Advice regarding tenants please

[Simba56789]

Hello,

I’m posting for some advice please regarding a rather sticky situation.
My wife has for the last 3 years become a landlord acting on behalf of her father (through POA) due to her father’s dementia. My MIL is also not in great health and is keen for us to sell this property and relocate nearer to us

The property is a 3 bed house in a desirable area. The issue is that at the time of my wife taking over the care of this property, a lot of mandatory checks had not been done in time and thus in the period of 10 years, we only have 6 up to date gas safety certificates. The property has also had issues with damp which the tenant had complained to the council about and we have subsequently had works to sort out.

The contract was initially signed via an EA 10 years ago and then again 6 years ago and since then has been a rolling contract.

My wife has spoken to the tenants and explained our urgency to sell this property due to failing health of both her parents.

Unfortunately the tenant has no regard for this and as such has deliberately we feel become aggressive and combative in order to not address leaving the property. The main factor is likely that the market value for rent in similar properties at present is £1200 and he is paying £775 month for his family.

I would really like some advice regarding what our next best option would be? We have spoken to solicitors who have stated that S21 would not be possible since we don’t have a full record of the GSCs over the years.

One option could be to increase the rent and hope to “price him out”- by this I mean that he should be paying the market value. But then he may be happy to pay higher rent and we still are stuck with no way of evicting him?

Would putting the house on auction mean we should anticipate a big financial hit? Of course with my in laws health deterioration time is of the essence to us.

Thank you so much for reading this far! I’m just trying my best to get my poor wife out of this situation that she never signed up for and that my lovely in laws had not anticipated.

Solicitors are wrong - as long as you get the paperwork in place now you can do a s21. It’s better to have all the gas safety certs but as long as you have a current one you’re ok (and EPC, protected deposit etc). Join the national landlords association and use their advice line.

you can’t increase the rent if they don’t agree - all you can do is give them notice of a change of contract terms…then you are back to where you are now!…

@DorotheaDiamond
Hi, thanks so much for your reply. Sorry I should’ve clarified, our understanding from the solicitor was that although we can file a S21 it will be significantly harder to evict and a lot longer for the process to be over with which is not ideal for timings but perhaps that might be our only option. I will certainly join NLA as you suggested.

It will still be quicker with a s21 than any other route. I was told that as long as I sent my (thankfully finally evicted) tenant all the correct paperwork before the s21 that was all that was needed. NRLA ver helpful - also huge support from Strikes bailiffs (found through nrla) - brilliant and so reassuring!

Sorry I should have mentioned also it is an assured short hold tenancy.

@DorotheaDiamond
thank you, I’m glad you were able to find a solution with their help, such a stressful time when in the midst of it all!

I think assured short hold tenancies might have a limit on how much you can increase the rent within certain timescales?

Ignore last comment. I have misunderstood the terminology

Find a different solicitor and start the S21 process - you don't have any other options

It sounds like the tenant will not move out at the end of the S21 anyway so you need to get the ball rolling on it as court dates still have some delays. They will stay till the bitter end most likely and you will have to get bailiffs in to evict them so the council will help them with housing.

Yeah, have to agree with a PP, if a fuss is being kicked up now I think you need to come to terms with the fact that court action will be needed. I would also post on Landlordzone.

Please ensure you engage legal advice as this area requires legal knowledge of housing law.

you must start the process to end the tenancy and evict the tenant to enable you to sell the property if that’s your choice.
s21 is standard, do not do it without legal knowledge as you may get it wrong and have to reserve paperwork.

Use an eviction specialist.

Another case of amateur landlord doesn’t know what they are doing, and good tenant losses their home.
I’m not blaming the OP in this case, as they are not the LL.

Of course you can serve s21 notice once you've got the paperwork up to date - otherwise you'd never be able to serve notice on a tenant that doesn't breach the tenancy agreement and obviously that's not a legally tenable position. Hiking up the rent is shady, just get proper legal advice and serve notice to get the process started. They won't be out within 6 months, more likely a year so be prepared.

