Well known provider of landlord advice services, Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action, has been reported as seeing a rise in the number of landlords seeking recovery of rent arrears from former tenants after securing repossession of their properties.

Historically, as local authority housing officers will be aware, it was relatively common for many landlords to simply write off outstanding rent on repossessing a property - just being happy to get the property back (often using a section 21 rather than section 8 notice to do this - but according to Landlord Action rent arrears levels are so much higher currently that landlords. Property Industry Eye point out that in the 2020/21 English Housing Survey 4% of renters said they were in arrears and that this would equate to 52,000 renters.

Whilst the debt recovery process can be successfully navigated by a lay person, for a landlord it really is good advice to get help - it can end up being complex and time consuming and easy to make a mistake. If the arrears are high enough though, it will certainly make financial sense use the services of a solicitor or other professional service provider rather than just write them off.