Self-employed tenants big risk for landlords, debt collector says
Self-employed tenants are now a landlord's biggest risk after a law change making it easier to deduct unpaid rent from an employee's wages, an expert says.
Craeg Williams - who says his company TPS Credit Control is the country's biggest unpaid rent collector - says a little-noticed 2014 law change allows courts to issue attachment orders requiring employers to pay an employee's unpaid rent out of their wages without holding a hearing.
Similar orders can be issued requiring Work and Income to pay a beneficiary's unpaid rent out of their benefit, but Mr Williams said the hardest group to get money out of was the self-employed.
"As a landlord, I would always veer away from dealing with a self-employed business person in almost any circumstances, because if they decide I'm not going to pay the amount, you're never going to see the money again," he said.