Thank you for your replies, I agree I do think S21 is our only option at this point. Just hoping the missing gas safety certificates does not make this an impossible task. We are in the process of getting further legal advice, thank you again.

Make sure everything is in order now and serve the section 21. Or ask local estate agents if they know of other landlords who would buy the property with a sitting tenant.

Greed.

My wife has for the last 3 years become a landlord acting on behalf of her father (through POA) due to her father’s dementia. My MIL is also not in great health and is keen for us to sell this property and relocate nearer to us

Not fair.

@Simba56789 You need to use the S21 before Labour change the rules. I assume you have an electrical and gas safety cert now. You don’t need 10 years worth. So get a specialist solicitor and start the ball rolling.

Don’t try and sell with tenant in situ and don’t sell at auction. Where is mil living now? Has she two houses? If so, which is her main residence? CGT might be payable,

As it’s your mil’s asset, and your wife has POA, why didn’t you maintain it properly? You haven’t maximized income either and rent reviews are allowed and you should have used an agent. DIY LL isn’t easy. Now, get a solicitor and get a s21 issued. I agree with others, this won’t be quick though as tenant won’t find a house for this rent.

If the property hasn’t had money spent on it in recent years, it’s unlikely to be worth the full market rent. So don’t beat yourself up too much about how much money you’re notionally losing out on each month.

Of course it would rent for more once you’ve removed the tenants and redecorated / renovated, but that might cost £5k-£15k+.

There are some areas where tenants are so short of options that even shabby properties command close to market rent. Parts of inner London during high season, for example. But that’s far from the case everywhere.

Find a local estate agent to do the S21 for you so that you know it’s done properly.

6k fine for not having a valid gas safety certificate.. And without one you can't issue a section 21..you need to take the tenant to court... Cost is about £700..and tell a judge why your tenant hasn't had a safe environment to live in...

No, that's not true. A LL can only increase rent once in a 12 month period but can increase up to market rent in their area. OP you need to give a month's notice to increase rent significantly. In meanwhile issue How to Rent paperwork to tenants along with EPC rating you can print off from a government site. This must currently be EPC E or above. Make sure you have the latest gas safety certificate and an electric certificate must be within 10 years. I'd just get a new one. Then if you want to sell apply for a section 21 asap after all paperwork up to date and issued to the tenant.

Could you transfer management to an agent who will advise on market rent and will organise gas safety checks etc. Thst would also take the emotion out of it. I never expect my tenants to take any notice of my situation or needs - it’s an entirely business transaction even though I rent out what was my family home. Doing it through agents helps. It’s business for them and they know how to do it.

What sort of lease do you have? If it’s a standard short hold tenancy past the initial 6-12 months, then you can give notice (2 months?) But take advice from a specialist.

I think you are going to have to give notice to quit. But it may take some time. I think you’ll have to resign yourself to that.

Good luck! Property can be a great investment but it is not very liquid.

I am sorry but you have been the landlords for 3 years and you have done nothing about the gas and electricity certificates or making sure the property damp issue is corrected? Why?

Even as a novice landlord you should have known that those are basic legal requirements that you should have tackled 3 years ago.

Was their deposit also protected correctly in a deposit scheme?

I can actually understand why the tenants are rightly annoyed because on the other side your story reads:

'landlords could not be bothered to make sure the property was safe and to provide the right certificates for years, we even had to involve the local authority because they expected our family to leave in a damp house and repeatedly failed to maintain the property. Now that they want to sell they just want us to go quietly and lose our home of 10 years'.

Good luck with arguing that in front of a judge...

You should be negotiating with your tenants and finding a solution that suit you both because the likely outcome is you ending up with tenants that are refusing to leave until evicted and with 1000s in fines for not providing the right certificate, failing to conduct repairs and not protecting the deposit in the appropriate scheme.