Author: Edward Carter

The BBC recently carried out a survey via their Affordable Living UK Facebook group to find out whether tenants of private landlords felt they were receiving a positive or negative experience. Here is a summary of the major conclusions. The Pros: • Flexibility. We live in a gig economy and many people rely on short term employment or freelance work. The flexibility of being able to move to a new home in a new area at relatively short notice is a positive boon to many young people. • No maintenance responsibilities. This appeared high on a lot of people’s agendas. The fact is that if the…

I recently learnt of a private landlord who had a tenant who suddenly stopped paying the rent. After four months the landlord consulted a solicitor who informed him that a successful eviction process could take a further nine months. Obviously not receiving income for such a long period of time would be detrimental to the landlord, especially as, in this case, he had a mortgage to pay on the property. Unfortunately, a tenant who stops paying the rent is not an uncommon occurrence. I would regard the solicitor’s estimate of nine months is pessimistic, however, and the eviction process could well be completed much sooner than that. One important…