Tenants requesting a court order!

[Emily2586]

Hi everyone,

I would really be grateful for some advice. I have a property in England which I would like to move back to. I have given the notice on time and gave my tenants 3 months to find alternative accommodation. The three months have now passed and the tenants have come back to me saying they can not find any place to rent because of their low income and is saying they would like me to start a court order so they could give a letter to the council so that they could assist them.

I wasn't expecting them to do this as I had given three months notice and I had some to them if this wasn't enough time they could let me know and it could be extended slightly to give them time to find something. I was under the impression they were finding a place to rent all this time.

The tenants have been in the property for 10 years and I have no experience of about the legal proceedings in this case. I myself have kids and need to move into this property as I am currently staying with my parents until the tenants move out and I am worried that court proceedings could cost a lot.

Could someone please kindly give any advice of what I could do.

Well, yes, but the next step is still to go via court. Given OP's vagueness about everything else, I am not sure if they do know if it is correct or not, and all the right paperwork is in place.

I did post a link up thread where OP can check this. But I'm intrigued as to what letter you think OP should send?

OP seems quite naive about all this.

Seems to be parents bought this house as an investment or were left it... probably bought it.

She seems to think that even though her sister lived in it, that it would come down to her/sister/other siblings (?) through the family via inheritance.

@Xenia - depends what sort of tenancy agreement the tenants have. OP can't just evict the tenants. Can't believe I'm copying and pasting but here:

Excluded tenancies or licences
You do not have to go to court to evict your tenants if they have an excluded tenancy or licence, for example if they live with you.
You only need to give them ‘reasonable notice’ to quit. Reasonable notice usually means the length of the rental payment period, so if your tenants pay rent weekly you can give them one week’s notice. The notice does not have to be in writing.
You can then change the locks on their rooms, even if they still have belongings in there.
Assured and regulated tenancies
If your tenants started their tenancy before 27 February 1997, they might have an assured or regulated tenancy. You’ll then have to follow different rules to evict them and they’ll have increased protection from eviction.

OP says she has given notice not issued the Section 21. unless I'm reading something different here.

Yes alright you’re the third person to have a gone through the thread and found the quotation.

So the retrospective way to solve that one is for the OP to pay the mortgage off immediately otherwise the bank might have a very strong case for claiming interest back.

I can’t imagine there’s very much of the loan left at this stage.

Due to the turn this thread has taken I doubt the OP will be coming back to read that advice.

So get off your arse and get that letter sent to them tomorrow so they can apply for housing

What letter would that be?

It sounds as if they're taking you for a bit of a ride here.
The rental market is crazy right now, if you'd increased rent and they'd left you would have had someone else in no problem! They sound as if they know you are a bit 'amateur' as a land lord and have taken the Mickey a bit. I feel for you but unfortunately you're going to just have to suck it up, get a solicitor and go through the eviction process.

It would be increasing the rent immediately IMO

Every time I would try increase the rent he would threaten to leave and as I was managing the property myself and has other things going on I didn’t want to go through looking for another tenant and then struggling to pay the mortgage.

In what way is this 'taking the OP for a ride'?

Cant see your problem with what I said?

OP has benefited from the rent money, paid the mortgage from it. Seems not to have put any aside for repairs or legal advice. Letting a property is a business transaction, but OP hasnt been businesslike about this.

Shame on her fir agreeing to give a good reference for some other poor soul!

I didn’t “go through it”

I read it 🤷‍♀️

I can’t imagine there’s very much of the loan left at this stage.

That is generous of you. On the basis of the information I have read on this thread - I don’t suppose there’s much financial positive in this scenario at all

Op you may wish to post this on Landlords Forum. You will get good advice on there.
forums.landlordzone.co.uk/

If this is done by letter, the tenants can just refuse it though. So again, OP would be better to take her time and fill in the correct forms- bearing in mind the tenants can still take this to tribunal before they are forced to pay the increase (and if the property is not in a good state of repair, or the OP asks for above market rent, it may not get granted). It's not the quick fix some are making it out to be.

Also, if the tenants are keen to get a council property, or simply struggling to find somewhere else, regardless of cost, it may have no impact.

For about £75 you can join the NRLA (residential landlord association) they have an advice line and they have legal papers you can download online. I hope your sister kept the deposit in a deposit scheme or you have because unless you have you cannot do a section 21 - this is why you need to join the NRLA - once you have joined you can ring up the advice line and they will explain step by step what you can do - I did not require a solicitor to evict my tenant (who was in rent arrears and we had been patient with for over a year and was getting further and further behind) because of their help.

There doesn't have to be an electrical safety certificate in order to issue a s21. There does need to be a change of landlord notice served along with the new name and address otherwise no rent/rent arrears can be claimed in court until it is served. Op also needs to return the deposit, and issue a s13 notice of rent increase.

