Word of warning if you're coming home

[Appletrees]

Prepare yourself.

Moving back from Europe to Bristol this year. We can't get back into our house because our tenants refuse to move out despite masses of notice. We may be homeless when the children start school. We have no credit rating without our address. We can't get on the electoral register.

You can be so screwed over if you've rented out your house and the tenants, even corporate, moneyed tenants, refuse to move. It takes three to five months to get an accelerated possession order. I would advise anyone to give notice for five months before you need the house.

that sounds bad. Wonder why they are refusing to move out when the tenacy was presumably always going to be terminated at some stage and you have given them reasonable notice. Have they given any reason why they refuse to do so?

Yes, I know. Thanks zzz. It's not strange -- it just doesn't suit them to move for a month or two and they don't want to go into a serviced apartment. In the meantime we are homeless.

so it is you who will have to go into a serviced apartment

charge it to their company I think

Hope the move goes well and this gets resolved somehow.

Thanks.

We can't afford it and cannot afford legal action to claim it, while they have access to free company legal advice and are in possession of our house.

I would say to anyone coming back from overseas -- don't make a plan that relies on other people doing the right thing, and give yourself time to get back on electoral, tax and credit registers to get your life in order.

It's tough if you have school children but if you don't do it, you could end up homeless and living on sofas at the start of your wonderful new life.

Contact the tenant's company and explain that if they don't move out, you will be billing the company for a serviced apartment for yourself, and what the figure they will have to reimburse you for, and have some figures ready. Sit back and wait to see what happens.

Start serving eviction notices to the tenants at the office and at the house as well. Copy all correspondence to the CEO as well.

It depends on what contract the tenants have, but if they are still within the terms on the contract then "loads of notice" is irrelevant.

Evecting paying tenants who have a contract is very difficult. If they are on a six month short hold tenancy then you should be able to start proceedings once the six months is up, but otherwise it is very very difficult.

If they stop paying the rent you have a stronger case, but even then it can take months to get them out.

You have no case to bill the company for an appartment unless it was written in as one of the terms in the letting contract.

Thanks. They aren't within the terms of the contract. They're on a year AST lease with a six month break clause, two months notice by either party. We gave them three.

Scaryteacher we're ready to go with an accelerated possession order. Still -- it takes at least three months. The tenants are private tenants, though the company was their reference, so we have no call on the company, only themselves: and we can take the tenants to the small claims court for them to pay the cost of accomodation, transport, legal costs etc. However, while there is no question of a breach, there is no guarantee that a judge will award full costs.

Frenchfancy's, your comment is right in that you cannot guarantee that although the moral and legal right is on one's side, things will go one's way if you go to law.

Therefore, for anyone renting out their home be warned. It doesn't matter how right you are, how considerate you are, how much you abide by the terms of your contract, how well you get on with your tenants you still could be screwed and homeless.

You can still inform the company though, as they were the referees and explain that it makes the company look bad. My dh is Armed Forces, and any complaint like that would be taken very seriously, even at his rank.

I would imagine that they are not expecting you to go with an accelerated possession order, but to roll over and play dead. I would serve it asap, and also get solicitors letters explaining that you will be taking them to court for the money this will costs you. Copies to the company again, for reference.

Scary I couldn't come back last night to say thanks, my time is not my own as a homeless guest and hogging the computer on mn is not currently possible or acceptable

But thanks for the words of advice and also not talkign to me as if I'm a Rachman. I know you rent out too and I hope you are luckier than us. All the legal action in the world will still take five months. There's no point being honest sometimes.

Hey ho. Hope someone can learn from this.

You're not Rachman at all. You've given lots of notice, and they are taking the piss. I would also investigate keeping the deposit in recompense for your expenses if you can legally do it, and make them aware you will be brutally honest if they are proposing to rent again and a letting agent comes to you for a reference.

I hope it pans out OK. Keep us informed?

Thank you so much. I hadn't thought about the reference actually. That's quite a comfort. I really REALLY hope they need one.

Oh yikes, we are also thinking of returning back to uk from Europe. We are renting out our Bristol house too!

Best of luck Appletrees and keep in touch. I would love to know how your return goes.

