Best Landlord Debt Collection Agencies – UK Reviews

Whether you have a single rental property or a large portfolio, you are likely to come up against the problem of late payments at some point. Tenants might lose their job, or simply abscond with no prior notice and without paying their rent. Whatever the reason for non-payment, proactively thinking about how you could collect those debts will save you time and worry if the worst does happen.

With this in mind, below is a list of debt collection agencies who offer a solution specifically for landlords:

The Landlord Group
Quick overview

With over 20 years of experience, The Landlord Group specialises in eviction and recovering rent arrears. The Landlord Group is led by specialist lawyers who represent both residential and commercial landlords. One of its greater benefits is that it is committed to seeing every case through no matter how complicated it becomes. Having an integrated legal team in your corner when battling through stressful situations is a huge help because you have full legal support.

The fees are fairly affordable with the entire court proceeding service priced at £995 (inc VAT). This service includes, lawyers preparing all necessary court documents, lawyers preparing witness statements and lawyers representing you at the court hearing. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the courts have introduced a process called the 'review hearing', which is not included in the full service and if your case is listed for a review hearing, there is an additional fee of £295 (inc VAT). This fee doesn't have to be paid if you choose not to have The Landlord Group deal with his part of the court process. Whilst the additional fee may seem a hassle, it also means that you get the flexibility and affordability to choose what parts of the process you want to be looked after by legal experts. If your budget is limited, you can choose to opt to pay for services that you need the most assistance in.

You can also choose to only have the court paperwork prepared for you, priced at an affordable £199 (inc VAT). This is a good option if you feel prepared enough to deal with the court process yourself but want to ensure that the court paperwork is completed accurately. Although this service is not available if you want to use the Accelerated Procedure.

Service features

  • Nationwide legal advocates
  • Residential tenant eviction
  • Rent, service charge and debt collection
  • Trespasser court procedures
Legal for Landlords
4.8 Trustpilot score
Pricing From £119
Quick overview

Established by landlords, Legal for Landlords knows and understands the pain points of being a landlord and offers an affordable, fairly straightforward service to help you deal with any issues. It offers you one point of contact even if you have multiple problems to discuss and solve to ensure you have someone to speak to who understands your situation and can offer you customised assistance.

Note

Legal for Landlords' prowess in this segment and high Trustpilot score (4.8/5) even made it feature in our ranking of the best debt collection services in the UK.

Landlord Action
Quick overview

Landlord Action is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and deal with several matters relating to landlords including problem tenants, landlord and tenants disputes, rental debt collection and squatters. Its fees are fixed and are fairly affordable, for example, an address trace costs £96, and a pre-action letter to the tenant is £240.

Landlord Action offers tons of advice online in the form of documents, podcasts and videos so that you can access guidance without ever needing to speak to someone. It offers a unique three step process, which for debt recovery is 1) pre-action 2) money claim and 3) enforcement.

The pre-action letter (£240) must be given to the tenant before a money claim issued, a trace will need to be carried out if the tenants current address isn't known. A money claim (around £360) will need to be issued before using an enforcement process, unless you have a money order. Once the money order has been issued, there are a few different enforcement processes you can take. To review and discuss your options for reinforcement, this will cost £120.

Service features

  • Company founded by landlords
  • Recover debts for up to 6 years
  • Money claim applications
  • Enforcement services
  • Specialist advice and guidance

Need a quote?

If you're still not sure which agency is best suited to your needs, you can use our free comparison tool to get tailored quotes from collection agencies. Just give us a few brief details and trusted agencies will contact you with no-obligation quotes.

Written by:
Lucy heads up the team on Expert Market, helping to deliver industry-leading expertise on business topics for nearly four years.