Stories from those who stayed past the Section 21 date

[JustWonderingHere]

I’ve noticed that when people post about being served a Section 21, the advice is often very consistent: don’t panic, you don’t have to leave on the date given and stay until you’ve found somewhere or it goes to court. What we don’t seem to hear as often is what actually happened next.

Just wondered whether anyone here stayed past the date on their Section 21 and how it played out in real life, for example: how long you stayed, whether it went to court, whether the landlord withdrew it or how you eventually moved on?

I think hearing real examples might really help people who are currently going through it or renters who want to understand the process if it ever happens to them.

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

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

So you just didn’t pay?!

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.

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.

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

You took 8 months to find the home and didn’t pay rent for 6 months on that which is more than enough to save a months rent and deposit and still have 4 months free rent to spare.

I stayed past the Section 21 date but not long, we had to wait until the last possible moment before the council put us in emergency accommodation. It was horrific and I hated every second of waiting at home with my baby for the bailiffs to come to the door.

Our landlord found us in our new awful flat and knocked my door. He thanked me for decorating the nursery so nicely. I wanted to slam the door in his face because my newborn baby hadn't slept in that lovely room once before we had to go. He was so cheerful and friendly and I was in tears. We couldn't afford the rent on the old place and then a bond and month in advance for a home we could choose (I was on statutory maternity pay) so we had no choice but to declare ourselves homeless. I wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy.

The sums in my case didn't work out like that. Plus, there was no way I was getting us into another bullshit months rent plus deposit AST arrangement.

Housing authorities shouldn’t be asking people to stay beyond the end of the s21, unless it is defensible or likely to be withdrawn. You can stay but you should be told you have to. The code of guidance says:

6.33 Authorities should not adopt a blanket policy or practice on the point at which it will no longer be reasonable for an applicant to occupy following the expiry of a section 21 notice. As well as the factors set out elsewhere in this chapter, factors which may be relevant include the preference of the applicant (who may, for example, want to remain in the property until they can move into alternative settled accommodation if there is the prospect of a timely move, or alternatively to leave the property to avoid incurring court costs); the position of the landlord; the financial impact of court action and any build up of rent arrears on both landlord and tenant; the burden on the courts of unnecessary proceedings where there is no defence to a possession claim; and the general cost to the housing authority. Housing authorities will be mindful of the need to maintain good relations with landlords providing accommodation in the district.
6.34 Throughout any period that an applicant remains in occupation whilst the landlord pursues possession action, the housing authority should keep the reasonable steps in the applicant’s personalised housing plan under regular review, and maintain contact with the tenant and landlord to ascertain if there is any change in circumstances which affects whether or not it continues to be reasonable for the applicant to occupy.
6.35 The Secretary of State considers that where an applicant is:
(a) an assured shorthold tenant who has received a valid notice in accordance with section 21 of the Housing Act 1988;
(b) the housing authority is satisfied that the landlord intends to seek possession and further efforts from the housing authority to resolve the situation and persuade the landlord to allow the tenant to remain in the property are unlikely to be successful;and,
(c) there would be no defence to an application for a possession order;
then it is unlikely to be reasonable for the applicant to continue to occupy beyond the expiry of a valid section 21 notice, unless the housing authority is taking steps to persuade the landlord to allow the tenant to continue to occupy the accommodation for a reasonable period to provide an opportunity for alternative accommodation to be found.
6.36 The Secretary of State considers that it is highly unlikely to be reasonable for the applicant to continue to occupy beyond the date on which the court has ordered them to leave the property and give possession to the landlord.
6.37 Housing authorities should not consider it reasonable for an applicant to remain in occupation up until the point at which a court issues a warrant or writ to enforce an order for possession.

And don’t blame the tenants who can’t get a council house or housing association property, or who maybe can’t afford very high private rents. It’s not their fault either.

