Help regarding evicting tenants from my house

[sydneygirl]

Hi,

I'm hoping that someone will be able to answer this question. We would like to give our tenants "notice to vacate" so that we can sell the property. We want to make sure that we do everything legally correct and, as they are on a shorthold tenancy, we know that we must give a minimum of two months notice. However, the tenancy agreement also says it must be "at the end of the period of tenancy".

What the heck does this mean? Does it mean that as the tenant is now on a month-by-month tenancy that, as well as the two month notice, we have to wait until the end of that month?

Any help much appreciated.

give them as much warning as possible .. especially if they have been good tenants

I don't know the legal standpoint but I would assume you give them to the end of the month PLUS 2 months .. but you'll need at least that long to sell a property wouldn't you? and wouldn't it be best if it was occupied

suppose it depends on your relationship with them

Thanks Twiglett. They are actually friends of ours, but they won't talk to us since we confessed to needing to sell. They have been witholding rent (even though it's housing benefit)and won't discuss the situation with us. Have sent them an e-mail today explaining that we need to liaise with them, to make sure it's as smooth as possible. I'm not expecting to hear back from them though...

I think you should go to the cab and get definitive advice as tenants have a lot of rights and if you don't get it right, it could be a long battle, especially if they know how to play the system. i have never actually been in this situation but remember seeing something on tv about it.

I have recently be surprised at how few rights private tenants have tbh

Sounds like the end of the original tenancy agreement has already passed
Just give them two months notice - send it recorded delivery!

2 months from whenever should be adequate as long as you are outside the initial guaranteed period of an Assured Shorthold Tenancy.

Thanks for these replies. The end of the initial six months will be October 3rd, and so we know we have to wait until then. We know that we would like possession of the house by Jan 16th, as that is when we fly back from Oz, so do you think it would be a good idea to serve notice on Oct 3rd, giving them Jan 16th as their leaving date? This would then give them 3.5 months notice which I suppose may be more courteous than two.

yes if it was a normal shorthold tenancy 2 months notice is sufficient. I think technically it has to be two months from the end of a month too, so if the tenancy runs from the 3rd of the month and you gave notice on the 20th, then they would actually get 2 months and a couple of weeks notice iyswim. no-one ever takes any notice of that though ime.

lucy - you've been in Spain too long. tenants in the uk have bugger-all rights and can generally buy themselves maybe a month or so max even if they do know how to play the system. It's one of the things that Spain does much better.

sorry, sg: yes, I'd give notice now, but bear in mind they would have the right to leave earlier than the 16th Jan - I presume that wouldn't matter too much? It would be a great help to them though - it's horrible trying to find a new house to a deadline.

Thanks SP. We feel like total cows for asking them to leave, but we've emigrated to Oz and we have run out of money. Property has shot up in value here and mortgaging ourselves up to the eyeballs still would only buy us a shack somewhere. I'll see if they reply to my e-mail...hopefully we might be able do it amicably.

Sorry but I would just give them the required two months because if they don't leave, at least you have a little more time before you actually need to be back in the house. You may have to start proceedings to have them evicted if they refuse to leave. We rented out our house a few years ago and although we never had any problem tenants, I remember our letting agent telling us that if we did need to get tenants out it would take at least 3 months beyond the end of the notice period by the time they go through all the official letters which have to be written etc.

It could be that your friends have nowhere to go or can't afford another place and so are trying to have themselves made homeless by being evicted. Know nothing about that but there was a thread on here a while ago from someone who was being advised to do that in order to get some accommodation. However, as they are supposed to be your friends it would be only good manners of them to tell you that things are that desperate and that is what they need to do.

IF they are withholding rent (I assume that means they are not paying it), then that would mean that they have broken their contract. I would therefore assume that this meant that the contract terms no longer stand. From this I would give them the 2 months notice. Therefore giving them enough notice to find somewhere else - but this would be to be nice to them rather than because I had to.

I don't have experience in the legal side of this - but this is based on the presumption that if they broke the contract they then cannot hold you to it.

I did this with a lodger - he didn't complain, but then he did owe me a lot of money.

how come they are withholding rent? we have tenants who pay housing benefit but its paid directly to us they dont get a penny of it!

there's something in my tenancy which ive just signed that says if the rent is 14 days overdue then the landlord can come into the premises and reclaim it.not sure if they have to then give me notice which is 2 months according to section 21 of housing act 1988.not sure if it means they can just come and take the house back.most around here have to give two months notice from date the tenancy is.id give as much as possible though if you can.id contact the housing benefit and find ot what is happening with the rent.doesnt it get paid direct to you? if they are deliberatly withholding it then you can get them out by taking them to court i think if they wont just go.they're breaking the tenancy.

Thanks all. We actually received an e-mail back from them this morning, telling us that we are arses and we'll have to take them to court to get them out. They're on a shorthold tenancy agreement though, so I'm sure things will work out. Housing benefit in the town where we live gets paid directly to the tenant, who then had to pass it on to the landlord. Our council decided that it's a breach of human rights to pay the tenants money directly to the landlord. So, we have received notification from the council that they have been paid their rent, but they are failing to pass it on to us! We received two weeks rent into our account this morning (to coincide with our e-mail asking if there was a problem) but they are still now two weeks behind. The friendship thing is now really difficult. We know that we gave them the impression that this would be a longterm thing, and we have apologised and also offered to help with moving costs, but they are just too cross to listen. We can understand their frustration and so i think I'll just keep on being as nice and patient as possible. But, at the end of the day, we could not foresee how quickly our money would run out and, at the end of the day, it's still our house. Sorry to bang on. this is just consuming me at the moment!!

I'm sure it is illegal to claim hg and then not pay it to the landlord. might be worth looking into.

if they are behind with their rent then you can get them out, whether you have to take them to court or not.i would get a court order to get them out and show the email and keep any future emails to show the court.they're obviously annoyed but it is your house and as long as you have tried to give them the correct amount of notice a court wont decide in their favour.they're the ones that have broken the tenancy.id seek advice from cab or solicitor.

One other thing, don't put the house up for sale until after they've left and you've had a chance to clean and decorate, we were in a similar situation and tried to sell with the tenannts in the house, despite over 40 viewings we got one offer, me thinks the tenannts were causing mischief.
They actually have more rights to the house than you do, but give them the two full months notice and make it clear you will not damage their credit record and therefore make it impossible for them to rent anywhere else providing they play fair.