Would like to ask tenant to leave but now we have a change in regulations?

[cheeseandbranston]

I have a small renter. I have only put the rent up by £50 in the past 4 years because I had (wrongly) assumed the tenant was a good one, because she rarely asks for anything, is polite and pays on time.

however, I asked to walk through the property a month ago, and it was shocking. She had painted everything herself and down a very bad job, the garden was full of junk as was the garage, she has a pet that we never discussed and the carpets are all ripped up by the pet.

i didn’t say much at the time because my visit obviously made her super anxious - she covered all the floors with sheets and claimed she had just carpeted them when it was obvious that it was because she didn’t want me to see them. And she tried to stop me going outside claiming the rain had made the garden and garage dangerous.

I could see she was close to tears as I left.

i felt sorry for and after texted saying that I hoped the walk through didn’t make her too anxious and I wouldn’t need to do it again for another year - I didn’t want her to be frightened.

BUT, it has made me realise, I don’t want to rent my house any more. I took a couple of months to think about it, and the damage will be costly to put right, and I don’t want my own property at risk like this.

I had planned to tell her in January because I don’t want to make Christmas difficult for them. (Her boyfriend and teenager live there too)

but yesterday I saw renting rights are changing and you can no longer simply give a tenant notice?

does anyone have any advice please? Not just opinion, but actual knowledge of what I need to do?

thank you.

@Janus Agreed. Op needs to act quickly.

Can you give them time to rectify things like rubbish and junk? If they don’t then you will be able to say that you were reasonable.

seek professional legal advice as you don’t want to follow info from social media and get it wrong as whole process starts again.

they can’t not pay rent if you evict as if it got to court then it wouldn’t help them or allow them access to council housing if in rent arrears.

Even if she's damaged your property? And it costs you thousands to evict and make good.

That poor, poor family. Three people and their pet being made homeless because of being messy, you should be ashamed of yourself OP.

I’m not naive. I have personal experience. I know they don’t have to leave.
I also know from experience that LL insurance is vital.
It saved us many £££ with a non paying tenant.

Really? It's OPs property. She is not obligated to house someone out of good will if they are treating her property as a junk yard. Sure, give them a chance to put things right so they get their deposit back, but the tenants have had a good run for a long time. And who says they'll be homeless? It's so hyperbolic. I doubt OP's house is the last available one in the UK.

If you are wanting to sell, you coukd ask the tenant if they are interested to buy it. Just a thought.

Has she damaged the property though? It sounds as though she's only damaged the carpets which she may have been intending to replace when she leaves.

People are allowed to live in rental properties how they see fit - that includes hoarding and messy and in ways you or I may not want to live. The landlord cannot dictate that.

They can object to botched DIY

You are wrong! If they’d maybe spilt some wine on the carpet the tenant would still be responsible for getting it professionally cleaned or lose the cost for the clean from their deposit. To have a pet that wasn’t discussed or agreed to that then ruins the carpet the tenant is responsible for paying for new carpet or losing their deposit, I imagine the deposit wouldn’t cover the cost of new carpets or even close. The government rental deposit scheme clearly states the property has to be returned in the same condition. You can’t even put a nail in the wall to hang a picture from without permission! If you decide to paint the walls you need permission and if you don’t you’d be expected to paint it back to the same colour.

I’m a renter at present so sympathise with both parties. But I keep a great house and am great at repairs / redecorating !
She should have checked with you or her contract to see if she could paint, and needs to know unskilled work could cost £ in correction / replacing to your standard.
If she’s broken clauses in the contract and keeps mess in the garden you can serve her notice. Or just sell the property.
It’s not a charity. It’s your property. But you need to make sure she has broken terms of contact before any action taken.
Good luck for the best outcome for all !

Poor painting isn’t damage. The carpet should really be replaced after a long term tenant anyway, but you could recover this in the deposit.
It won’t cost thousands to evict if you don’t evict them. They are paying to live there . It’s their home.

Of course poor painting is damage! It’s changed what’s there for the worse. Possibly not cleaned up properly and it will almost certainly needs rectifying. If you need to go above standard painting to put it back to how you found it, it’s damage.

It can't be considered damage until she's vacated the property and left it like that. And after 4 years a LL could only claim the difference between a normal repainting and the extra it takes.

I haven't read all the other comments, but I could have written your post. What I did was sell it....to the tenants....as is. It worked out really well for everyone. I'd do as you say and sell. I didn't know about any rules change but I live abroad now and they were crucifying me in tax for a tiny property agter Brexit. Absolutely not worth the trouble.

Ignore all these bitter renters. I rented out mine and it was pristine and modern inside. They painted it every garish colour imaginable and carpeted over the new laminate floors. The garden looks like a scene from ww2.

Op I'm a landlord on a small scale. I use a letting agent to find tenants some have been great others less so. I actually found Shelter were able to help me with problem tenants, much more so than the letting agents that found them. You can apply for advice online from them.

As a landlord repainting for damage does take longer than repainting for new tenants. I had a tenant paint a room grey badly without permission. First I knew about it was letting agent informing me of a not to standard paint job that would need to be rectified before could be relet. Took 4 coats to get rid of the grey. Also deposit holders won't cover full cost of damage, if tenants damage items that were not brand new at start of tenancy. As can't cover new for old.

I let my house via a property agent and they were absolutely rubbish. Supposedly did inspections but 'didn't seem to notice' that the tenant had ripped out the expensive shower, brought 2 huge dogs in (no pets) who had ripped up all the laminate flooring, hadn't cleaned EVER - there was gum in the carpets and vomit on the walls and the fridge was black with dirt when I finally got the house back. So property agents aren't always the silver bullet.

@purplehair1 The agents I used had a professional company come in. Photos and details of everything. Who on earth has an agent that doesn’t do this? Very odd.

Its a difficult one- you need a legal advice asap. If you don’t get your property back now, you are putting yourself in an extremely vulnerable position where you will be ridden with anxiety, not your tenant. Your tenant will have disproportionate leverage over you with new renters right bill - she literally could stop paying you , live rent free for up to 12 months and sue you for harassment if you approach or try to fix things. You would deeply regret that you didn’t use this shrinking window of opportunity before the renters right bill will come into force to get your property back. It’s your last chance.

You need to be walking through more than you have been not saying i wont be here for another year. You're not setting any boundaries just accepting her treatment of your home. You need to give her a list and say you'll be back in a couple of months

A year wow my house inspections are every 4 months

I am another one who did inspections every 6 months - usually informal, and if I ever had to pop round for maintenance or similar, I would ask for a little look around.
While the tenant may well be stressed by all this, it is because she knows she is in the wrong. She has not looked after a property and has wilfully broken terms of a contract. Time to ask her to move.
If the tenant really valued that home and the (lower) rent you charge, she should put effort in to stick to the contract and keep landlord on side.

This is why I gave up being a landlord 5 years ago - the money I have now taken out the property and invested elsewhere makes more profit and for significantly less stress and worry.

I think they asked because keeping empty property can be very expensive now, double council tax etc. and ex-BTL properties can sometimes be hard to sell, especially if very damaged by tenants.