Subtenant may have abandoned room without notice, I'm owed rent, and I cannot contact him
For some context, I lived in a 5-bed apartment in the city where I moved to for University (managed by a mostly student-focused leasing company) under a 3-year contract, starting from September 2023 and until August 2026.
I don't need my room this year, so I decided to sub-lease my room from March 2026 until the end of August 2026 to 1 person; here are the key details of the agreement:
- I have asked and received permission from my landlord to sub-lease my room to this person.
- I have provided my sub-tenant with a sub-lease agreement; this form was provided to me by my landlord.
- The agreement has been signed and dated by both me and my sub-tenant.
- I have asked for the first month's and last month's rent.
- The landlord requested that I ask my sub-tenant for photo ID, which he provided.
- As per the agreement set out, I am responsible for collecting rent from my sub-tenant, and I am responsible for then paying that onto my landlord.
Everything was going fine during March and April, then came May. On the 1st, I contacted him asking him for May's rent; no response. I then spent the next 2-3 days texting and calling him at certain times throughout the day, but no luck.
After around 1.5 weeks, I decided to hand him a N4 notice of non-payment of rent by sliding it under the room door, in which I gave him until May 31st to pay me the rent owed for May. It's now June, and I still can't contact him in any way.
I decided to visit the room, and I can still see the N4 paper from under the door, in the same exact position from 14 days ago... at this point, the evidence points to him abandoning the room and some major food had been emptied from the unit fridge. Not sure if his stuff is still in the room, as the door had been locked and I don't have the keys. Under the agreement, the landlord said that they don't help deal with any sort of rent collections or disputes.
If he has left, then I can't really file a L1. But apparently I could file a L10; however, the issue comes to actually serving this, as I can't locate his current whereabouts.
What are my options from this point?