To ask what will happen in this situation

[howtobe]

First of all I live in Scotland.

My husband and I live in a flat that’s mine. He has a flat that’s his that is rented out. He decided at the start of the year that he wanted to sell his flat. He is an accidental landlord and really doesn’t like having a rental property - finds it stressful. We’re also considering a move to England (where he’s from) and don’t want to keep any property here. He is a good landlord and fixes everything and helps his tenant out a lot I.e reduced the rent massively for the past 4 months to help the tenant out.

He sent an eviction notice in March (Before lockdown) to tenant but spoke with them right at the start of lockdown And said to them that he didn’t feel comfortable asking them to leave and if they wanted to stay on then they could. Tenant agreed and thanked them.

When restrictions were eased in July he sent the tenant another notice as he’d decided that he definitely didn’t want to continue renting property. The amount of notice is 6 months so tenant to vacate In January 2021.

He is concerned (as am I) that the tenant might not vacate the property and, as all evictions are discretionary in Scotland during Covid (no idea how long that will last), he might not be able to get them to leave, despite giving all notice correctly.

Ordinarily, selling your property is a mandatory reason to ask a tenant to leave so I’m a bit confused how the discretionary eviction could work with someone wanting to sell an asset they own.

Can anyone help?

I should add that in March when he spoke to tenant he made it clear he was still going to sell and this was just temporary and he would be issuing another notice to leave

Anyone able to help?

I think you just have to hope the tenant does leave by the date given. Otherwise you would have to move forward with an eviction which is currently not happening.

@Star81

This is what I’m wondering though - if selling your property is a mandatory reason to ask someone to leave then could a judge say you’re not allowed to sell your property? It seems like a really bad precedent to set to tell someone that they can’t sell an asset they own. The scottish gov website makes it clear that you can’t start eviction proceedings for non payment of rent until 31 March 2021 but doesn’t cover anything else. We’re just a bit confused.

I do feel awful for the tenant but my MIL has been diagnosed with a seriously life limiting condition and lives near Birmingham so my Dh wants to move down there to be near her and spend time with/help her. He doesn’t want to keep any property here and if we’re to buy somewhere then we’d need to sell both as the second home tax is too great. It’s not a good situation for anyone.

Bit late now but it would have been better to give tenants notice on the grounds you needed the flat for your own occupation (shorter notice).

www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-landlord-and-letting-agent-faqs/

I trust DH is a registered private LL; this is mandatory in Scotland .
If he needed to go to court to evict the tenant then being an illegal LL could have dire consequences.

Your other option is to market the flat with a reliable tenant in it ; it narrows the market but might a buy_to -let purchaser.

@2bazookas
Yep he’s 100% registered and above board!

Deposit is held in tenancy deposit scheme.

Selling your property and wanting it back to live in it are both mandatory and we are being truthful. We could have said we wanted to live in it but he or both of us would need to have moved in to satisfy the criteria.