Following on from Friday’s post about a rise in tenant arrears on the run-up to Christmas, it’s worth thinking about the likelihood and the process of obtaining the outstanding house rent owed to you.
The likelihood of recovering rent from an evicted tenant however, is unfortunately very slim. It’s worth knowing this in advance so your expectations are managed when renting property. Many private landlords are surprised to learn that they will probably never see their unpaid rent. In the majority of arrears cases, the outstanding money for the landlord’s property rentals is never recovered.
No, it’s not fair but this is, unfortunately, the reality and it’s due to a number of factors.
Firstly, trying to extract unpaid rent from an evicted tenant is like trying to pull teeth. Your tenant is very likely broke, hence the arrears, so in most cases, it’s really not worth pursuing a broke person for hundreds of pounds unless you have an iron will and lots of time.