Section 21 notice - any property solicitors to help please?

[IndianaJone]

Basically we have found out tenants have no intention of leaving when tenancy agreement expires and intend to drag it out and hoping to be made formally homeless so they can get a council property.

We have been advised to serve notice but looking at the rules not sure if we can. Tenants have lodged complaints with council about some repairs (they didn't tell us of them but everything elsr which they did complain directly to us about was fixed). Since complaint has now been logged with council will this stop us from serving section 21 notice?Basically, yes the house needs work doing and we intend to do complete overhaul of whole property and then sell (we recently inherited this property). New to all this so some advise will be gratefully received!!

Get yourselves over to The Landlord Zone for specific advice. I think your tenants may be trying to set you up so that you serving notice may be viewed as a retaliation eviction for them complaining. Are they paying the rent? If not you can serve a different, s8, notice for non-payment of rent.

You say the house needs work, but not what that work is. Tenants won't put up with things owner occupiers live with.

I'm just a landlord - but yes, you cannot evict if there is an outstanding repair complaint logged. You've got players here so you need urgent advice, although they may have messed up by not having evidence that they gave you a chance to fix things. Even the council dont expect you to be psychic.

Once that is sorted, it is two months notice, then the wait for the hearing, then the hopeful possession date, then they ignore that, then you apply for the bailiffs. Total about six months and £2k or so. Remind them that they will be liable for those costs under a ccj. They do need to keep paying the rent to have any chance of a council place.

There is no incentive for a rush as the council want you to house them. And minimise contact - anything construed as harrassment gets you done for a criminal offence.

I suspect the next trick may be to refuse to let you do the gas safe certificate, which is another thing that may stop eviction. I hope you also got evidence of all the other things you should have given them if they moved in after oct 2015.

Sorry . Get a solicitor asap or at least look into joining the rla for some advice.

Thank you for the help. We are only outstanding the EPC which we have gotten booked in for this Thursday. Everything else is done. We haven't yet had an enforcement order from council for repairs so wondering if we can serve s21 before that to stop it looking like it is retaliatory. Basically, things like raising damp on a wall between bathroom and kitchen and waste pack in kitchen needs replacing. All stuff they could have reported directly. Back in June we said we need them to leave as we wanted to work on property and sell it and they agreed but asked us if they could have until the end of the year to look for a new place. My mum dealt with it and their 6 month contract was renewed with the agreement that they would leave by December.

The house is being let several hundreds under market value because the decor is coming to the end of its life and reflect how outdated it all is. Tenants said they wouldn't be able to afford anything more then they are paying so obviously that's why they are trying to get council housing.

Looks like this will be a bit trickier then we thought! I'll get on to the website recommended ASAP and get reading!

Dont bother with the section 21 until you have provided an epc and got evidence that the tenants have received it - the sec 21 wont be valid. The tenants can also report you for this breach and get you a £200 fine.

With a fixed term starting after oct 2015 you have further problems with the sec 21. And if you do get an enforcement notice you cant serve it for another six months.

The council may not house your tenants until bailiff eviction.
Each attempt at court costs £355 in court fees alone.
You urgently need advice from an experienced lawyer in this, not a high stree dinosaur. Sorry. Hope you have legal cover.

Thank you very much for your help. I'm seeing a specialist landlord solicitor tomorrow and feel much better about the whole thing. A fee days ago it was all so daunting. I needed a push in the right direction so very grateful.

best of luck. I'm coming to the end of this nasty process. As mentioned, remind your tenants that they will be responsible for the costs, and that they must keep paying the rent or the council will not play the game.