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.

Oh and ignore the rabid anti-landlord posts on this thread. You’ve given a family a home for under market costs for 3 years. That’s not greed.

Sometimes damp is not easily fixed. Some older houses tend to damp particularly if tenants don’t open windows or if they dry washing inside etc etc.

'@YellowAsteroid · Today 09:34
Oh and ignore the rabid anti-landlord posts on this thread. You’ve given a family a home for under market costs for 3 years. That’s not greed.'

I would bet that they have not increased the rent not out the kindness of their heart but because the property is poorly maintain and they did not want to do the works.

Renting a house that does meet current safety standards and has damp is pure negligence and greed and is against the law.

The Electric certificate is every 5 years! Just get the inspections done. A managing agent would have done this for you. As you’ve saved their fees, you have issues now.

I cannot see why an agent would take on management of a property that’s going to be sold. However some estate agents do both. Maybe try and get them to manage the property from now, including serving the eviction, and agree that they market it in the future. I’m still bemused as to why this wasn’t done properly as POA means you must act in the best interests of the donor. A very low rent and not managing the property don’t seem to be doing this. Did your in laws manage it before your wife? Seems a bit of a mess.

It may not be possible for them, but have you asked the tenant if they would be interested in buying the property?

Hi everyone, thank you for the advice and support, really helpful.
By the time my wife took over, she ensured the gas safety certificates were up to date so essentially for the last 3 years they have been. Before then, whilst my FIL was deteriorating some years were left out (not cumulatively), we obviously now know there was a lot of masking happening on his part.

The damp issue in the house has been addressed and repairs have been completed costing so far with general renovations for the house around £10k. The council had been involved and were satisfied upon inspection with the works and closed the case. (They also had warned the tenants regarding the necessary actions they must take to avoid damp on their part as this was a key factor). We then hoped to ask the tenants to leave so we could sell on. This is where we ran into problems as they refused. They also have no interest in buying as we did give them the right of first refusal.

We will be serving section21 pronto and have now accepted this is not a clear cut case and may take longer than we anticipated. Thank you all for your words of advice, it certainly helps during this stressful period!

You just asked them nicely to leave without serving notice properly? Why would you do that?

@PeriIsKickingMyButt To appeal to their kind instincts given the owners are very old and ill. Unlikely to work but sometimes, if you have a good longstanding relationship and the tenant was thinking of moving, this might work for all. After spending money, the rent could have been increased. I would have served s21 then. Op just had to get on with it now.

If in doubt use this, its what the judges are now using.

nearlylegal.co.uk/section-21-flowchart/

Offer them GBP 5k as compensation, this is the simplest route here.

Surely the best outcome all around would be to sell it to a proper (professional organisation) landlord company with sitting tenant in-situ. That way you don't have to be concerned with the courts and the tenant won't necessarily be evicted (or if hr is then it's not you dealing with it)

Obviously you'd sell for a lot less than you would get if you could actually evict the tenant, deal with all the issues and sell with vacant possession on the open market. However the stress and expense saved would be worth it!

@OpizpuHeuvHiyo How do you do that? If such a company even wants it. Thats doubtful. Open market and no tenant is best or it’s a fire sale. POA means you make the most money for the donor. Not have a fire sale. The op must maximise the value, as attorney, it’s vital or they are not acting in the best interests of the donor.

S21, evict, sell.