Time to evict - anyone at experience?

[Propertyindisrepair]

I bought a property with a sitting tenant six years ago. I’ve kept her on with only a token rent increase but she’s a nightmare tenant. The property has now deteriorated to such an extent that it needs a full refurb. I’m keeping on all the other tenants but they are not trashing their flats…

i give this for context so I don’t get yelled at…

interested if anyones had recent experience of time frame for eviction??

agent gives her the section 21 tomorrow.

i actually think 2 months isn’t terribly reasonable and I don’t need to get her out on the dot of two months and I can be flexible. But I think I’m going to have to go the court route so that she can get council housing prioritized.

any experience woulA be helpful to know.

if she doesn’t go I’m thinking of giving her say £1k to go. But I think the challenge is going to be getting council housing. I think she’ll struggle to get private.

thanks!

Can you afford to give her more money to leave so she could pay for 6 months rent up front?

@Orangesare i could but I’m not sure how much that would help. Her reference won’t be great - she’s been in arrears for most of the time and she hasn’t looked after the property. But I’m any case she’s on housing benefit - so rent not a problem as such - deposit a problem but I could give her that. But I can’t imagine a private landlord letting to her. And she is massively underpaying rent now and very little availability.

i think council supported living is what she needs. Am I right that she will have to actually get evicted to get that?

If she wants to get a council house she will need to apply to her local authority and then she'll get placed on a waiting list. She won't be a priority while she has a roof over her head.

My cousin received an eviction notice and was told by the council to stay put until the bailiffs turned up to evict her, which she did. She then had to go to the council and declare herself homeless. She was then put into emergency housing and got a housing association house about six months later.

Your tenant may get told the same. You may end up having to go to court to get her evicted. Is she single? My cousin has two young kids so had higher priority than a single person perhaps would. As a single person she may end up in a bed sit or encouraged to rent a room in a shared property depending on her age.

I think you're right that the council will advise her to stay put until the last moment of forced eviction. How old is she?

She’s in her 60s. I think her son also lives there although he says he doesn’t. There is also a steady stream of dodgy looking characters going in and out.

but I am sympathetic to her. I have no desire to make it any worse for her than it will be. She can’t stay there though - it’s really bordering on uninhabitable now.

i suspect I will have to go the court route. If it looks like that I’ll offer howler whatever the court costs wouls be to leave earlier. But again I can’t see how that will solve the long term problem.

You sound like a lovely person but what happens to her after she is evicted is not your problem. She has brought this situation on herself. This is your property and you need a proper, decent paying tenant in it. The lady and her son will get help from the the appropriate authorities.

Seriously? I don’t think that the OP should give her anything! This is a business arrangement.

@Skyeheather thanks I think I needed to hear that!

shw hasn’t helped herself

I tried to get a mortgage on it last year. I got the estate agent to clearly explain to her in person that it was not to sell it was to help me continue to own and rent the property.

apparwntly she told the valuer there were a million problems with the property and presented it really badly. Unsurprisingly it was found to be unmortgagable….

Why would you even do that if she's trashed the flat!? 😳