Tenant keeps her word for first time in months...... refuses to vacate

Wonders will indeed never cease.You recall the tenant I told you about on the on Friday 10thDec, well, she has surprised me. I really really was hoping that she would keep true to type and not keep her word. Sadly for me, she has kept her word.

What the heck am I on about. well, Mrs F was given a court order to vacate and give me possession of my property yesterday 14/12/09. However, her solicitor had advised her not to leave, and to stay till I got a warrant of possession. Well, considering that Mrs F has been promising to pay her rent since August and has come up with every excuse under the sun for not paying, I had come to understand that her word could not be trusted, and she could not find it in herself to tell the truth or keep her promises. Surprise, surprise, she kept her word this time, and did not leave on the due date. Aaarrghhhh ... the one time I wanted her to be true to type, and she fails me. Oh well. I suppose it just makes the saga more interesting.

I sent someone to go and visit the property, and she duly knocks on the door and Mrs F opens up and asks her in. My agent says she's come to check if Mrs F had left or was leaving, and Mrs F promptly replies that she has no intention of leaving. I'm told that the christmas tree is up, with decorations and lights, not sure if there are presents under the tree ... maybe an inspection is due!!

It never ceases to amaze me that the tenants who claim not to be able to afford or pay their rents are the same ones who can find money to spend on frivolities and luxuries such as 40inch flat screen TVs.

I duly filled in the N325 form yesterday afternoon, wrote out a cheque for £95 made out to HMCS, and promptly sent these off by first class recorded delivery to the court. I telephoned the court mid morning today, and actually spoke to the bailiff. But thanks to questionable services of Royal Mail, the warrant request had not been delivered. The bailiff was quite a nice man actually. He took the case number, went away to check their mail for the day, and called me back to let me know they hadn't received the letter.

I then went onto the Royal mail website to see what the heck was going on, entered the tracking details for the letter and got the message ".... being processed through the system". What b**lsh*t. First class is not 1st class anymore. You just can't get the service nowadays, can you. Courts don't work, royal mail doesn't work, the gofmint doesn't work, the banks stopped working ages ago, and pretty soon BA won't work. The world is going to pots all around us.

Oh, and whilst I was on the phone to the bailiff, i asked him why it was that the system encouraged tenants to flout orders to vacate until bailiffs are called. He didn't know. He sympathised and all that, but had not answer, mind you, not that I expected he would have an answer. I just thought perhaps he could give me an insight into that side of things.

What is a landlord to do?? We can but keep pressing and pushing for our rights and try and keep our tenants paying rent in the face of all the odds stacked firmly against us.

We shall overcome some day.