When tenants go bad

Earning a living as a landlord or subsidising your salary from let property is a great way to make a living. The buy to let revolution has significantly increase many individuals collateral assets.

The business model usually employed by landlords is to use the rent from a let property to pay most of the monthly mortgage on the property. This is great whilst regular income is forthcoming, but can lead to serious problems should the payments fail to materialise over any length of time.

Bad payers

Bad payers are a potential nightmare for landlords and pose several problems with regards to rectifying the situation. It could be your tenant has genuinely falling on hard times and will remedy the situation over a short period of time. It is also possible that your new tenant is just trying to gain a period of free living by not paying then running out on you. Deciding what to do is hard as you would not want to remove a tenant who is doing their best to sort the situation, however you don't want to end up paying the mortgage yourself.

Probably the best advice is to always use a property agency who carry out thorough credit and reference checks. At the least ensure you have a legal contract in place that is signed by both parties.