Darelask, you have my sympathy.
I posted up thread that my late mother’s property is tenanted (to help pay for her care when she moved into sheltered accommodation).
The tenant, who at the time of my mother’s death was completely understanding about our situation and promised to be flexible, is now nothing of the sort, even hinting that she won’t leave even when her six months are up.
The infuriating thing is that she is renting it as a second home. She has a perfectly nice home 300 miles away where she spends most of her time.
In the autumn when the second lockdown was threatened we offered to allow her to leave without notice. Yet she believes she is able to regularly commute between the property and her home. And invite family from other parts of the country to join her.
We can’t put it on the open market without vacant possession. We are keen to get things sorted so we can stop paying the expensive retainer to the probate solicitors. So I am trying to borrow enough to buy my brother out and to pay HMRC. The big complication is that if she does not leave when her six months are up, and before ownership transfers to me, the tenancy transfers to me as the new owner, but the S21 does not. I have to start all over again. Perhaps having to own for four months before I can issue a S21, and then six months S21 notice, and then the eviction process proper. And by then the law may well have changed, getting rid of S21s and meaning I can only evict her if I decide to sell the property.
Putting the rent up is also not an option, as the tenant needs to agree to sign a new contract. If they don’t agree the existing terms remain and the tenancy becomes a statutory periodic. Unfortunately our tenant, in return for her stated willingness to be flexible is on a very low rent and so can’t find anything comparable.
It is less difficult for me as my mother lived to a good age. The additional stress caused by a bereavement and complications around mortgage and the need to make provisions for minors must be awful.