Stories from those who stayed past the Section 21 date

I know of 2 friends who had to wait until they were evicted by bailiffs. One then was housed in a travel lodge before getting a council house. The other went straight into a council house.

Yes it's stressful but for both of them it was the right move

While I think people should act (and be advised to act) according to their contracts, you have this the wrong way round.
It is the landlord's business. It is the tenant's home.

It was worse to not have enough money to pay the rent and 2 months to find a decent home for DS and me. The owed rent was bottom of my list of priorities. Never heard from the landlord again after I left.

So you just didn’t pay?!

Did you pay back the owed rent after you moved out? It’s terrible to just not pay rent at all for 6 months.

People can't move out if there's nowhere to go

Because I had to move out in short order and couldn't afford that and the rent. Things were tight.

'Pipe down'?!? Wow. You just won today's award for rudeness.

@millymollymoomoo

They are the homes of the tenants. They are the properties of the LL. We're not talking about squatters here.

A Section 21 notice is not an eviction and does not itself require a tenant to leave the property. It is simply a formal notice from the landlord indicating their intention to regain possession. The tenancy does not end when the notice is served and the tenant is not legally obliged to move out just because it has been issued. If the tenant chooses not to leave (for whatever reason), the landlord must apply to the court for a possession order. If the court grants that order and the tenant still refuses to vacate can bailiffs be instructed to enforce removal. Landlords should be aware that they will be unlikely to get their properties back on a date of their choosing, particularly in the current economic/housing climate.

Why did you stop paying rent?

Why didn’t you pay the rent?

People can't move out if there's nowhere to go

I once stayed for 6 months after the s21. Still hadn't gone to court by that time (I think) but 6 months rent free allowed me to fund the move so I went.

If you are relying on the council to rehome you after the serving of a S21, you have no choice but to stay put past the S21 date. The council simply will not help you if you don't.

I had 2 S21's in 2 years (both LLs said they were going to sell, but immediately relisted the properties to rent at much higher prices instead 🙄), I was able to pay for private accommodation (as I had for the previous 18 years but despite applying for literally any and every property going, I was never successful. Quite often the houses were let before I'd even made the phone call to the agent - often 30-50 applicants for each house. Luckily both times I found somewhere right on the deadline, so hadn't had to overstay - but if I'd needed to go for social housing, I would have had no choice but to stay - I would literally have had nowhere else to go.

I agree it's unfortunate for LLs not to be able to get their properties back when they want to but for tenants it's an impossible situation. I also think it's completely unfair that tenants are evicted on no fault warrants, not able to find alternative accommodation and then forced by the courts to pay the costs - when it's neither their choice to leave or stay.

Mine did, he changed his mind (5 years prior to the eventual end of my tenancy in my post above) - his circumstances changed.

I did. The landlord knew I was buying a property so I told him from the start that I wouldn't be ready to leave by the end of the s21 notice. Because he was a sensible chap he accepted that and I kept him up to date. As it was I left a month later (7 months after being served notice, Covid extension)

I am not sure what the point of this thread is however in light of the new law that comes into force on Friday. Things will change.

Usually the only time a LL will 'stop the process' is if they realise the Section 21 hasn't been legally served.

We own a few rental properties and have had some tenants who stayed past the date of the section 21. We have never stopped the process and I’ve never known any other landlords give up either. Sometimes the tenants have moved out a few weeks after without fuss, most times it’s ended up with bailiffs and a lot of stress for them. We have had scummy tenants cause deliberate damage to our properties.

I can't believe councils are still giving this advice

It's horrendous

Doesn't it cost about five grand to do the eviction? To say nothing of the stress. The waiting lists. For a court date are enormous or at least they were when I left London.

So in theory, you can go after your tenant for those costs can you? In practice I suppose that doesn't work often

The whole system is such a mess. I don't understand how we got here.

I also don't understand why anyone would be a landlord but I suppose we'll have fewer of them now

You “pipe down” 🙄

Imagine posting a thread to “help others who may be going through it in future” then going for the poster because they suggested that landlords will only be serving section 21s now if they are confident it’ll stand up to scrutiny and they are serious about it.

Yes, “at this late stage”. Because they’ve got the grand total of 72 hours left to serve one.

Fucking embarrassing 🤣🤣

This happened to a daughter of an old friend. She was moved into temporary accommodation, something that resembled an HMO, then into a 2 bedroom council house after a few months.

Councils will advise tenants to stay until the proper process for a court order is completed or otherwise suggest the tenant has left voluntarily but I agree, it can’t be nice for them.

Don't blame landlords when they sell up in their droves (as they are) in order to avoid this exact situation.

We had tenants who stayed beyond the date of their section 21, which was served because of unpaid rent and general bad behaviour which involved the police. They stayed because they apparently had nowhere to go. They too were advised to stay by the council. They did eventually leave in order to skip the country so we never recovered our costs. Shockingly they contacted me some time later asking for a rental reference and were dumbfounded when I listed the costs they had incurred which outweighed any rent they had ever paid and why I wouldn’t give a positive referral to any future landlord. They apparently thought I had to legally give a good reference, rather like in the workplace. We’re still landlords but not for much longer, desperate for the day we can sell up.