Stamp duty refund and tricky tenant

[GreenPickle]

Hello,

We are selling a flat that used to be our main residence. We purchased our current home in June 2022.

We have a tricky tenant who has been advised by his case/support worker not to move out so as not to make himself homeless (he has no source of income and has mental health issues). I believe he is trying to be placed in social housing.

However, the section 21 we served him has a deadline in March but it is looking increasingly unlikely he will not have vacated by then.

Does the house sale have to have had completed by June for us to get the refund?

Could this be an exceptional circumstance to extend the deadline?

At the moment, I'm doing everything I can to try and get him out but just looking for some info on the refund!

Thank you! :)

The government website says:

The types of circumstances that may qualify as exceptional usually affect large groups of people and not only the buyer or seller in an individual transaction. These include, but are not limited to:

• being stopped from selling the property because of government imposed restrictions
• an action taken by a public authority stopping the sale

Events which normally occur when buying and selling property are not treated as exceptional circumstances. These events include, but are not limited to:

• not being able to find a buyer at the price you want
• delays in agreeing terms with the buyer
• the breakdown in a chain of transactions

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-refund-of-the-higher-rates-of-stamp-duty-land-tax

I think leaving it until the last minute to serve notice on your tenant would fall under the second type of delay - i.e. not exceptional circumstances.

Why do you describe your tenant as 'tricky'? He has every right to stay until the S21 expires and, if he wants, until you have then applied to court for a possession order.

When you say you are doing everything you can to try to get him out, what are you doing exactly?

@PencilsInSpace

He has been tricky from the beginning - not replying to viewing requests, not being at home for weeks at a time to allow viewings etc. He also now has no income and therefore is not paying us any rent.

We have served a section21 and am trying to see if there's anything else we can do to get him out - i.e, offer him discount rent.

This is all new to me and we didn't mean or want to become landlords, hence why we are now selling.

Yes it needs to be completed by June to get the refund, and no that wouldn’t be considered an exceptional circumstance I’m afraid.

All you can do is start the processes to evict him and hope he’s gone by June, or offer him some sort of financial incentive to go.

thank you for this answer!

He doesn't have to allow viewings.

You could offer discounted rent but if he's stopped paying rent anyway that's unlikely to make a difference.

Remember, if you suffer a loss you can attribute to him, add it to what he owes you.

(the sensible thing to do is offer him a financial incentive, but I know that's so unfair).

thanks!

ooo, what do you mean I can attribute to him?

Sorry, I'm new to all this and just trying to figure lots of things out!

I have asked the agent about the financial incentive but I don't think it will fly as if he leaves the property, he won't be able to get social housing!

If he isn't paying rent, what level are his arrears?
Can you section 8 instead?
If he hasn't been paying rent, he won't get social housing help as he will be deemed to have made himself voluntarily homeless....
Attribute to him - you can go after any arrears with a section 8 eviction & also some or all of the deposit. But to be honest it's very hard to get anything more than the deposit which can be hard enough anyway

He's not 2 months in arrears yet so can't use a section 8!

He owes us about two thirds of one months rent but have no idea when we will get it. We lose a lot of money renting out this flat so just trying to get rid of it asap!

Yeah, im not banking on getting anything from him. Just want him out so we can get our surcharge money back which isn't a small sum!

I thought a Section 8 was served to non payers and a Section 21 for no fault eviction.
Unfortunately, and especially given that he has been a 'tricky tenant', you have served him notice, possibly the wrong form of notice, much too late.

Cross posted. I see he has only recently stopped paying.

in hindsight, yes! but we had to wait for the buyers to confirm they were buying before we served it.

Not really @GreenPickle. You could have served him notice prior to marketing the property. A lot of buyers would not wait for the whole eviction process to drag out over 6 or 12 months anyway.

There is a high chance you will lose your buyers, I am afraid.

I could have, but i didnt annoyingly but also I'm new to this so thank you for your help!

It depends on how much you stand to lose. If it's a lot you could offer him cash to vacate. You should have served section 21 before marketing the property. Waited until you could apply for eviction then market because very few people will want to buy with tenant still Insitu unless a LL.

I definitely think your best bet would be a financial incentive then, you could also point out the fact that the arrears will go against him with social housing.
You may miss your deadline otherwise, the full process for a section 21 eviction will take approximately 6 months, as you will need to do the order for possession then the warrant for possession & then wait for a bailiff appointment & this means you will lose your stamp duty

Is there a break clause anywhere in your contract

We served a valid section 21 in November '23, all paperwork in order for the accelerated procedure, tenant didn't appeal it etc. We've just heard we will hopefully have a Bailiff appointment in April.
The only delay was a couple of months at the start as we used the legal cover on our landlord insurance which took ages to start the process.

Hopefully it will be quicker for you if you're not in London, but you've left it way too late to be selling by June I'm afraid.
We thought the whole process would take 9 months or so but it's looking more like double that.
Your best bet would be to offer them cash to vacate so they can offer it as upfront rent somewhere else. I've heard www.ast-assistance.com reccomended for helping with eviction procedures but haven't used them myself.

Pooy guy. I would proceed with the assumption that you won't be getting the refund and then if you do it's a nice bonus.

So he's less than one month in arrears and he's paid what he could? When you say he now has no income, do you mean he's lost his job - in which case he will presumably be applying for benefits and you should see your money when it comes through? Or do you mean he has lost his benefits? He won't be able to rent anywhere else, private or social, until his income is sorted out.

Honestly OP, I think you'd be wise to just suck this up. He doesn't sound 'tricky' he sounds like he's doing his best in very tricky circumstances. He's losing his home, he's lost his income and he has MH issues. It's not his fault, and neither should it be his problem, that you are new to all this. Treat him fairly, follow the S21 procedure to the letter and hope your buyers are prepared to wait. If not, at least the property will be more attractive once it's vacant.

Negotiate to pay him cash payment to vacate on a certain date.
He may take it, or may play the long game of getting the council to house him after eviction. So you need to make it worth his while.

He sounds awful. If It makes financial sense could you offer to pay 6 months rent on another properlyty for him if he moves there tomorrow?

If he has no income, he will be unlikely to get a private rental even if he pays 6 months upfront.

None of the other things are awful, regarding being there for viewings etc. He doesn’t have to do these.