AIBU to end a tenancy so my niece can live there?

[SunnyDaysAndCoolNights]

We have a house that we rent out to a family with 2 children who have been in the house for about 7 years. The house is in the same city that our niece is at university in.

Just after Xmas, my niece asked us if she could live in the house for her second and third year at uni, (possibly longer) as the houses she had looked at weren’t very nice and she can’t stay in halls.

After speaking to my husband, we decided to say yes and we gave our tenants a section 21 notice in February. Our tenants were/are not happy and have been advised to stay in the house by the council. We thought that may happen which is why we served the notice in February despite my niece not needing the house until September. We were also aware of the new rules coming in soon which would make it harder to end a tenancy.

Since finding out that we have ended the tenancy for our current tenants, my brother and his wife (not nieces parents) have told us that we are ‘typical arsehole landlords’ for ‘kicking out a family’. They think our niece, also their niece is selfish for asking, that she could have found somewhere herself and that we should have put our tenants first as they have been our tenants for quite a long time and they have children. My brother and his wife rent with their children, so obviously that may play a part in their feelings on this. I feel upset they would say these things as I think it’s normal to put your own family first. My other brother and his wife who are parents of my niece are very annoyed at our other brother and his wife.

Would you have done the same as we have or would you have put the tenants first and said no to your niece? I do have sympathy for my tenants, they’re a nice family and have been good tenants, but obviously we love our niece and to us, she comes first.

To be honest I think you’ve been very short sighted but I’m not going to repeat the countless reasons given already.

You are definitely underestimating your niece though. As a uni student there’s a high likelihood that will be sexually active soon and have men over, plus her mates over. Autism isn’t going to stop that, it’s not like people with autism can’t make friends or enter relationships. Plus, what will you do if at the end of her degree, she doesn’t want to leave? Will you avoid selling as to not upset her?

For the most part, it always makes sense to never mix family and business and this has the opportunity to go sour. Irregardless of your current tenants, I wouldn’t want to rent to family. I’d rather get different tenants in, as opposed to potentially ruining a family relationship in the future.

Actually it is quite a sensible move given the goverment decision to take away a landlords get out clause

Financially it makes sense to not have what amounts to sitting tenants in a house which devalues it substantially.

Landlords are just reacting to the dick moves of the government which has reduced the number of properties for rent available

I presume the government with all its educated people who advised that this policy was going to be a wonderful move to make tenants feel secure in their tenancies have a plan for all those facing eviction because of the fallout from these policies.

Or did they not understand that landlords would just evict tenants and use the property for other purposes.

We are returning to the 1970s where private rental properties were scarce and horrible but without the amount of council properties

If successive governments had left BTL alone we would now have an oversupply of rental properties and the situation where only those landlords who offered descent properties for favourable rents making it worthwhile to be in business

Slum landlords would have dried up.

I have friends who have received their eviction notices who will never rent privately again if Labours policy remains in force. They don’t
meet the income criteria to rent privately again

They will supposedly be housed by their local council but where remains to be seen.

She's also seemingly very good at emotional blackmail.

With rental supply rising and immigration plummeting I think this is unlikley.

People often seem to conveniently forget that Labour had 13 (?) years in which to repeal or amend the Right to Buy law, but they didn’t. I wonder why? Could it possibly be because they thought it would lose them votes?

Housing was a lot cheaper generally when Right to Buy was first brought in, and it was Labour/Gordon Brown, who kicked off the massive rise in Buy to Let, by his raid on pension funds, and by removing mortgage tax relief for homeowners, while retaining it for landlords.

Social Housing was in fact being sold off well before Thatcher. A dd bought a house which the former owners had bought from the council in 1971. They had paid almost exactly 1% of what dd did.

It is your property so of course you can choose to do what you want, but having been in your tenants position I feel very sad for them for you to have done this to them.

It must be lovely to be in a position to sell and buy another house that you choose, it’s not that easy for renters to find suitable homes within their budget.

You are mad if you think thats going to happen, its not about her its about a house people will just turn up,.

You've done nothing wrong.
It's ridiculous people saying "you've made a family homeless".
They are only able to rent your house from you whilst it's available. When it's no longer available they will have to find elsewhere. If they want to find a permanent home, then they will have to purchase one.
You have given them plenty of notice.

