Rent defaults

Tenancy Types and Management

My tenant in Newcastle started well in Jan, but in May became ill and claimed housing benefit. This took a long time to sort out and because the payments are often different, it is difficult to know what periods they cover, or whether anything has been backdated. Payments are also episodic. Because there is a shortfall between the housing benefit and the rent, the tenant promised to make up the backdated defaults and continue to pay a certain amount extra to keep up to date. However, she has not done so and the agents (who are not very helpful) have had diffiulty in talking to her. The arrears are now around £1,200 and I can see that these are unlikely to ever be paid.

The next step is obviously an eviction order - I would like to know the procedure, what it entails and how best to proceed and how long it takes. I imagine other landlords have been down this route before, so I would like to draw on their experience too.