Tenant Issues!

[SocialButterfly101]

Hi

I just wondered if anyone could provide advise on the next step. Apologies for the long read.

I currently rent out my house. Following a divorce in 2022 I didn't want to live in the house any longer so I moved out of the area and put my house on rent. My current tenants moved in June 2022. On the whole I've had a good relationship with them. In March 2023 the female tenant contacted me asking if the tenancy will be fixed again and requested the rent not to increase. However this was the time mortgage rates rocketed and my fixed term was ending in December 2023 and therefore I decided to sell as I wasn't ever going to move back in with the bad memories etc. I met with the tenants in April 2023 and broke the news to them that I was selling but I was absolutely flexible re what they wanted to do I.e. if they wanted to move out they could and viewings etc would work around them. They advised they were looking to buy the house and requested I wait until they got some mortgage advise. I absolutely agreed and as they were already living there they were my first choice in selling too. Fast forward about a 6 weeks- I'd been chasing and chasing and still hadn't heard back. At around June 2023 I said I was going to have to put the house up because for 8weeks they hadn't confirmed their position so I paid an online agent and put it on sale.

It wasn't of course the best time to sell given the mortgage rates etc. The tenants were clear they loved the house and it appeared they didn't want it to sell- they'd even taken the for sale board down which of course I challenged. I have been open and honest with them throughout that my mortgage rate is ending and on top of that being single now my self assessment tax bill had been 6k. So alongside the increase in mortgage and the tax I simply couldn't afford to keep it and if I had any other choice I would let them stay.

In Nov 2023 the estate agent said sometimes tenanted properties are difficult to sell and suggested I ask them to leave and see if I can sell it empty. I of course did not want to do that with Christmas and New Years coming up so I waited and served the Section 21 early January again apologising and explaining the situation from my side. They again said maybe by March they might by it.

Throughout January and February they continued asking for more time sighting various reasons which I politely declined again explaining my current situation and why I needed to sell. A week before the eviction notice was going to expire the lady messaged me stating she would give me 2k for my tax bill if i let them stay and I again politley declined as my priority was to sell. 2 days before the Section 21 was expiring the lady WhatsApped me and said I might get a call from housing for a reference which I said was absolutely fine. I asked if they were moving in 2 days and she replied yes. Then the next day (day before expiration of section 21) they said their house had fell through and they weren't moving. I asked via the letting agency what their plans were and they said they didn't know. On that day I gave them 24hrs notice to inspect the property and when I went round the next day nothing was packed and it was clear they had no intention of moving.

Since this date they have been very evasive with the agents not responding to emails or calls so unfortunately I've now had to apply to court for the eviction process to commence.

On April 2nd i informed her the rent was going up from 1500 to 1800 and they were of course free to vacate. The letting agency gave them formal rent increase notice on the 20th April- so they've known for about 6 weeks that it's going up. Rent is due next week and they have emailed the agents yesterday stating they can only pay 1600 as they cannot afford more. My view is they're renting 4 bedroom house and if they aren't able to afford it then they should move and downsize. For 2 years I hadn't increased the rent out of respect and actually I was selling so they were already being inconvenienced so I didn't want to be more difficult.

To give you an understanding my mortgage payments pre Dec were 1100- they're now 1985. You're probably wondering why I'd gone for the house as mortgage rates were going to increase but when the house was bought I was with ny ex husband so it would have been manageable.

Anyway if they refuse to pay the increase- would I just put a separate application to county court/Small claims court? for the rent they owe- however much will be accrued whilst the eviction process is taking place?

It seems that might want a council house but there's the man, the woman and 2 adult sons who are working in that home and 2 other under 18 children. There's other families who are actually destitute that need council support but these guys are all working. Also to add before they moved into mine they'd actually sold their house so my place was a stop gap until they brought something else so in conversation before all this had happened the woman had said that have a deposit to put as a down payment on their next house.

As you can tell I'm extremely frustrated so any other advice will be welcomed.

Thanks

You need to stop engaging with them and follow the process to obtain possession through the Court.

