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.

Your personal circumstances have no bearing on your obligations and how to proceed now.

The tenants personal circumstances have no bearing on your obligations and how to proceed now.

You just need to follow the legal processes - correct written notice periods, quoting the correct parts of the law, then following up - until you gain possession.

If you do not have a deposit in a deposit bond... not sure you can serve a section 21

As the deposit was taken 10 years ago I think, it should have been placed in a deposit bond when it became law to do so - as a landlord this would have had legalities not to have done so.

If you can't serve a section 21 then you will not be able to go to court to get an eviction order

When you serve the section 21 I believe you also have to show the gas safety certificate and a couple of other documents - again if you fail to do this you will not be able together an eviction order from the courts

Sounds like you inherited a bit of a calamity

@Mummyoflittledragon To me it sounds like the house needs major repairs, rather than has had major repairs. So I read it as though she had neglected it. Not all landlords are like you I’m afraid! In fact, few are!

@Pegasushaswings

Is it not a bit late for that? Surely they don't let you join once you're already in the shit?

@Emily2586 there's no way you're going to get through this without paying for help. I understand how you've ended up where you have, but you're now in a pretty shit position. You need specialist help. I'd start by asking shelter & the companies that help landlords, they'll have solicitors who specialise in this.

best of luck

@Mummyoflittledragon has given you excellent advice OP. In this situation there are so many variables and things that it sounds like you may not have got completely correct that you need a solicitor. Trying to evict these tenants yourself will almost certainly end up costing you more and take significanatly longer than if you get a good solicitor on the case.

I work in lettings and there are multiple warning bells ringing for me in both your posts that I think only a solicitor will be able to sort out for you.

For those saying raise the rent, that might be fine with the tenants

if they have for example bad credit and can't rent elsewhere, but a decent income - then that'll be the lesser of two evils. Trying to rent a home is a nightmare in some areas, 20 couples turning up and a years rent up front - or pay more rent and stay put

Op still doesn't get vacant possession of the house, which is the outcome they require

Mummyoflittledragon is giving you excellent advice. You need to take all the emotion and history out of this now and start to behave as a professional landlord. You need legal advice because you don't know what you are doing and if you get things wrong you'll get into a very sticky situation. Decent landlord's insurance would have been a great investment, but what's done is done.
The Landlordzone forum is great for advice, but be ready for them to give you a good telling off in the process.

Also expect that the process of evicting your tenants is going to cost you money and take some time.

You're being advised to raise the rent - not a bad idea as long as you have met your legal obligations as a landlord. If you haven't then your tenants can make your life quite difficult as mentioned above. So get your house in order as a landlord, with legal advice, then decide how to proceed.

The benefit of their rent money!! She hasn’t been letting them live there as a favour, this is a business transaction 😆 You read some weird things on here.

agree with what everybody has said upthread. I’m sorry op, we were in a similar position a couple of years ago - its shit.

Morally, the council really shouldn’t be telling tenants to stay put as it puts landlords in a very awkward position that isn’t fair on them and using landlords to leverage their own responsibilities to the homeless. It’s no wonder landlords are exiting the market in droves .

With all your legal obligations in such a pickle it might be easier and cheaper for you to just ask your tenants to keep looking and that you will pay their deposit on their new rental as an incentive - up to x agreed amount. Obviously check out new landlord and organise to pay direct or verify they have paid it before you reimburse them.

The problem will be if they either still can't find anywhere or actually don't want a private rental as they see this as their chance to get a more secure tenancy with the council or housing association.

Not sure about putting the tenant's rent right up. Aside from the morals of this it could be counter productive. If they can't pay the rent in full they could decide to fight fire with fire and not pay it at all. That could make a year long eviction very difficult for you financially.

Oh, and I meant to say that even if you decide to serve legal notice to increase the rent (S13 I think without looking it up) - the tenants can dispute it at tribunal. Causing you more hassle and delay.