I understand you want to help your niece but it's a pretty cruel thing to do. As other pps have said, if the tenants can't find another rental then they will be likely put in temporary accommodation which can be pretty grim. It may be nowhere near their children's schools and they will have to pay to store furniture and probably re-home any pets.

Is your niece going to be living there full time or is it term time only? Who is going to look after the property when she is not there?

I really don't think that home owners understand how dire the rental market is at the moment and how hard it is to get social housing. People blithely saying that the council will house them have no clue.

At the end of the day you have decided to put your family first which I understand but I also think that you have no idea of the realities of trying to find a rental property at the moment.

The housing situation in the UK is shameful.

"Would you have been able to do this under the new rules coming in?"

No. As of next week, if the tenancy has been in existence for more than 12 months then, as long as the tenants are paying the rent and keeping the property in good repair then there are only two reasons:

1 The landlord intends to sell the property

2 A close family member of the landlord intends to live in the property. But, please note, that a niece does not count as a "close family member"

A close family member includes parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren (along with step-children etc) and siblings.

So, the OP could still do this under the new rules if the parents of her neice were to move in, but not if it is just her niece.

She also cannot relet the property within 12 months of the present tenants leaving.

.

There's also a different rule for student accommodaiton though. University Halls of Residence will carry on the same as before but private student accommodation will be treated like HMOs and the landlord can just give four months notice at any time.

It's tricky, because the OP states that they were planning to sell the property in the next few years anyway. If the current tenants stayed, they'd either have to buy it or move in a couple of years.

It's the timing that's difficult with landlords quitting the market before the new legislation comes in, as it might be tough to find somewhere else. But will it be different in a couple of years?

It’s a shame the family lose their home which you have acknowledges, but I would do the same OP. Putting your own family first in a situation like this is normal and I don’t believe for a second most people wouldn’t if they had the opportunity to. A lot of the posters here won’t be in a position to, so they’re talking crap. Mumsnetters hate landlords. It sounds like you’ve been a decent one if your tenants have been happy for 7 years and now you’re looking after your niece which is nice of you.

You kicked a family out for a uni student.

Sorry yabu

Don't think I've seen such a long post of universal nonsense before. It is kind of impressive.

Not where I live waiting lists are 6 years plus and all new housing seems to be given to immigrants

OP the house is yours so you can do what you want with this, but I’m wondering if you could have just waited and helped your niece find the right property for her somewhere else. I can’t believe that in the whole city there isn’t another property that will be suitable for her between now and September (and even after September). You could have even agreed to give her a contribution towards her rent in case she couldn’t afford the right place seeing that you would be using a chunk of money from evicting your tenants anyway. Why not wait for the right property to come up and that way everyone will be happy?

Wow, so many horrible responses on this thread.
OP - I would do the same, I'm very close to my family, all my nieces and nephews. I would always put them first.
People calling you names - utterly horrible!

I haven't read the whole thread...,

But surely it would make mire sense to allow the current family to stay in the property, and you use their rent money to contribute towards a(nother) better place for your niece to live in?

Particularly as you were not intending to charge your niece rent anyway...

I think that what you are doing is disappointing. However, it is your house, so you must live with whatever shakes out in the future, but however you slice it. what you have done is definitely disappointing.

But that’s the point, they won’t be made “homeless” hence the council making them stay. They will be rehoused!

My mum did exactly this with her nephew. In the end him & his girlfriend fell into arrears & ultimately stopped paying the rent. It led to her falling out with his mother, my aunt. She’d never rent to family again. Wise to keep tenants as tenants & family as family and not to conflate the two. I do hope it goes well for you though.

Yes. This would be exactly the way to go if helping the niece was the main aim. I can't say that I'd consider a family sized house to be the ideal starting point to independent living for a neurodivergent teen.

The new legislation starts in a few days, landlords not already out are too late.

Just after Xmas, my niece asked us if she could live in the house

She knew you had tenants and still asked you to live in the house, what a selfish and manipulative request. It doesn’t matter who the tenants were she knew someone would end up kicked out of a house they’d rented for 7 years. She obviously has zero compassion for others.

It’s up to you as a landlord what you do with a house you own but I don’t think it was very kind to kick tenants out just to let your niece move in. It’s not something we’d have done, what makes it worse as you’ve taken a higher rent off these tenants for years and are now letting it for a lower price to your niece.