My tenant owes £15,000 in rent, but I can't get them out of the property

An important development from the financial markets: My tenant owes £15,000 in rent, but I can't get them out of the property 2 days ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Tarah Welsh , Housing correspondent , Larissa Tairo , Naresh Puri and Alastair Reid Rongmala says the financial problems resulting from her lost rental income are causing her depression Rongmala became an "accidental" landlord when her disabilities meant she could no longer live alone. She moved in with her children and rented out her south London maisonette. But last year, her tenant stopped paying rent.

Rongmala, 57, eventually sent an eviction notice and began court proceedings, but several months later the tenant is around £15,000 in rent arrears and refusing to leave. Court delays are holding up the removal of the tenant, leaving Rongmala feeling "broken". Some landlords are worried delays like this could become worse under the government's new Renters' Rights Act, which comes into force on 1 May in England.

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'Helpless' The new law - which is the biggest overhaul of the private rented sector in a generation - aims to give renters more security and includes a ban on "no fault evictions" and limits to rent increases. Rongmala says financial problems resulting from her lost rental income are causing her depression. "My children are helping me for everything, but I don't want that," she says.

Since her tenant stopped paying rent, she has had to pay £2,500 for boiler repairs as well as service charges on the estate and a mortgage on the property. Although a judge awarded a court order for Rongmala to take possession of the property, only court-appointed bailiffs can remove a tenant. The family has been told this could take up to 11 months.

Rongmala's son, Marouf, says the toll it is taking on his mum is "heartbreaking" and adds that she's "helpless" navigating a clogged-up court system. Groups representing landlords say property owners like Rongmala will become increasingly reliant on the courts to handle repossession claims once the new law comes into force, and warn the government has not done enough to relieve pressure on the system. But dozens of renters have told the about significant difficulties they face, too.

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Rosie and her friends - young professionals who were at a protest in London earlier this month - said they had had to move "dozens of times" and that some people were paying "70% of their salaries" in rent. Fran Brown, 58, told Your Voice that she‘d had to move properties five times since 2017 and was now facing another rent increase. She felt she was "at the mercy of the landlord changing their mind".

Another renter, James, said he had received a "terrifying" eviction notice at the end of February, and that he was struggling to find a home for himself, his wife and two children. He said it was "really tough to face the reality of needing to pack up our entire lives that we've spent 10 years building and put it somewhere else on such short notice on demand".

Financial markets are tracking the development closely as investors assess the likely impact.