Morally, the council really shouldn’t be telling tenants to stay put as it puts landlords in a very awkward position that isn’t fair on them and using landlords to leverage their own responsibilities to the homeless. It’s no wonder landlords are exiting the market in droves .

morally, councils do not have properties to house people and have to make sure someone is truly homeless before housing them - thus an eviction. Then at least the temporary accommodation can go to those truly morally in need.

Have you (or someone) been declaring the rental income to HMRC?

I don't. If you are a landlord you should have a better grasp of the laws and responsibilities than this op does. It doesn't matter that they are an "accidental landlord".

I'm not a landlord and only rented once for 6 months 30 years ago, but I'm not at all surprised at the tenants actions. It's fairly common.

If you think your tenants can pay a higher rent increase it. Visit the landlord zone forum for advice but you are likely to have to pay 3 times the deposit if they can prove there was a deposit. Doesnt matter who had it initially the owner is responsible, your sister could potentially be sued by you as could any solicitor if one was involved in transferring ownership to you. You may also have to fix the repairs before you can evict them. If you dont have permission to rent the property you also need to sort out the mortgage fraud.

You need an experienced property solicitor to sort out the mess you are in.

I understand that, put it is not morally right for the landlord (private individual) to pick up to slack of the council.

Do you have landlord insurance? Your situation sounds almost identical to someone I know and their landlord insurance paid the legal bills to sort it.

Hallelluyah, that's the truth right there.

If you are not the owner of the house, run.

Let the owners sort it out, do not involve yourself, find a place to live.

I suspect if it is your parents, they are also clueless as your sister was doing the "right" thing paying interest-only on the mortgage (at that time, different now).

But there should have been timely repairs, etc.

I think the OP said upthread that she inherited the property with the tenants already in residence. I usually laugh when people claim to be "accidental landlords", but in this instance, it really wasn't intentional.

OP, landlord/tenant law in the UK is complex, and has changed quite a bit in the last 15 years or so. Which set of rules apply to a 10-year old tenancy, which has had 2 changes of landlord in that time, makes it even more complex.

I think you'll need a solicitor, and I'd get myself onto a UK-based landlord forum asap and ask for a recommendation.

It's not inconceivable that if things haven't been done properly from the legal point of view, the tenants may have a secure tenancy. And stick the deposit money in a registered protection scheme asap, and get gas and electricity certificates in place if they're not in place already.

Landlord here. In your place I’d 1) join the NRLA for about £95 and access their landlord helpline. Be 100% honest about the situation re deposit, whether all landlord obligations have been carried out eg EICR, gas safety, alarms etc 2) post on the landlordzone forums but also expect to be flamed there and see it as the price for accessing info from very experienced landlords 3) if this doesn’t help you decide on the way forward go to a solicitor but make sure they are experienced in landlord law. Good luck.

Totally see where you’re coming from. I did understand that the house needs major repairs. For me major repairs on a tenanted property internally would be upgrades rather than unliveable and illegal iyswim. So functioning but old windows, tired kitchen and bathroom. That sort of thing. If by major work is op means serious damp and a hole in the roof allowing water to come through, that’s a different story.

www.evicthem.co.uk/

LakieLady, OPs parents are still alive sounds like she was gifted the property in an IHT avoidance manoeuvre.

Yes that’s correct it’s safe to live in I would
never leave tenants in an unsafe environment, when Im talking about major repairs I should have worded it as refurbishments sorry i haven’t explained it properly. I replaced a brand new boiler for them too when I took over.

People are being very nasty on here, so much hate for landlords. If she's been charging low rent for years and only just covered the mortgage she's not profiting from renting it out so there's no magic money pot with all this rent in. The op needs the house for her family now so as sad as it is for these people who have had very cheap rent for 10 years having to move, the op needs the house to live in with her own family. I'm no expert but just going off a mat leave spent watching that channel 5 program about evicting people it seems you have to go through the courts to make them officially homeless for them to get a council house (so sounds like they are telling the truth not just dragging their heels), the process always took a while on there. If the people don't leave when instructed to by the court they then had to pay a few more grand for bailiffs. Hope it isn't too long or expensive for you.