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.

I read the first few pages and I can only assume the insensitive people blaming the OP are tenants themselves and believe they have priority and the landlord should do as told by the tenant.
I don’t feel sorry for these tenants- they were given 3 months notice and there’s no excuse for not leaving the property. The landlord has the right to have her house back as it’s HER house.
it’s none of your business what OP did with the money- as she said previously she had to pay a mortgage and she also has a family.

Oh God- it’s not the landlord’s business to care about the market and whether these tenants can find a place to leave or not. All tenants are so entitled??
thry were given 3 months - I was given a lot less than that in the past and I managed to find a place to live in time

The point is that the landlord has to follow the law. Legally, the tenants can stay until a bailiff evicts them and this is what the council will insist they do.

The request for a guarantor is neither here nor there, of course she shouldn't do it, but it doesn't negate basic tenant rights .

Don't do this.

And it probably is the case that they can't find anywhere in todays market which is massively competitive and that if they don't have a guarantor this is a problem. Sounds like they are explaining this and suggesting that they could move more quickly if landlord is their guarantor. It's a ridiculous idea of course but if they are desperate you can't blame them for asking. It's not blackmail- it sounds like they simply cannot find anywhere and they're not alone in that in today's market .

I agree with this, it's really insensitive. I'm a Tennant myself and no matter my situation, I would never refuse to leave someone else's property claiming the things they have claimed with a 70k car on the drive. There may be some truth to their situation or they could be using this to buy themselves as much time as possible on a nice cheap rental property. They have it cushty, why move?

Sadly OP this could be a very long and expensive process as others have said. I'm sorry for your situation and hope it gets sorted as quickly and painless for you.

Good luck 🙀

Don't allow them to blackmail you.

Tell them when it goes to court you will be asking for all your expenses. That may concentrate their cheeky minds.

Do you know what a guarantor is, OP?

You would be guaranteeing to pay their rent. They are no longer legally liable for the rent. They would move into their new home, and they wouldnt pay the rent. The landlords then come after you and you have to pay as you are the one legally responsible for the rent.

People do that for their children. That's about it. You are a stranger. You're their landlord. That's it. You're not family. You're not friends. You're strangers who only know one another because you are their landlord.

Stop pissing about. The negotiations are a waste of time. Start the eviction process and get them evicted. Dont even consider being a guarantor. Stop talking to them altogether. Your only communication with them should be serving the necessary paperwork. Dont have any more communication with them.

Your lucky they are not seeing you for not putting there deposit in a deposit scheme, I'm pretty sure the amout they can claim off you goes up year by year by not having it in a scheme 😵‍💫.
Three months is not a long time to find a new house to rent in the area with manageable rent. Rent has gone up so much in the last couple of years I know I'd struggle to find anywhere with are budget, that's why they want you to remove them by court to hopefully get a council house so they will be paying rent closer to what there paying now (probly also want the security that the council won't want the house back to move back in).
I'm sorry these are your circumstances, but your just after a roof over your head and your taking one from someone else just because your in a more privileged position of owning a home. So under these terms I'd just save up the money and go through court for them. They have paid 4 years off your mortgage without complaint after all its the least you can do. Just think if it was the other way round and somewhere you called home for 10 years was being took off you and now you are looking at double the housing cost to start In a new home plus moving expenses.

Do not become a guarantor for them though as if they decide not to pay the rent on the new property its only you who will be up in court being sued for there rent or damages, or both. They are not your family that's a firm no. Once they out the house they are out your life you don't need that tagged on you for however long they live in the house that you signed your name to. Big no no. They shouldn't even ask that 😒

Yeah just to repeat what's been said probably repeatedly throughout the thread. Just go get legal advice. If you don't know what a guarantor is then you're in a vulnerable position. They've got you pegged as being clueless and will take full advantage.

Don't be ridiculous. The rental market is terrible at the moment.
OP took on all the benefits of being a landlord and has done none of the legal due diligence. Tenants have rights and these have clearly been overlooked. No one should make themselves intentionally homeless.

The only reason the rent wasn't raised was because they'd said they leave and the work that entailed didn't suit OP at the time.

I have no sympathy for landlords who don't ensure they're operating within the law.

Call the British Landlord association for advice

TBF, we only started hearing about the “£70k cars” and the attempted “we’ll leave if you raise the rent” blackmail AFTER the OP got a lot of replies she didn’t like, and after saying in her initial post that she’d never raised the rent because she felt sorry for them, so excuse me if I’m just a little cynical as to whether the tenants are as bad as they’re now being painted…

I'm sorry but regardless of the reason, not raising rent in 10 years is extremely reasonable. Why does she need an excuse for that? In fact, why does she need any excuse to have her OWN house back? The OP is effectively homeless, agreed she's living with parents, but why is that so unreasonable for her to ask her tenants to do the same? 3 months notice, legally, she is covered and that is more than sufficient, most tenancies will stipulate 1 month (mine does).