Why have you not gone to court to repossess the property?

I think you sound a bit too understanding. Get mad (in your own company, not in their proximity!). They're being very unreasonable in how they're treating you and it's not ok. They're messing you about.

No more allowances, time to get them out and get yourself on the straight and narrow.

Thanks everyone.
I had to unfortunately fork out £1000 two weeks ago and have applied for a possession order. It's about a 4 month process from start until the bailiffs come out. I think I've been respectful and tried to help as much as I can but I feel they have really taken advantage- the latest being they could only 'afford' 1600 rent and no more. Well I couldn't afford the 1k I had to pay the solicitors and courts but I had no choice.

Anyway maybe this was a rant it anything which has helped. Thank you for reading and your replies! 🫶🏽❤️

They haven't taken advantage. This is a business relationship, and you have to abide by the law and do things properly.

You need to chat to Mark Dawson’s team.
Check out this link.
They will take away all the stress. I’ve heard their charges are reasonable too.
https://www.ast-assistance.com/

To be fair to them they have offered to pay a reasonable increase of 7%. I don't think the 20% increase you asked for was fair at all. Your financial situation is, after all, your problem. Not the Tennants.
Your agent is right though that if you have decided to sell you need to get the property empty and tidied to make it easier to sell at the price you want.
I would accept the offer they made at 1600 and continue with the possession order you have started. It's not very moral to try to go through small claims for a 20% increase for the last handful of months when they are having to move out due to your financial situation. I assume you will have some equity coming back to you once it's sold which should straighten out your finances ?

If you put the rent up doesn’t that mean that they need a change to their contract?
If you have a letting agency all communication should be through them.

I'm not very knowledgeable about this so am genuinely interested. If they can't afford it, wouldn't a reasonable reaction be to move out? I can't believe people can just refuse to pay their landlord?!

Also, whilst 20% increase is significant, I'm not sure it's up to the tenants to decide to pay a reduced rate? It's OPs home, she owns it, she decides? Especially as they're already overstaying. I can't imagine living in a property that the landlord (or is a single woman who's only renting out due to a divorce) needs to sell for financial reasons, it's totally immoral surely. Different with a mass landlord perhaps.

These tenants seem like CFs to me. 4 working adults should be able to afford that rent, and if they can't, they should look to move immediately. Making OPs life harder and more expensive isn't the answer in my uneducated opinion.

Why is that OPs problem that they can't afford the going rate?

The OP also understands this is her financiail situation at fault and not the Tennants.

"So alongside the increase in mortgage and the tax I simply couldn't afford to keep it and if I had any other choice I would let them stay."

I would also point out to you that this is the Tennants home at present, not the owners. The owner made a decision to turn the property into a business , but unfortunately, financially it has become non viable for her. I do sympathise with that - but how would it be right for the Tennant to pay for the business failing ?

I agree with PPs that you now need to just focus on the court ordered eviction and no longer engage with the tenants.

However, increasing the rent after you have already served a S21 notice is a lousy thing to do. To then attempt to reclaim for unpaid increased rent at small claims, is even more unreasonable. I’m surprised you morally think this is ok.

Have you checked it’s legal to do this? I’d assume (as a lay person) there would be caveats as you’ve already served a S21.

You just need to follow the formal process to evict them.

I think you made quite a few mistakes along the way tbh.

For example, once you decided to sell the house you should have given your tenants notice and made sure they had left the property before putting it on the market. They shouldn't have been expected to tolerate the property being on the market while they were still living there and paying their normal rent (at least not without prior agreement). That wasn't fair on them and now they aren't being fair to you. It seems the relationship has broken down, sadly.

You also shouldn't have increased the rent after serving a S21 notice. At this point I would have been trying not to do anything else to upset them.

Anyway if they refuse to pay the increase- would I just put a separate application to county court/Small claims court? for the rent they owe- however much will be accrued whilst the eviction process is taking place?

