Problem after buying property with tenants

[albert]

Welcome all,
I am looking to pick some of your expert brain! I recently purchased a property let to students. I was hoping to complete on it before the start of the student term in September but unfortunately it wasn?t until November when I completed on it ,as a result I had a verbal agreement with the vendor(also a landlord) that he would find some tenants for it in September so it would be occupied for the full term. The vendor took the students money upfront for the term until January and agreed with me that, when I took charge of the property(nov),he would forward any rent to me owed for the period nov to Jan. Alas he has failed to do this and has a knack of not answering my emails and phone calls! As far as the solicitors dealing with the purchase were aware it was a vacant possession (something he suggested saying solicitors don?t like tenanted properties!) . As a result of this I have had tenants in the property costing me fuel and electric(as I pay this) and of coarse the mortgage and no rental income for nearly 3 month! Thankfully the students have now paid me for the period Jan to April so I have had some income. Can anyone suggest a way of getting the owed rent, as I don?t think legal action will work because the agreement was verbal between the both of us? Any input would be appreciated.
Regards
Albert

 

[nelson]

Hi Albert,
Firstly I am not a solicitor so take what I say with a pinch of salt.
It appears that you are in a very tricky situation as the agreement was verbal. that said if the property was sold actually tenanted it should be easy to prove that the tenants were there during the period nov-jan (also I am sure the tenants will have proof of payments i.e. chouse).
one first step could be to instruct a solicitor to write a first letter (draft it as best you can first to reduce costs) and take it from there.
otherwise you could go down the small claims court route (no solicitors needed I think) but I do not know a great deal about this.
I am sure that despite the agreement being verbal given when ou took over the property it should be fairly clear that the monies are owed to you. the verbal agreement is still the problem as the previous owner may say was always agreed it was owed to him
Thank you
Nelson