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.

Why homeless? Because they are not making any more land! There are not enough houses! Quick, get into as much mortgage debt as you can, be at the mercy of the bond market and Trump"s latest scheme to raise interest rates! You know that is the only way to be a truly happy person (not) LOL

Because we are a civilized society, without knowing anything about the family I can't say anything about decisions they make. But from experience, many people get fed up with having to move. Just because you did it not everyone wants to pack up and move frequently. This family have been lucky to get 7 years in one place. I dealt with families who had helped themselves. Some of them had moved 5 or 6 times in 7 years. They move, get settled, often move schools, then have to move again. Eventually they get fed up with it, and want stability. They are often out of money to move again too. Not everyone can afford to buy, they don't have rich relatives or other resources to help them. And social housing is meant for people like that. I really don't understand what the problem is with families wanting stability. Or choosing to apply for social housing. Unless you think social housing should not exist.

YOUR house, YOUR decision, your complaining brother sounds bitter....

Your niece could easily have found somewhere else that’s suitable, and performed well at university, just like millions of other neurodivergent students do. Universities have teams to help with this kind of thing.

Don’t count on the family being out by September. I know someone who was served a section 21 in 2024 and it took twelve months before he was evicted, costing the landlord a fortune in legal fees.

I'll be looking this thread up in a while to see if Little Princes Student Girl stays the course in the big, roomy house or if she decides she doesn't like it and gets someone to fix that for here. Meanwhile, I hope this decent, hardworking family can find somewhere nice for them and their children.

Shame on you.

It's your choice Op, if you believe family first that's your choice. As long as you maintain that outlook and don't expect others to act differently with you and yours.
So for example if there are redundancies at work, either you, your DH or your family and you get selected because the person choosing likes someone else personally. I.e they don't use an unbiased selection process. As long as you are equally fine when it happens to you.

I think the family would do much better, given they can clearly afford rent (I assume without benefits, OP doesnt mention this) to find something else. If they are housed temporarily it could be in another county, in a hostel or b+b with unsafe people in other rooms.

It would be much better for them to take control and find their own property

The housing department also has a duty to them but that doesnt mean actually housing them, they can find them a private rental with the same terms and conditions and epxect them to take that. If they dont they can then withdraw their duty.

Is OP the only landlord in that city? they can and should find another property.
In any case it's not OP's issue, it's a business transaction. Landlords have been vilified on here for ages. I can only repeat that the fact they are struggling to find another property means that they've been paying substantially below market rate.

Stunned at the lack of insight. They will likely need to find a substantial deposit for a new rental, unless the deposit held by OP from 7 years ago is big enough. They also need to find a rental in the catchment area of their children’s schools, 2 months is likely to be too short a period to pull that money together. They will also have to pay a removals company, pack up their home of 7 years etc.

Honestly, it is beyond disgusting that @SunnyDaysAndCoolNights is evicting this family from a 2/3 bed home to make room for a single occupant who has lots and lots of options available, not least as she is autistic, access to on campus rooms for the duration of her degree.

I rent a property to a single parent with 3 kids, 1 special needs at nursery, the others at High School. Her circumstances have changed since she first moved in. There have been times over the years (getting on for 10 now) when giving notice was tempting for our own kids to move in. However we havent. I know its meant to be a business but I feel a responsibility. She is desperate for housing stability, I get it. I would not give them notice for a student. Its very unlikely she will stay on after the 2 years. Maybe I'm a soft touch.

Well, based on everything you’ve said, it all makes sense, OP. You have to do what’s right for you and legal.

Is your niece well off or are you a particularly close family?

I can just imagine my aunt’s reaction if I had asked her to evict her tenants and let me move in for a low rent 😂 She would have thought I’d grown horns 😂

It’s lovely you and niece are so close.

It was an awful thing to do and whilst you say you feel bad for the family, that just can’t be true.

I hope you do sell when your niece moves on because you’re clearly not an ethical landlord (I guess that’s not a thing that’s possible).

You’re not unreasonable in the sense that it’s your property and you’re allowed to do it. Most people would also help family over strangers if they could. And your brother didn't need to call you names, and neither should people on here.

But I think the pushback you’re getting is because this isn’t really ‘family first’ in the way many (most?) people mean it. It’s choosing to utterly disrupt a family who’ve done nothing wrong so your niece can have a nicer place for a couple of years. The balance of harm done to the family for the benefit of your niece seems off even accepting that you can do what you want with your property and people tend to prioritise family.

Feeling 'sympathy' for the family doesn’t really change the fact you’re the one causing the situation, and therefore rings particularly hollow tbh.

That doesn’t make you a terrible person, but it’s understandable many people here think it’s a poor decision and you asked the question to get a sense of where most people stand.

You can do it, no doubt about it, but I don’t think it’s something most people would feel comfortable justifying to themselves in the same way.

I can't believe people think the OP is somehow more morally indebted to the tenants than to her own family ... It's HER house. She provided a service to the tenants, now she is deciding to stop...

This must be rage bait.

Wow what a really shitty thing to do.

Your current tenants will already be feeling insecure living in a private rented house, knowing you could sell up at any time.
But to lose it because your niece needs somewhere to live and they need to make way for her is an absolute piss take.

I think you’re wrong. I’ve recently had experience in a large English city where private rental properties are rented out for outrageous sums despite being dangerously mouldy, for example, and the landlords refuse to do anything to alleviate the problem and happily raise the rent annually without doing even basic maintenance, because they know there is a shortage of rental property and people are so desperate for a roof over their heads that landlords can dictate their price. In cahoots with unscrupulous rental agents, it must be said. These landlords are the reason these new laws have been introduced, though how effective they can be without a new stock of high standard housing appearing from nowhere, I have no idea.

You said you are trying to come to an arrangement with your tennants, what sort of arrangement?

We have another property that is a bigger that they can have for the same price as they were paying even though it would usually rent out for more.

At the moment they are saying it isn’t suitable as it would mean getting the bus to school. That would not be for long though as the kids will move to secondary next year and the year after and this house is closer to the secondary school they will go to. We are also putting a new kitchen in early next year along with doing some other work and they say they don’t want the hassle of workmen in, but it needs doing so it’s not negotiable. They also like where they are as they have family a few doors down. If they’ll accept that house, that would be great and I think it will actually be lovely for them as it has an extra bedroom for the kids and a much bigger garden. I understand they would rather stay where they are though and are possibly hoping to get a council property by staying put.

Before anyone says let niece have that one, it’s too far from uni, it’s far too big and she definitely wouldn’t cope with having work done on the house.

My idea is still valid though. The council houses are cheaper in rent.

Perhaps they might be able to buy with all these supposed rental properties flooding the market.

Sounds like they are difficult, just get rid of them.

The responses on this thread came as a bit of a shock to me. Whilst I understand the family is now in a difficult situation, they have been given a fair bit of notice. For them to leave the house eventually does seem like a likely outcome regardless, given that the OP has said she always anticipated selling the house in the next few years.

This has made me reconsider renting our own home. We are living abroad for at least the next 5 years and had considered letting out our own home whilst away, with the intention of eventually returning to occupy it. We would let it with this understanding, ensuring the tenants were fully aware of our current anticipated return date. Of course, there is always the possibility of job loss, health problems, or other issues that could bring these timelines forward. It seems like many people would consider our plan to be unethical, and we may need to reconsider.

Im assuming the housing department will expect them to take that, they will discharge their duty if not

A bus to school is nothing.

You can kick them out for any reason or none until the 1st May. Then the grounds reduce significantly and it will be much harder to get tenants out - partly why it is now so difficult to find properties to rent as landlords leave the market.