Are you for real? You've tried to increase the rent during the s21 notice period and you're asking if you should make a separate application for the shortfall while they are waiting to be evicted? No. No you shouldn't do that. You should follow the legal process to evict them and continue to take the same amount of rent they have been paying until that happens. FGS.

The moral of this story is: do the sums. Don't rent a property out if you don't know what you are doing. Use an agent and don't engage with tenants. Basically - don't let a house you might need to sell. Sell and take the money!

Absolutely - the house just should have been sold back in 2022.

@SocialButterfly101
Understandable that you need to sell which you should have done originally.

I also think you have tried to be reasonable but this does come with a whole heap of assumptions and judgment about them.
It's not your business if they get a council property or whether they can afford the rent increase. It was a shitty thing to do and I agree with others that your financial issues are not their business. They just want a home to live it and feel secure.

Whether you care or not, that's a huge amount of money to have to find each month just to house yourself and pay off someone else's mortgage. I don't blame them for pushing back on that and in their position I'd be in less of a rush to find somewhere else now. I think you've shot yourself in the foot with that move.

You rent out your house to them and then within a year pull the rug from under them because of your own poor financial decisions.

Use the legal process, whether it's fair is another discussion, but stop dicking about.

A year is fair if that's the agreement and both parties agreed. However the world and his wife were aware of mortgage increases coming so asking the tenants to pay is ridiculous.

yup - @SocialButterfly101 must have been aware their fixed fixed rate was coming to an end and their mortgage rate would increase significantly from December 23.

So should not have renewed the tenancy after the initial year but rather been focussed on getting the house empty from Summer of 2023 so they could concentrate on selling it.

That's a bit disingenuous though. It's neither their "homes". The OP owns it, regardless of who lives there. So it's her right to charge and it's her right to evict. The tenant has no right to stay beyond when the contract states.

I'm failing to see how it's OPs problem simply because she can't afford to maintain it at their rate, yet it's not the tenants fault as they can't afford the market rate? (Which is questionable if they used to be home owners). Isn't that double standards?

Ultimately, the tenants will be forced into temporary accommodation soon, if not forced to privately rent. I feel for you OP, crazy system we have that tenants can just stay beyond a contract.

No, it’s the tenant’s home while they legally occupy it and yes, they do have the right to stay beyond the contract date. That’s how housing law works.

The tenant has no right to stay beyond when the contract states.

Not true. The tenant can legally occupy the property, their home, until either they or the Court end the tenancy.

It's quite possible that rent controls are coming soon - and if it does it should stop over leveraged "landlords" behaving like this. Which I agree with.
Rachel Reeves pretty much said yesterday - she wants local councils to have the power to impose rent caps. I have never voted Labour personally but can see this getting them a lot of support.

That's a recipe for many owners getting out of renting housing. It's simply not a viable business proposition for a casual owner. The reason rents are high is supply and demand. There's limited supply. It's hard to see why anyone other than a rental company would now rent out a property. Unless Labour can magic up social housing (they won't) the people renting will continue to find it's difficult.

Yes but when contract signed to give exclusive possession means exclusive possession to the tenant, until either the court issues possession back or tenant has willingly vacated.
I do feel for LL's who need their property back from bad tenants, but some good tenants just get settled with schools and social connection only to be up-rooted a few months later thinking their LL would be renting out for at least a few years. The private sector isn't fit for purpose, no social housing development has led to more demand than supply, no wonder with the rise in section 21 and tenants holding out for as long as they can, or council assistance, tenants and LL's are at the mercy of bad governments policies, where a LL faces a long eviction process costing them time and money, and a tenant who wants to move to avoid a CCJ/ court costs, but can't as told they'd get no help with housing if they do.

It's rarely a few months later. There can be a number of issues where a decent landlord sells. Many are legitimate and not unreasonable. If a contract is signed for a year, that used to mean a year. Both sides should agree about longer but now tenants decide to stay. That's why you have to be a mug renting out if you really will need to sell. There should be housing for people who move around and don't want longer tenancies but it's very dangerous for landlords to offer short tenancies now. Suddenly it's a treasured home which was never the intention. All renters will lose out under Labour.