I'm speaking as a tenant here, I do not understand the level of entitlement so many tenants have. You rent, you accept that it's never going to be a 'forever home' and there may come a time your landlord wants their home back. But sorry I forgot landlords/property owners weren't allowed to be in financial difficulty, that's reserved for tenants.

I'm not saying the OP has handled her entire tenancy excellently (no-one knows and it is perfectly legal to not go through an agency and self-manage your property) but she's perfectly within her right to have her own home back.

This happens a lot I'm afraid as the rental market is just such a complete disaster area. People have the choice of doing the dirty on their landlord or being homeless in the street.
Nobody is going to choose to be homeless so they have to go down this route in order to be housed. The shortage of homes is a national disgrace and this crisis has been going on for a long time.
I would NEVER rent out a property unless I had the cash to evict in court and renovate the property as they are often trashed in the process.

Did you miss that in one post said she’d “never tried to increase the rent” because she “felt sorry for them, as they were on a low income”

Then in a subsequent post “i tried to increase the rent multiple times but the tenant refused”.

Full. Of. Holes

when the op doesn’t receive a response she wants, she musta changed her story.

went from “feeling sorry because on low income”

to waffling on about £70k cars

She said the tenants said they would leave if rent increased and she backed down because she could not be bothered with the hassle. I strongly suspect not everything legal has been done and she knew she would have loads of work to do before she could get a new tenant.
Similarly with the major repairs that turned into a refurbishment of the kitchen and bathroom. The house probably does not meet legal minimum habitation standards.

And I reckon tip of the iceberg re this shit show.

so the op feels sorry and doesn’t ask for a rent increase

but then…. She does, multiple times.

And what on earth does this farce mean?

I haven’t been the landlord for 10 years it was my sister who was the landlord from the start when the tenants moved in 10 years ago, but then my parents found out that she wasn’t paying the mortgage with the rent money and was only paying only interest! It came to the stage where the mortgage company wrote a letter to my sister saying they were going to repossess the house and then my parents found this out and were horrified and instead told me to be the landlord as they had fallen out . As I have children my parents decided to give me this property and I inherited this property as landlord only within the last 4 years. I never received a deposit as my sister has received it and never gave it to me. I did keep some money aside to act as a deposit

One of the problems that has come upin OP's posts is the lack of clarity over whether OP is even the legal owner of this house. OP has talked about it being her sister's house, her parents "taking it away" from the sister and her parents giving the house to OP. But it is unclear whose name is on the deeds/mortgage /tenancy agreement.

OP has also not clarified whether she has served a formal S21 or whether she merely asked them to leave.

OP seems unclear about her landlord responsibilities and needs to follow the advice of pps and contact a landlord association of lawyer and start a formal eviction

@Navigatinglife2022 actually the OP is in no way 'effectively homeless' (this is hysterical language) and does not yet have the right to have her OWN house back. And actually they do need an 'excuse' to evict these tenants so they can live in the property again. Because she has not followed the law, for over 10 years, regarding the deposit, change of landlord etc. There's also a very good chance the OP isn't even the legal owner of the property as it's not been clarified and the language around the parents/sister/op/landlord is very suspect.

Several drip feeds later, attempting to make the tenants sound as bad as possible, does not mean the OP has any more right to evict them than before. There are laws regarding eviction/renting/being a responsible landlord for very good reasons, and the OP and family would have done well to learn about these, before reaping the benefit someone else paying off most of their mortgage that is. There is no excuse for illegal activity as a landlord. Naivety isn't an excuse. There are some very informative resources and organisations that are easily accessible to help with everything a landlord needs to know about legalities etc. After 10 years the OP should know everything there is to know about being a landlord.

I also rent, I have an amazing landlady and have had no other issues with renting or landlords in the past. But I'm also not an idiot, I know my rights. I can also see how the OP is completely unsuited to being a landlord, has done several illegal things/not corrected posters asking about these and is very much in the wrong at several points during this tenancy.

Oh and by the way, LEGALLY you have to give tenants 2 months notice to leave the property on a section 21. So your one month notice is also illegal. You really should be more clued up about your legal rights as a tenant if you continue to rent. Because you're clearly in a vulnerable position and could easily be taken advantage of.

I do not feel sorry for someone who has hundreds of thousand pounds worth of assets in a property, who has blatantly broken the law (potentially several times) whilst happily accepting someone else was paying off their mortgage for 10 years, and is now claiming poverty.

This ^^

You fucked about and now you're about to find out.

Please don't do this. The guarantor is legally responsible for paying the rent if the person they gave the guarantee for doesn't pay. You could be liable for months and months of rent while the new landlord goes through the legal eviction process. They really don't sound like nice people. I sympathized with them needing to be made homeless to access support to be housed as that's the government's fault for the way they set up the it system. Trying to blackmail you into being guarantor is really not ok, that plus the damage to the house aren't the actions of good people. Go through the correct process to evict them, do not guarantee or otherwise assist them to move out, that's a con that will cause you a lot of harm.