Having read a couple of example threads on here on similar subjects I am minded to pursue one of my ex tenants from 2017. I invite your comments as to my best, if any, course of action.
Firstly, an explanation of the jargon MCoL (money claim on-line perhaps?). If it is then I am familiar with this process.
In September 2017 I used an agent to find me a tenant for a 12 month assured shorthold tenancy.
New tenant moved in in October, having passed their financial checks, etc., and paid his security deposit and first month's rent to the agent. I was happy for the agent to handle that side.
From this rent the agent took an agreed 8% of the annual rent. I agreed to collect further rent payments.
Tenant paid no rent in November. I got no reply from his mobile telephone number, the only one supplied.
I wrote to him a couple of weeks later, in early December 2017, and received no reply.
A week later I let mtself in to the flat, to discover that he'd left. The flat was relatively tidy, except that each and every cupboard was full of empty wine and whiskey bottles - approx 60 empties! It seems that he'd used my flat to have a binge, and then abandoned the place.
The agent was less than helpful, refusing to re-market the flat, and refusing to allow me access to his security deposit "until the end of the tenancy..." (9 months hence). They also refused to return any of the full year's commission they had taken up front. I did no more than fume, clean the place up, and re-let it through another agent.
In November 2018 (9 months later) I wrote an email to the agent reminding them that I wanted my loss of rent covered by the ex-tenant's security deposit....and got no reply. Subsequently I found that their town centre shop had been re-let to another business. The agency had shut down.
The agent had run a franchise, so I aproached the franchising business....again no reply.
I have since discovered the whereabouts of the ex-franchisee, who appeared to be the manager of the agency business. I also have the address the ex-tenant gave when he applied for my flat. I have no reason to suggest the two were in cahoots.
I did not follow-up my claim; other work and the relief that another tenant was in place dulled my enthusiam for the bureauocracy of legal action. I now have renewed enthusiasm to find the ba*rd and make him pay.
I think I have fully described the facts; the advice I crave is as follows:
1. Is it now, 3 years later, worth making a claim for loss of rent from the ex-tenant? If so what is the best address to use for him? May I serve documents on him at multiple addresses?
2. Will it harm my claim that I have waited 3 years before making it?
3. How, without the agent, can I recover whatever I can from the security deposit, and how do I find the location of the deposit?
4. Is it worth pursuing the ex-agent as an individual, if not for compensation then to bring her to justice for any crimes she may have committed by scarpering with my deposit?
Regards, PtP.
