It’s worth doing this arithmetic honestly before taking on the next tenant based on gut feel rather than proper vetting, because the numbers involved have shifted meaningfully under the current system — and not in landlords’ favour.
The worked example. Take a fairly typical property, let at £1,800 a month. The tenant stops paying. The landlord does everything correctly: establishes a Section 8 ground (most likely Ground 8, serious arrears), serves the correct notice with the correct notice period, and, when the tenant doesn’t leave voluntarily, proceeds to court.
The timeline is the first shock. Average time from a claim being issued to a possession order being granted currently runs at around 34 weeks — and that figure is widely expected to lengthen further, because Section 8 claims are now absorbing volume that previously went through Section 21 without needing a court hearing at all. Thirty-four weeks of a property generating no rent, before possession is even granted, is the starting point.
The financial exposure adds up quickly. Roughly £14,000 in lost rent across that period, on the £1,800/month example. On top of that, court costs, legal fees and the practical costs of managing the process — typically running to something in the region of £7,400. That’s a total exposure north of £18,000 before the property is even back in a lettable condition.
And recovery is far from guaranteed. Average recovery on a county court judgment for rent arrears sits at around 23%. In practice, that means most of the £18,000 exposure is simply lost — a CCJ is a legal acknowledgement of the debt, not a mechanism that reliably gets the money paid.
What this actually argues for. The obvious response is to treat proper tenant vetting as the single highest-value spend in the whole letting process. Thorough referencing, genuine income and affordability verification, credit checks, previous landlord references where available, and correct Right to Rent documentation all cost time and, in some cases, a modest fee. Set against £18,000 of exposure and a 23% recovery rate, even relatively expensive, thorough vetting is a rounding error.
One further point worth making plainly. The rent-in-advance ban removes a workaround some landlords used to rely on — taking several months upfront from a tenant with a weaker application, as an informal hedge against exactly this scenario. That option no longer exists for new tenancies. Which makes upfront vetting quality, rather than upfront payment quantity, the only remaining lever available before a tenancy begins.
The cheapest tenant to evict, under the current system, is the one you never let to in the first place. Every pound spent properly vetting an applicant should be measured against an £18,000 downside, not against the small saving of skipping the check.
General information, not legal advice. Property Lounge, Guildford.
Need a second opinion?
We’re Property Lounge, an ARLA Propertymark accredited lettings agency in Guildford. If anything above raised a question about your own property, we’re happy to talk it through — whether or not you’re a client, and whether or not you ever become one. No charge, no obligation, and we won’t chase you afterwards.
Not sure what your property should be letting for? A free rental valuation gives you a defensible figure to work from.
You can see how our fully managed lettings service works, what it costs, or book a free rental valuation.
Call 01483 369209 or email lettings@propertylounge.co.uk.