I'm that your tenants won't move out! I've be tempted just to move in with them!!

From the other side, as people who rented a house from people who were abroad, if you are coming back to England, do give your tenants as much notice as possible. Trying to find a house to take 3DC and 2 cats with only 2 months notice can be a bit of a push!

Hi guys, thanks for good wishes.

That's what we thought Lynette, so we left the notice date until after term finished so as not to disrupt their children at school, then gave them three months to find a new place.

buggery buggery bolleaux!

That is so crap but sadly I think it happens quite a bit. We live abroad and one of our friends was returning to her home (in Australia) to have a baby. They gave (I think) about 6 months notice but when she returned the tenants refused to move out. She had to take them to court and was 8 1/2 months pregnant at the hearing but the (lunatic?) judge allowed the tenants an extra month to move out when it was convenient to them. Bloody ridicuous that she was homeless and pregnant with a toddler.
This is one reason why we would never rent out our house.
Hope it goes ok for you Appletrees.

Oh crikey that's a dreadful dreadful story. It's terrible the way tenants are assumed to be the victims. Always and every time.

An update: the tenants say they will move out before the children start school. I hope this is true but it is hard to trust them.

Can I also advise people to take out landlords' legal insurance (dullard)

I had no credit rating even with my old address - I had a mortgage that had been paid on time every month and had kept and used a British credit card specifically so I WOULD have a decent credit rating on my return to the UK but it made no difference. I have never had bad credit but it seems that living overseas for a period of time

What a nightmare Appletrees - I do hope they will do what they have said but I don't blame you for not trusting them

Sorry - I didn't finish my sentence ...

it seems that living overseas for a period of time is a bad thing

It made getting a new mortgage was a bit of a nightmare and I am STILL not eligible for a new credit card despite having a decent job and a decent wage, being on the electoral register and having my own home.

Grockle -- I'm sorry to hear of your problems. I am going to try to get a phone on my home today. That will give me a good idea about my credit rating for the next year I think. So far we've been turned down three times for store cards, a phone and car finance.

It's shit Appletree

I hope you can sort something out. I had to get a SIM only phone which has worked out quite well but still cannot get a credit card. It's very frustrating. I am not sure at what point my credit rating will be restored. Good luck with it all.

We decided not to rent out our home after we were once repatriated at short notice. If the house had been occupied, we'd have had nowhere to go at all. Although we had to find specialist insurance, it means we've had a base to come back to on our trips home and the knowledge we have somewhere to live, should the worst happen.

The credit rating thing is really annoying. I was out of the UK for 12 years, kept bank account but didn't have a UK credit card. I did manage to get a Toyota car loan within a couple of months of being back, despite still being at a rented house (not on the electoral register I think as we moved in after the October update), and not working so no regular source of income, just lots of savings. Maybe it helped that the loan was only for about a quarter of the car's value, with the rest paid upfront - I didn't actually need the loan, I only took it out to start rebuilding a credit record.

Even so, last year (about two and a half years after moving back, and now a homeowner and on electoral register, though still not working full time) I was turned down for a contract phone for £15 a month by one provider, but accepted five minutes later by another one.... I managed to get a new credit card last year through the bank I had been with for years; before that I had one on my mother's credit card account in case of emergencies, but mainly used my debit card.

By the way, be careful about putting in too many credit applications in a short space of time - I think the rejections show up on your credit history, and can put off the next company you apply to.

We have UK bank account where dh's salary is paid, and have UK cards; dh HM Forces, and we are on electoral roll. I presume that a foreign posting at the behest of the Govt, and a Forces address overseas mitigates the worst of the credit rating being trashed whilst abroad? I would also have thought that if you are abroad in an EU country, then it shouldn't be an issue when you return. We have credit cards in Belgium; no problems with broadband/landlines or mobile deals, despite not having lived here all that long.

I have kept my UK bank accounts and regularly use my credit card to buy things like flowers for Mums etc. Do you think this is the way to go, should we have to, or choose to go home? We had to sell our house as it was not fit to be rented out (too much work needed) so have no mortgage anymore. I hope things work out OP.