Surely I’m not expected legally to have this tenant in my property forevermore??

[Saywhetw]

Tenant been in property since 2017. I need to sell. Solicitor telling me we can’t used section 21 as I didn’t provide the right information at the time of the tenancy and also didn’t carry out electrical report or gas safety checks. This was oversight on our part. We can’t seem to use section 8 as tenant paid rent and isn’t a nuisance or anything but she literally won’t move even though we’ve asked repeatedly she just says she hadn’t got anywhere to go. It doesn’t seem right there’s no way out of this?? Solicitor said best they can do is write a letter asking her to vacate. I will get a second opinion tomorrow but really panicking now

Not that this is what you want but you can sell a property with a tenant in situ.

Whether there are landlords out there wanting to buy is another thing.

Can you rectify the oversight?
Issue a new 6 month tenancy same rent or less and do everything correctly ?
Where is the deposit kept?

Have you done the electric and gas safety checks now? It’s not an oversight it’s illegal and potentially put your tenant in danger.

Have you spoken to the tenant to come with an amicable solution? They may well want to buy the property from you, which would be the best solution all round. Otherwise, you could agree for a timeframe which works for them, and offer a cash bonus if necessary to get them to vacate.

Alternatively, there are eviction specialists, but this is costly and better to reach an agreement with the tenant.

An oversight?! That’s bloody reprehensible- how on earth did you fail to discharge your basic duties as a landlord?!

I am one btw, who is selling up and has issued a section 21. But yes you have stitched yourselves up now.

You could keep whacking the rent up if you haven’t done so in the last year and create a new tenancy with the correct things in place but it is immoral and means a long haul. No sympathy though. How can you get it that wrong?? I always re-issued fixed terms annually with all the paperwork so it was always robust. If you let it run into periodic without the paper trail that’s your fault.

Landlords like you are why tenants have rights.

Tenant can take action against the landlord for acting illegally and end up costing the OP more money so upping the rent would be daft.

Offering to pay her off is your best bet in these circumstances. Why on earth would she go just because you’ve repeatedly asked? You majorly messed up here.

If that doesn’t work, issue a new tenancy agreement, be as nice as you can whilst familiarising yourself with the RRB and section 8.

Was the deposit protected OP? She can claim for that too if not

‘Oversight’? There’s no excuse. You had a legal and moral responsibility. What if something had happened due to your neglect of their safety. Would you be equally as worried?

Get an eviction specialist

Your landlord responsibilities are numerous and ever increasing, if you can't tick all the boxes, your tenant is sitting pretty for the foreseeable. Your tenant may also pursue financial redress for your oversight.
Landlord Action is an excellent service, I can recommend, but the process takes time and money.
This is why the PRS is a sinking ship, which only benefits the corporate landlords.
Good luck

I hope you have got the appropriate electrical and gas safety checks done now have you? And have you got their deposit in a proper deposit protection scheme and given the tenant details of where it is?

You cannot serve a valid Section 21 notice if you haven't given these things to the tenant, along with a How to Rent guide and their Assured Shorthold agreement etc. However although you should have dome these things sooner, once you have done them all and can prove it you are able to proceed. once all these documents have been received by the tenant (it may be wise to send them by registered post so that you have proof of delivery) then it will be possible to serve a valid Section 21 notice.

A Section 21 notice does not force her to move out. If served in a valid way, then after the expiry of that notice you can apply to the courts for a possession order. If that is granted then you are allowed to appoint bailiffs to carry out an eviction. Assume the whole process will take an absolute minimum of 6 months - could be 18 months depending on what the wait time for a court date is like.

It is completely correct for your tenant to stay put and keep paying the rent while you do all this. The local authority will not lift a finger to help her relocate to another affordable housing option until you secure the court order and get to the point of appointing bailiffs. If she leaves before that point she will be classified as having made herself voluntarily homeless and she will not be entitled to any help.

You haven't done a gas safety check since 2017? You're lucky you didn't kill your tenant!

Surely you just wait until the tenancy is up? As in 6 months, year long tenancy, however long the last one was signed for? Section 21, which is being banned from next year, is to give notice during a tenancy. Once it is up you can give them notice no issues

Why don't you help her find somewhere to go?

I hope you’re seeing a specialist for a second opinion. Since you’ve failed to do things properly it’s going to be really hard to rectify at this stage. I suspect your best option will be to buy the tenant off.

I’m sure you don’t want to cough up £5k (or whatever I’d have a chat and ask you never know might be saving for a deposit) but court costs are going to be painfully high and given you’ve been failing in your duties to the tenant judge may award them proportion of rent for the period property wasn’t covered by gas safety checks etc.

If rentals are scarce where you are she’d be advised by shelter to stay put till s21 is issued and then evicted by court.

Offer her money to go

And do the safety checks. It's appalling that you rented out a property without them. You should be ashamed

No gas safety and electrical checks since 2017???

Catch up with all the documents and checks you should have done at the start and after you have everything in place you should be able to issue your S21 legally. Im a bit concerned your solicitor did not say that though so I am wondering what else is going on.

I hope the checks are now done and everything else that should have been done is. I would offer to pay her off. It’s probably going to have to be a substantial payment to get her out quickly

She can’t serve a section 21 because she didn’t follow the basic rules that makes a section 21 valid.

So no epc. No gas cert. No electrical cert. Hopefully not a risk of legionella.

Because still need s21