form of arrangement with your tenant as if you both agree on a plan it is more likely to work." 

Caroline went on to say that if this didn't work the next step would be to serve notice on the tenant requiring them to pay the arrears warning them that if they don't they risk eviction from the property. 

She continued:

"You can serve this notice if there are any arrears but it is better to wait until the arrears are at least the equivalent of two months or 8 weeks of the usual rental sum. If they do not pay, you can issue proceedings for possession and if the arrears remain at the 2 month/8 week level at the date of the court hearing then the court must order that you are given possession. 

We noticed this was becoming a more of a problem for city landlords and developed a fixed price package which helps them in these tricky situations.  When landlords come to see us they are already usually losing money and it helps to know that recovering what they are owed is affordable." 

For full details of the fixed price service landlords should contact Caroline Gumbrell on 01733 898962 or at carolinegumbrell@roythornes.co.uk