Evicting a tenant

[Covidmum20]

At the moment, this is one possibility of many and I am wondering if anyone can advise me of the legalities here.

Our tenant is good in many ways but is becoming increasingly demanding with regard to both what we do and the timescales in which we can do them, snd it’s causing a great deal of strain and stress.

What is our legal position here? I’m fairly sure we can’t ‘just’ evict - I’m sure I read something about this.

Thanks to anyone who answered my reply on here, wrong thread for me to reply to as the situation seems to be very different! I do intend to notify landlord of leak issues after my second jab, I'm disabled and housebound and can't have anyone in. I do worry I'm the annoying demanding tenant, I've had to contact landlord a couple of times a year since being here for noise issues. There is no other place to live though, nothing to rent within miles of here especially as someone disabled. So I just try to be very cautious. Sorry for the dumb derail.

The likelihood of the tenants refusing to move and having to get bailiffs in are slim. I’ve managed properties for 10 plus years as a surveyor and never yet encountered anyone that has taken it this far.

Despite people regularly suggesting it on here, most people don’t want to get themselves into debt and have poor references because they won’t be able to rent anywhere else!

If you wait a week you’ll have to give four months notice. Hopefully they’ll go before that!

What a very odd thread.

Op, there are lots of experienced people on here who have tried to help you. They have asked questions which are vital to be able to give you accurate useful answers, but the responses from you have been abrasive and unco-operative and seeming you don’t seem to understand that communication is about accurate information, but also about communicating in a helpful manner and style.

If you deal with us like this....strangers in the internet who owe you nothing but are a mine of useful information and willing to help, then it makes me wonder how you deal with the tenants. It makes me wonder if their demands are so unreasonable and your responses to them so decent.

Mumsnet is a discussion forum. When you ask questions, people will reply and also ask you further questions to clarify the position. If you don’t want to engage in discussion, this isn’t the place. Your initial questions couldn’t be answered based on the information you gave, but you have been reluctant to provide further information and on numerous occasions have been pretty abrasive in responding to those trying to help you who are asking pretty reasonable questions. Is it a communication issue or is it that it’s about wanting to have a row with people on MN?

It’s all very odd. You employ an agent but don’t seem to be using them to do what they are paid for. You are a LL but don’t seem to know the law, but are asking in MN not a LL forum. You complain about poor communication from tenants, but the communication on this thread from you isn’t conducive to positive relations and moving forward positively. In all honesty, I’m not sure I’d want to deal with a LL who is coming across like you. Sorry, but if Inwas a tenant....and I’m not, I’m a LL too, that is how I feel.

Thank you wombat

I have the information I need and will now consider my next steps.

To add if you want to manage the properties yourself I recommend OpenRent. You can use their platform to advertise the tenancy, they’ll do the tenancy agreements, they’ll organise has a S electrical safety etc... and each item has a fixed cost. Advertising on right move, the tenancy agreement and first month rent and deposit costs £49. It’s great and I’d recommend it to anyone.

@Covidmum20

That’s because they are not relevant to what I’m asking here sage - meant politely and not rudely!

They kind of are, when you're talking about grounds to evict? If you're being constantly hounded it's hard not to assume that your property is in a poor state of repair. That's not your tenant's fault.

@GoldilocksAndTheThreePears I've had tenants have to notify me about 4-5 issues which unfortunately popped up in the first 6 months of their tenancy, it was stuff they could have just ignored but in one case it was the symptom of quite a big issue, I was really grateful and frankly happy that they were obviously bothered about stuff being maintained. If you're worrying about being an annoying tenant you're definitely not one, I can assure you!

@Covidmum20

I think you all need to trust that if someone is upsetting me then I am upset, and that’s that tbh.

Yah. Not sure you are cut out to be a LL.

@Covidmum20

Because it isn’t relevant.

Of course it is relevant whether the tenant has grounds to complain because you aren't making repairs in a reasonable time frame as you are legally obliged to do. That would make it a revenge eviction. Plus you will have the same problem with future tenants if the problem is you.

I think you all need to trust that if someone is upsetting me then I am upset, and that’s that tbh.
How odd. Your tenants are probably saying the same thing.

The reason you are getting a hard time on here is because people assume that you are giving the info because you are being unreasonable!
Many landlords do take the piss and get very upset when a tenant expects something fixed or sorted quickly. Many landlords do try and do repairs themselves or via mates and do shit jobs. The fact that you won't talk about the issues implies that you may be a piss taker.

