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.

If they have nowhere to move to then what alternative do they have?? They can’t just magically up affordable accommodation

They apparently thought I had to legally give a good reference, rather like in the workplace.

Which is also not correct- you can give a factual reference

Short order? 6 months?

Do you sleep at night? I couldn't live happily knowing I'd screwed someone over. You have no idea what the financial circumstances were of your landlord. Maybe they were also in financial trouble too? I sympathise with those who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in your position but your attitude is embarrassing. I cannot believe you are so dismissive of ripping off a fellow human being. The epitome of selfishness and entitled.

Despicable behaviour.

My DP was served a Section 21. He started looking for somewhere else to live straight away, but still did not find anywhere until a couple of months after he was meant to leave because of the huge amount of other people also looking to rent. He was not eligible for social housing because of his savings.
When he was given the Sec21, his LL offered him money to leave straight away as he was keen to turn the place into an HMO. There was just nowhere to go.
The daft thing is that this was about 2 years ago, and my DP's old place is still empty and has not had any work done on it.

I would have imagined that if it had been 6 months or so and he was still living there, the his LL would have started court proceedings. He did keep his LL informed as to how his search for another place was going.

As opposed to serving them with a section 8 notice and evicting them legally?

Real example of 'haves' and ' have nots' in this thread, similar to that cold hearted person in the other thread that was serving a family with a section 32 so she could rent the house to her student niece ,because ' faaamily'.

I think landlords and these buy to let entrepreneurs don't feel they have a societal contract or need to have any morals.

Business before everything.

Agree - my issue with the attitude from some surrounding landlords/tenants is that renting a home is seen as an act of charity for which tenants must be grateful. It's a business transaction - in which the landlord is receiving (often large) sums of money in exchange for a place to live for the tenant. There's no favours taking place.

My friend was served a s21 for valid enough reasons on behalf of the landlord. From that date she tried so so hard to find another private rent and got nowhere.
Like so many others she was told the council would only consider her homeless on the day the bailiff arrived at her door so she had to stay, desperately looking for private rents right up until the last day.

I think she got a week or so notice of the bailiff date so she packed up her things apart from a suitcase and stored everything in our garage.

On the day she waited in her empty house until the bailiff arrived around 1pm, handed her whatever official notice she needed and she left her home. The bailiff took her keys and locked the door behind her. She then went to the council office with her piece of paper and said she was homeless.

She spent 3 weeks in a Travelodge and a month in a hostel still looking for private rents every day and finally found something.

Total nightmare for her, and that was with a good landlord who understood why she had to stay until the end.

Several years ago we had to rent out our property for a short period. The tenant was ok but didn’t leave when we wanted to return (she had two kids by then and couldn’t find anywhere to rent). She had approached the local council who said they couldn’t help until eviction day so we had to apply to court for a possession order then a bailiffs warrant. Pre covid this took around 4 months after the S21 expired. The day before the bailiffs arrived, the Council offered her temp accommodation in a different area. Costs for the bailiff had to be paid by her. I was feeling sorry for her until she let slip that her mum nearby owned two properties. She did keep paying the rent after the Section 21 was served though as otherwise the Council would have found her intentionally homeless. There was some damage to the property but we were selling and luckily the person who bought it was a developer so wasn’t bothered about the state of it.

Tried that and they refused to go - trashed my house and didn't pay rent for months

Speaking of those who need to pipe down to which there are quite a few some of your landlord credentials are showing - most people's homes are more important to them than your business.

it's a hard pill to swallow, I know , but imagine expecting a parent with child in-tow, about to be made homeless to care about the landlords position? Wont someone think of the business owners 😒.

The naivety of some landlords needs to be studied - I honestly have a lot of sympathy for them, because I would rather work into my 90's in a factory than rent out my property to some random person, but you need to understand people before becoming a boss or a landlord, I feel.
People can be awful, especially when desperate and facing homelessness.

How can you have tried that and they didn't go? Once you go to court and get possession, you can instruct bailiffs to remove them? They can't not go.

It might be the tenants ‘home’
buy it’s legally not their property
the fact they have nowhere to go is not the landlords fault or responsibility

people think of all landlords as being unscrupulous multi property owning people who can swallow months of unpaid rent or legal fees. Sure, some can but most people u know literally have one property they rent out.

so yes it’s hard for tenant, but it’s not their property so they should move or be forced to pay the legal fees of landlords if they overstay. And no, I’m not a ll myself and never world be

I just can’t get my head around why people consider this the right thing to do…it wouldn’t be in any other situation.

Imagine I ask you whether I can borrow your car for a monthly fee because I need a car to get to work. You currently don’t need your car, so you agree. After a couple of years, you tell me that this arrangement needs to come to an end because you need your car back now, and you give me plenty of notice. But I simply say “sorry, I really need the car because I just have to get to work, and getting my own car would be too expensive for me”. And 90% agree with me and say that it’s absolutely ok for me to keep your car because I really need it, and after all, you can get the police involved and get me physically removed from your car by authorities. Up until this happens, I’m not legally or morally in the wrong.
That’s basically what happens to landlords on a daily basis, and I find it 🤯

Why anyone would want to be a LL these days is beyond me. People can trash your property without consequences. Or they can treat the place nicely but just... not pay their rent.

There's basically nothing a LL can do about it, and it seems you'll never recover the tens of thousands it would cost you. Madness.

I'm amazed that there are any LLs left! No wonder so many of them are selling up.

You don't sound that sympathetic. Anyway, at least half of my landlords over the years were total arseholes. These took one for the team ✊️

We sold all three as soon as the bill was announced. None of the three long-term tenants were in a position to buy, they were all sold very quickly to existing homeowners/one first time buyer who came from overseas.

It’s not helping anyone.

All of the decent LL’s I know factor going to court to legally end the tenancy into their figures. Any LL that hasn’t been doing that for at least the last 10 years, since more and more councils have adopted the position of not helping until officially evicted, is mad imo. I’ve always done that as a LL and then if my tenant leaves without that being a factor it’s a bonus.

Then again I also find it baffling when other LLs don’t bother to find out what their local councils policy is so they are aware of the potential timescale if they need to evict a tenant.

I agree with everything you have said, but you also can't expect a tennant to care about the landlords situation - that's like expecting a shoplifter that is hungry to care about the business they are stealing from. A bit of an extreme example , I know but as a business owner or a landlord , you need to expect the worst case scenario, especially when people are desperate.

Because legally, a Section 21 notice isn’t the end of a tenancy, it’s just notice that a landlord intends to seek possession. The tenancy only actually ends if the tenant leaves voluntarily or a court orders it. Until then, the tenant still has a legal right to be there. Landlords know this, or they should.

This isn’t like borrowing a car, it’s someone’s home. You can't just give it back and be on the street. And as has been repeated many many times now - if you can't find anywhere and are relying on the council to house you...they WILL NOT HELP if you leave before the court grants possession.

It's the property they have a legal contract to occupy - which the LL must go to court to break. I can't understand why people can't grasp that. Of course they should pay their rent, staying past the date of the S21 doesn't give anyone the right to stop paying. LL's should have rent guarantee insurance to protect against non payers.

I mean, yeah… going back to my car example - technically you telling me that you need the car that was borrowed to me now back, doesn’t terminate my possession of your car, my possession of the car (or any item that doesn’t belong to me) can only be terminated by myself voluntarily or by the authorities forcefully, but that doesn’t change my opinion on this matter.

Shhhh 🤫you are not coming across well at all