advice needed non paying tenant

jimbo


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 150

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 01:29

I have have a non paying tenant in my house. He is a turkish cypriot with a girlfreind and a baby. He moved in in september paying two months deposit and a months rent in advance and has not paid anything since we have a contract with him although it was drawn up in the uk but he signed it. We are on builders electric and he is paying the bill can we ask the builder to turn off his electric to force him out , have heard that it is a long drawn out process to go through the courts . where do we stand if we employ the boys to threaten him.

elko2



Joined: 24/07/2007
Posts: 4400

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 07:28

Builders electric is what it says but unfortunbately everybody use it for domestic purposes for years. Ask the builder to cut it off. The tenant will go to the police and the police will "order" the builder to connect it back on. The police has no such authority, only the court can give such an order. So unless there is a written court order served on the builder, he can refuse to reconnect.

If the tenent goes to court for the electrics you can oppose it because legally nobody is supposed to use the electric dor domestic use before approval.

Is your builder prepared to deal with the fuss? I doubt it but worth a try.

ismet

TheScarlets



Joined: 14/04/2009
Posts: 877

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 08:16

Jimbo, hope you get some good fortune here. My neighbour rented to Turkish people and it took over a year to get them out and they ran up an electric bill of over £3000. They also damaged a lot of things in the house. The overall cost to them was over £7000 and they only paid the first months rent even after signing a "legal agreement". Elko is right, start now and do something positive that will make things very uncomfortable for them and sends the message you are not going to be taken for a mug. The odds are stacked against us when renting to Cypriots and Turks. I'm not saying they are all the same but I've spoken to people who have had some awful experiences,



Ian

elko2



Joined: 24/07/2007
Posts: 4400

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 08:35

I rented my flat to a Turkish Cypriot businessman. He paid the deposit but defaulted on rent right from the very first month. I gave him notice and had his electric and water cut off so that he would have both in his name. I chose not to cancel the contract and instead I sued him for rent, three times for each month's rent. He gave up after the third writ and vacated. Of course he had assets that I could go after. He told me that he had not met anyone like me in his life. How true

ismet

Mertbalin



Joined: 09/07/2009
Posts: 171

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 10:09

It seems like i am a very good tenant



i paint the walls, take care of the garden, pay all the bills on time, fix all the broken pipes and stuff.

TheScarlets



Joined: 14/04/2009
Posts: 877

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 10:14

Mertbalin, good to hear it. Unfortunately not all your compatriots are of a similar standing

Ian

Quarmby


Joined: 15/09/2008
Posts: 975

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 11:42

Msg 3

is it KibTek's policy to allow electricity bills to just mount up and not be paid? or is it dependant on your nationality?

magolina


Joined: 06/12/2008
Posts: 461

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 12:28

Hi,

Even after a court order which took one and a half years my bastard still didnt leave only went when the water and electric was finally cut of leaving massive bills as you say loads of damage and severly out of pocket. Cant we all campaign to get the law changed ?? The locals know the score and will keep on doing this while the law lets them. Lets start by naming and shaming all bad tenats to help warn each other.



My was Sema Cagatay and her husband Rifat believed to have family in Alsancak. so watch out for them.

jimbo


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 150

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 16:44

Thanks guys for the info, my builder said he did not want the agg of it . I am not going to go down the legal route sounds to expensive and to much stress when i am 3000 miles away. looks like its a job for the boys

joandjelly


Joined: 24/02/2008
Posts: 2953

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 18:49

Presumably the tenant works somewhere locally. How about visiting him at his place of work to embarrass him into paying up or name and shame him in the local Turkish language newspapers.

jimbo


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 150

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 20:29

thanks j and j that can be arranged i heard that tc people look very lowly on people with bad debts that they do not pay

Pippie


Joined: 02/12/2009
Posts: 1288

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 20:34

Did you rent furnished?



I know you mentioned you're 3000 miles away but does anyone have a spare key over here. Someone might correct little ole naive me but, aren't you, or your representative, legally allowed to enter your own property - when they are in or out of the house?!! And, are you not also entitled to remove some of your own possessions if you deem appropriate??



Perhaps they'd be a bit miffed if you took away some of the more useful things - like TV etc., or toilet seat, shower curtain, taps??!!! Just so they don't get damp while the house is meant to be empty!!



By the way, I've got to say it - in Mertbalin's defence, there's good and bad in every society - including us Brits - so we shouldn't really tarnish everyone with the same brush...

sloan



Joined: 24/02/2009
Posts: 808

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 21:14

Have you read this old thread?



http://www.cyprus44.com/forums/22597.asp

Stonehousepub


Joined: 21/05/2009
Posts: 755

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 22:39

If you have proof of ownership on the related property, you can go to Kibtek and ask for the electric to be disconnected and the same applys to your water supply.

sloan



Joined: 24/02/2009
Posts: 808

Message Posted:
30/04/2010 22:42

It will probably not do a lot of good, as the meter can be bipassed, and it is just a case of ordering a water lorry to fill the underground tank.

kiwikid


Joined: 18/08/2008
Posts: 496

Message Posted:
01/05/2010 17:02

Be very careful about cutting electric and water, Our tenats hadn't paid rent for 6 months, my husband had enough turned water off, then electric. they called the police and we were force to reconnect him, as he still had a valid contract (though not paying rent) the property had to remain in the same state as when we rented it to him. You can also not enter the property with out the tenants permision or you can be done for trespassing. and they could accuse you of stealing.

The only way is to go through the courts, its a long drawn out process but it is the only way. It does make it a lot easier if the contact has expired.

This doesn't always happen to brits my husband is a Turkish Cypriot and has had just as much problems. We have just about given up renting our properties out.

Tenakoutou



Joined: 27/07/2009
Posts: 4110

Message Posted:
01/05/2010 22:00

I know of (English) people who, only wishing to help a sick, 80 year old lady, went to clean up and photograph the damage caused by renters, who had stolen the contents and subsequently trashed the premises, then 'done a runner' to Turkey. Needless to say, they hadn't paid rent, or utility bills, for ages.



Even though the renters had abandoned the premises, because their rental contract was still just valid, these decent and honest English people had their camera confiscated by the police and have been charged with trespassing, for which they have been in Girne court for, last I heard from them, at least four times. Despite trying, they still hadn't got their camera back from the police. One shudders to imagine how much litigation costs, grief and inconvenience they have suffered from only trying to 'do the decent thing' and come to the aid of a sick and defenceless old lady.



Is this rotten business now resolved? - I don't know....



But it makes me want to chunder...

magolina


Joined: 06/12/2008
Posts: 461

Message Posted:
02/05/2010 22:31

as I said we must campaign to have the law changed

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
02/05/2010 22:38

Magolina. I agree about the campaign - where do we start?

Tenakoutou



Joined: 27/07/2009
Posts: 4110

Message Posted:
03/05/2010 10:43

Do you imagine that the government are not aware of their own laws, or the inadequacy thereof?



Have HBPG not already handed them the 'panacea' for all these problems 'on a plate'?



They'll only do what they want to do in their own time.



At present, it appears that 'coining it in' from fishing licence revenue is the priority!

jimbo


Joined: 12/07/2007
Posts: 150

Message Posted:
03/05/2010 19:14

do the goverment realise the amount of tax they can raise if they made it easier for landlords to evict tenants . More tenants will be likely to pay rent if they knew they can be evicted and in so raising tax for the goverment

Jetski


Joined: 21/07/2008
Posts: 584

Message Posted:
03/05/2010 21:27

Ahhh yes Tena- perhaps Greece, Portugal and Ireland should follow suit! - Fishing licences - thats where the real (reel?) money is !!!!!