Recovering arrears

[King13]

Hi - tenant left with rent arrears owing. There is a personal guarantee to work on.

How does one go about recovering the arrears?

Cheers!

[Wayne]

Small claims court if small enough?

[Perry]

The Disputes Tribunal will ordinarily not hear debt claims.

And there must be a dispute. And you have to prove that
there is a dispute. So if the amount is disputed, you should
get an application past the Registrar. If the debt is agreed,
but simply not paid, you likely wont.

But dealing with a guarantor may change the scenario
options available.

[King13]

Thanks. We have to deal with the personal guarantor. Does not dispute the claim (just does not pay!)

[Perry]

Is it possible that there is a dispute in
that the personal guarantor disputes
liability for the debt?

[Wayne]

If it's worth it I think you will need to lawyer up.

[King13]

Thanks for the advice.

The tenant has suddenly become un-communicative. There is no response to e-mail/mobile phone calls/text messages. The amount is not large but this attitude is frustrating and makes going after them attractive!

Will contact the lawyer for advice. Perhaps passing the debt to a collection agency may get the tenant's attention!

[Ivan McIntosh]

Thanks for the advice.

The tenant has suddenly become un-communicative. There is no response to e-mail/mobile phone calls/text messages. The amount is not large but this attitude is frustrating and makes going after them attractive!

Will contact the lawyer for advice. Perhaps passing the debt to a collection agency may get the tenant's attention!

Pretty unlikely to be honest, at least in my experience. All they seem to do is bombard with threats and not follow up.

Where you go from here depends in part on how much money we are talking about, and your estimation of the guarantor's ability to pay, particularly whether they own any property.