So the section 21

you needed to of

Given the tenant a copy of an EPC (with a rating of E or higher if tenancy started or was renewed after 1st April 2018)
Issued:
a valid gas safety certificate
the How to Rent booklet at the start of the tenancy
Protected any tenancy deposit within 30 days of receiving the money
Served the prescribed information about how you protected the deposit within 30 days of receiving the money
All local and national licensing: e.g. an HMO licence or a local Selective Licensing
You must also be the landlord/their agent

have you done this?

And you don't have to have a written tenancy agreement, if you don't have one you can't use the accelerated possession procedure but can use the ordinary procedure. If there is no gsc that needs to be done, but it may preclude a successful possession order, it's a grey area. The Epc needs to be done before the notice is served if there is not a valid one, check online here www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate

And the how to rent booklet can be given now.

-Landlords without a clue drive me mad. It's a business. The house should be maintained and kept properly. It is their home. Doesn't matter what your situation is you still have to follow the proper and correct legal process

=You and me both. So bloody frustrating.

^^ yes yes

This has happened to us twice. To my goddaughter's family three times and my DS's family twice. We are all currently in the process of again being evicted.
Bloody sick of greedy amateur landlords who don't know what they are doing.
They were happy to take the money in the good times but think the law doesn't apply to them when circumstances change. I'm glad to see that better regulations have been introduced especially on insulation but the lettings market should never have been put in the hands of owners reliant on mortgages, many of them inexperienced and clueless. It was bound to end in tears especially when the interest rates soared. The sooner individual landlords are licensed and registered the better.

As landlords now rush to sell their rentals because they've got their fingers burned, the pool of rented properties available has diminished rapidly and the rents are becoming astronomic.
Agents in the private sector specify an income of between around £40k per annum is required to rent a modest property for £12300 per month here (SW).

This is a housing crisis rapidly unfolding along with all our other woes and no one in government is getting to grips with it. The council housing departments are doing their best but they are desperately underfunded and there is no housing stock because Thatcher flogged it all off.

So OP it sounds like you have been very foolish in not getting legal advice, but do think yourself lucky that you will (eventually) have a roof over your head once you have successfully evicted your tenants of ten years.

Disclaimer: I know of plenty of lovely landlords out there who are solvent, fair and treat renting like a business: sadly none of them have been my landlord.

I like a belt and braces approach though personally so if she is gonna be stuck with them for two years a massive rental increase in line with the market rate might A) focus their minds and B) helped to fund some of the costs of getting them out. And if they can’t afford it they’ll be in rental arrears pretty quick which again will strengthen the case.

Typo
income of £40k per annum is required to rent a modest property at £1400 per month.
sorry

She is not going to be stuck with them for 2 years if she follows procedure correctly. Court delays aren't that bad. 6 months is more realistic. It will only be 2 years if there are issues like the ownership of the house being unclear, or no-one knows what has been done with the original deposit.

A tribunal may not agree with "market rent" if the property has significant wear and tear, let alone genuine damage, btw.

Rental arrears will not strengthen a Section 21 eviction case, there is nothing to strengthen. If you fill the paperwork in correctly, the tenant will (eventually) have to leave. Section 8 evictions are often actually more drawn out, because the tenant can pay some of the arrears just before the court date, and then the judge may choose not to order possession.

It's pretty clear you don't have a clue as to how all of this actually works legally, so your advice really isn't helpful.

All OP has to do is get the Section 21 right, and go through the steps, and she can eventually claim the costs back. The delays and costs will come if the Section 21 is wrong, so really sorting that out should be her first priority.

Ha. In my home city, they all seem to want 40k not including benefits for shit holes costing £700pcm. My income is 47K, and does include benefits as one of my children is disabled.

Firstly I would go a landlord forum and find out what is involved in evicting somebody. Check if all the necessary things are in order, e.g. is the deposit correctly stored, is your paperwork in order. If you find any issues you will need to remedy them asap. If you can get everything in order then it will be a matter of time (and money), but you will get the house back. Sorry to say, but that is part of being a landlord.

I did know somebody who was unable to issue a section 21 for various legal reasons. Their tenant was able to afford another private rental, but was well aware the landlord couldn't issue a section 21 and did not wish to leave voluntarily. The landlord ended up negotiating with the tenant and basically paying them to leave- a solicitor drew up a binding agreement to leave in exchange for a payment.

If your tenant is high earning I'd be surprised if the council would house them - surely they'd be required to rent privately if that is possible. I'm not sure how the council assess if somebody can and should rent privately?

If they actually end up getting evicted by the court that would make it very difficult to rent privately again. So I'd hope that if you start down the path to eviction, they may voluntarily leave during the process to avoid a CCJ.