Tenants won’t move out…how does this work?

[SisforSarah]

Explain to me how this works please. Tenants moved in 2 years ago, it was a long let. The landlord served notice over 6 months ago. They can’t find anywhere else to rent or buy (they are in a particularly busy property hotspot) so are refusing to leave indefinitely, and apparently that’s legal. So the landlord can’t sell his property and benefit from the inflated prices, or move back into his house. How long can they stay there? I’m a bit dumbstruck at this? What would happen if the landlord needed the money from the house sale for something else? Would he be forced to remortgage? I am neither this tenant or landlord or a tenant or landlord of any other property.

I think they need to take them to courr

Court* even

They have to take them to court to get them evicted

Landlord needs to follow the legal process. Serve the notice, take it to court, get the bailiffs to evict them
This takes many, many months but is the procedure to follow to enforce an eviction

Until the landlord has them evicted through court/bailiffs.

Yes I think the process is through court unfortunately

Landlord needs to apply to court to regain possession, then potentially involve bailiffs (if he wins) to have them removed. You must have seen this sort of issue on tv? Hopefully the ll has ll insurance. You don’t sound very sympathetic re him taking advantage of the ‘inflated prices’. It’s his property, not theirs.

Assuming this is in England or Wales, the landlord would need to follow the legal eviction process. www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants

I am not an expert on this, so others may know better. However, I think it depends on the type of let, and you state here it was a 'long let'.
If so, and he wanted to sell, he would have to sell with the sitting tenant.
I think most tenancies (private anyway), are on assured short-hold tenancies, so it is easier to ask them to leave.
This is controversial in itself (Note I am not a landlord or tenant).

The infamous section 21.

They can stay until the landlord has sought permission from the court to evict with the aid of bailiffs. This can take a year or so. And be very expensive.

If the landlord needs the money, tough.

May be difficult to remortgage if there is a court action in progress.

They can stay until court ordered eviction is enforced. How long that takes depends how busy the court is.

But the tenancy continues until the court ends it. They'll have to pay rent ofc so all is not lost.

the landlord could sell to another landlord - nothing apart from changing bank details would change for the tenant.

or start the eviction process through the courts

tbh that's the risk landlords take when renting out property.

In defence of the tenants, they can't present at the council as homeless until they've been evicted

Presumably they're still paying the rent so the landlord isn't out of pocket in that regard? Legally the tenancy only ends when the keys are handed over so to force them out the landlord would need to make an application to the courts to have them evicted. In the meantime they still have the right to quiet enjoyment and to refuse access except in an emergency.

An amicable, temporary solution might be for the landlord to discuss a rolling month-to-month tenancy with them while they look for a new property. Is there a reason they can't find anywhere?

If the landlord knows as little as you’re describing here, they shouldn’t be allowed to be a sodding landlord

I swear to god, we need these idiots to be properly trained and licenced

@IveGotASongThatllGetOnYNerves

Landlord needs to follow the legal process. Serve the notice, take it to court, get the bailiffs to evict them This takes many, many months but is the procedure to follow to enforce an eviction

This

Landlord needs to start legal eviction proceedings. That's how the tenants are still in situ.

@MzHz

If the landlord knows as little as you’re describing here, they shouldn’t be allowed to be a sodding landlord

I swear to god, we need these idiots to be properly trained and licenced

Absolutely agree.

@MzHz

If the landlord knows as little as you’re describing here, they shouldn’t be allowed to be a sodding landlord

I swear to god, we need these idiots to be properly trained and licenced

Or people need to stick to the tenancy agreement and move out when they're mean to.

It's an either/or situation?

You mean the tenancy agreement that remains valid until a legal eviction takes place, @MrsPelligrinoPetrichor ? Righty oh.

@MzHz

If the landlord knows as little as you’re describing here, they shouldn’t be allowed to be a sodding landlord

I swear to god, we need these idiots to be properly trained and licenced

Yep. I’m sick of this. They have no clue that a S21 or anything else actually is merely a request to leave and does not legally end the tenancy.

Also the complete lack of knowledge of how being homeless works when you can’t find a new private rent and have to wait for the councils

Yep - section 21

We had to go down this route to try to evict our tenants after they stopped paying the rent. This was our home which we were letting whilst living abroad.

In the end they did a moonlit flit. Glad we didn't have to go to court in the end but bloody wish they had just left before they stopped paying rent.

Apparently they were famous in Bristol for doing this.

LL needs to start eviction procedure ASAP. Unfortunately it isn't cheap but the only way to get the squatters out of his property.

Once eviction is granted LL doesn't need to wait but can apply to the high court which will be very quick. Again it costs but worth it, I guess, to get them out.

@Cherrysoup

Landlord needs to apply to court to regain possession, then potentially involve bailiffs (if he wins) to have them removed. You must have seen this sort of issue on tv? Hopefully the ll has ll insurance. You don’t sound very sympathetic re him taking advantage of the ‘inflated prices’. It’s his property, not theirs.

The OP doesn't sound unsympathetic towards the landlord at all. They have asked what would happen if they needed to move back in themselves or needed the money for something else. The OP sounds quite balancd