This thread is like pulling teeth! Why you'd bother asking a question, the answer to which relies on factual info, if you aren't prepared to answer very pertinent questions about the tenancy and repairs being requested is beyond me!

Join the National Residential Landlords Assn. Inter alia they have a good helpline.

However if you are employing a letting agent to manage you should get them to issue documents. (Though proof read drafts carefully) Your property is valuable so you need to get it right. Also you want a degree of separation between you and tenant. ‘Surprisingly’ tenants can take threat of eviction from their homes personally.

That said I would think carefully. Good tenants who pay rent and don’t damage a property are usually worth keeping. It might be a case of managing their demands. A lettings agent once explained that a “reasonable” time to fix stuff was the time you might take in your own home. So no heating and a small baby...pretty quickly. A loose door handle or similar might wait till other jobs needed doing. It might be that a measure of assertiveness is needed. Even if you use your own contractors you might use the lettings agent to filter requests.

I haven't read the full thread. If the problems are serious they need to be dealt with in a timely manner. If you have a letting agent let them deal with the tenants. Cant see the problem. Sorry.

@Covidmum20

Because it isn’t relevant.

TentTalk has asked you VERY relevant questions about types of contract and dates which you have completely ignored. NOBODY can help you until you have answered those questions (which have been asked SEVERAL times).

I hate to see a house become vacant - and THEN all the required work gets done.....
Just saying.

I have no idea about being either a tenant or a landlord but what I have gleaned from this thread is that the OP is very prickly and withholding information but wanting a detailed and succinct answer to a question that she hasn’t given full details.

As an outsider with a neutral perspective, I am left wondering what the tenants story would be if they were given the opportunity to reply.

I'm a landlord. If your tenants are expecting certain types of white goods is it because they are entirely reasonably expecting like to be replaced with like? ie. If their old oven has features that the new one that you are proposing doesn't then, yes, they have every right to expect at least 'as good as' the one that they took the tenancy on the basis of.

If you are in danger of operating at a loss, to be honest, that is your issue to deal with - you can't cut corners for your tenants- it's not their fault. You should have cash reserves for those months where everything goes wrong at once If for whatever reason you can not get yourself to that position then it is nearly impossible to be a responsible landlord and you should get out of the game.

And really it is in your interests to resolve everything as quickly as possible - sitting on issues will just increase your stress, your tenants stress and lead to a breakdown of goodwill in the relationship. Which just makes everything hard all round.

The refusal to answer pertinent questions tells it's own story.
Op is definitely the one being unreasonable.
The thread being in the Property section does nothing to mitigate this

good luck OP.

it's tough when you're stressed about this sort of thing.
one day it will all be behind you.

@Covidmum20

Because it isn’t relevant.

You have FIVE pages of people telling you it IS relevant... what the hell makes you think it isn't?

Your personality is clearly the issue, we dont need anything from you and only came to help and yet feel we are banging our head of the wall because you refuse to offer even the basic respect of answering simple questions during communication.

What you have essentually done here is ask 'how long is my piece of string?' and every time someone has enqired as to weather you have access to a ruler or tape measure that could be used to work out the answer etc... you have responded 'thats not relevent just answer my question' lol.

I think OP is a troll sent to wind us up

@Covidmum20

No, I do have a tenant problem! Not trashing the place and paying the rent on time are fairly minimal standards.

Legally though. That’s all a judge is looking for

Other problems are going to be REALLY hard to evict

Give me an example of what they’re asking. Are they saying their cupboard broke at 1am and making you go out to fix it? Or what?

@Covidmum20

If I went with the contractors the agents use I would actually be operating at a loss!

You sound just like our LL. The property is supposed to be managed by a lettings agency, but the LL doesn't trust any of their contractors. They prefer to come and assess any issues themselves and then get a relative to sort things. As a result we end up having to wait longer than necessary. It's very frustrating.

If your tenant has been there several years and pays their rent, you'd be mad to get rid of them. Just let the lettings agency deal with issues and suck up the costs.

@Covidmum20

That is the issue puzzled and in my case it definitely isn’t true.

Is all your safety certificates up to date?

Gas. Electrics. Smoke detectors etc?

I’ve got a few landlords who didn’t realise a yearly electrics check was needed!