Making a tenant homeless

[Plsenterausername]

I feel sick to my stomach…we’re not career LLs. We have been lucky and fortunate enough to buy 1 BTL in addition to our home. We have also been very lucky in that our tenants through the years have been wonderful - paying on time, looking after the flat. In turn we have raised the rent by just £25/pcm per tenant (3 in total) in 10 years, repairs (of course) immediately, replacing furniture immediately, getting their buy in with new sofas/mattresses - we have tried to be decent LLs.

One of our tenants hasn’t paid rent since Aug ‘24 and said he was looking for work and would make good on his arrears (he has done this in the past though the arrears were over a couple of months). He owes £5000 in rent now. I kept chasing asking for job interview updates, what his plan was, but got slow, non committal responses. Sadly, in January I had to tell him I would have to issue him with a Section 8 notice, unless he was able to leave voluntarily. I gave him 4 weeks notice. I have now found out he is going to be homeless as a result of leaving. I am beyond devastated that I have caused this to happen to someone.

We are planning on selling the property this year, so it would have just kicked the can further down the road…the room is going to remain empty…should we just let him stay till it sells? What message does that give the other tenants though? Such a mess over this ☹️

Any advice greatly appreciated x

Please don’t give this too much headspace. It’s unfortunate but you can’t support a tenant forever at your own expense.

if it helps, you sound like a lovely landlord. I’ve lived in the same flat for nearly 20 years and the Landlord has done nothing except reactive repairs. It hasn’t been updated since the mid 80s and while I’ve repainted it, the carpets are nearly 40 years old. The kitchen cabinets are so old that the plastic fittings are snapping as they are so brittle, but all they will do is send someone round to nail them together.

The Plumber has been saying for years that the boiler needs replacing (it’s the original from 1980s) but they just say they’ll replace it when it finally breaks. Same with the fuse box. It was only replaced when they failed the annual electricity test.

I know they’re not technically obliged to do anything outside the tenancy agreement, but it would be nice if they took an interest, or even gave the property a thought. They wouldn’t even put in a shower for us.

The mortgage was paid off years ago so they’re just collecting a huge amount of rent minus the agency fees for zero effort.

They’re by no means the worst landlords in the world, and the flat is nice, but they’re not the best either. You sound incredibly kind and clearly go above and beyond what you technically need to - you sound like an absolutely lovely and thoughtful landlord!

You need direct payments from uc

Has he had help with his rent and not passed to you??