I'm a LL and in 25 years only ever had to serve 1 section 21. The tenants got another rental and moved out about 3 weeks after we had issued court proceedings. I've just issued another 1 last week. I couldn't issue it earlier as they only moved in towards end of December and I had to wIt until they had been in for 4 months before I could issue it. These tenants are a nightmare they constantly complain about the cost of rent. I get 2 or 3 text every month asking for a lower rent. I have not increased rent so they knew the cost before they signed the contract. They also complain about not picking things. The last one was a bedroom door squeeked. Any normal person would apply a little oil to the hinge. The month before a light bulb needed changing. I think that is their responsibility as all light bulbs were working when they moved in. They complained about CH so I got an engineer to call but dispite agreement of being on a morning they chose, no one was in and I got billed for a wasted fallout. I've tried to give them benefit of doubt but they have sent us 34 text messages in 4 months. Mostly complaining about cost of rent. DH and I decided we didn't want the stress so gave them a section 21 last week. Everything is in order and we have given them 3 months notice on account of having small children and being pregnant again. We will go for accelerated court order once 3 months elapsed on July 25th. We have just 5 days to get it in to court. They have already told us they won't move out. We have advised them to go to council with their form 6a and tell them it has been served correctly. Then to look on Rightmove for 3 bedroom houses. We have said we will pay for removal van and give reference stating rent was paid up to date and received on time. I hope they find somewhere else but think once they sign a contract clearly stating monthly rent cost they shouldn't then keep complaining about cost and trying to guilt trip us saying they can't afford rent because they have young children, now they are pregnant, ultimately that is why we are evicting them. If they don't move once court order served then a bailiff will evict them.

In 2018 my tenants asked me to serve them a section 21 so they could move into a new estate that had lots of council housing in it. They only stayed a couple of weeks extra as the house was being finished off and paid the rent in full until this point. In fact when the council phoned me to find out about the section 21 one of the questions they asked was if the tenants had always paid the rent on time, and also if they had caused any damage while living there.

You seem unnecessarily angry.

I served one to my tenants a few years ago. They were in thousands of pounds of arrears on their rent. They actually asked me (via the agent) to do this as they believed it would help them get a council property. It didn’t. Several times I offered to wipe their arrears if they moved out. They ended up staying for about 2 years after the S21 notice and I did end up writing off thousands of pounds in owed rent. I don’t know where they ended up living. I didn’t go down the route of taking them to court as it would have cost me too much and wouldn’t have been a quick process anyway. Luckily they didn’t trash the place.

ETA: after they were served the S21, the council advised them to stay put and wait for court proceedings!

It would’ve cost a lot less to take them to court for possession.

Perhaps, maybe I wrongly assumed it would have cost me more and the associated stress etc.

I am not a landlord anymore thank fuck. LLs get a bad rep, and some are terrible I agree but so are some tenants. With all the changes to tax that you pay on rental income, as well as CGT when you sell, it’s not worth it anymore which means there are fewer landlords which means fewer properties which means the prices go up and people don’t have anywhere to move to when they get served an S21

MN is a landlord's wet dream. Hording resources and renting them back at inflated prices? Oooh yes please they say

The council here won't place people in temp accommodation until the tenants have notice of the date that the bailiffs will be round to turf them out, sometimes not until that actual date, depending on the availability of temporary accommodation. In cases where the council has a duty to house the tenant(s), they will generally place them in a B&B initially, but they also have some 1-bed and studio flats that they use for temporary accommodation for homeless families, and they lease private sector rentals to use as TA as well.

The private sector rentals are often ex-LA housing, so you get a bizarre situation where one family can be in an LA home at a rent of £150 a week and another family can be in an identical home along the street at a rent of more than double that. It's great for landlords, as the LA undertake to return the property to the landlord at the end of the lease in the same condition as it was at the start. They get them back all freshly decorated, clean etc.

We had bad tenants who didn't pay the rent - DH has to go round and scare them out. Absolute scumbags who trashed the place.

It’s pretty disgusting for people to not move

Where do you think they should move to, @millymollymoomoo ? They can't just pluck a new home out of their arse and, if they're entitled to help from the council under homelessness rules, some councils won't help if they move out before they have to.

Councils tell people to stay. But the tenants will leave with bad references, which may put potential landlords off.

What do people not get exactly?
Why do people think councils are saying this?

There is nowhere to move to. It’s that simple.

It wasn’t meant to be rent free though.

I can't imagine the entitlement and lack of morals I'd need to possess to stay in a property that was not mine, while not paying a penny in rent.