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.

Yes you are giving them notice so you can give them a date by which you want them to leave. But you may also want to show flexibility and offer that if they find a new place earlier you're happy for them to move out before. The priority is to secure their departure!

No I didn’t just turn up. I gave her two months notice of the walk through and asked her when was good for her. It’s her home.

You must expect wear and tear when you rent out a property. It sounds as though you have little clue about being a landlord, especially as you were unaware of the change in the law widely publicised. If you really want her to move out you will need to help her find alternative accommodation, and pay her removal costs etc.

If she's charging someone to live in her property then she is, by default, a professional landlord. Whether she is very good at this profession is another point entirely!

Did you also issue the ‘how to rent booklet’? If you didn’t, you can’t lawfully serve notice. If you haven’t, issue that first, get acknowledgment then serve notice. I would give them the heads up right now that you would like to sell in the new year then issue the section 21 around mid/end Nov to expire mid/end Jan. This will give them a few extra weeks to start looking.

As others have said, it might be difficult for them to find somewhere else with a pet so you may need to start possession proceedings if they don’t leave on the S21 expiry date. You’ll need to start getting hard nosed I’m afraid if that is the case. Be aware they may stop paying rent and possession/eviction proceedings could go on for some months. There used to be a landlords advice forum called landlord zone or something like that. It might be worth looking at that.

I wasn't aware of that. Could you please show which Act of Parliament brought those extra costs into force as my landlord friend didn't know about it. Thanks.

You can do this but you don’t have to. It’s not your responsibility.

This is a lot more than wear and tear. It’s pretty shocking. I would expect to have to resets and recarpet, but it’s pretty.

I could do without the ‘clueless’ comment - there’s no need to be rude to people. No one is making you reply.

I can see why you attract negativity on this thread......

I hope you re happy chucking someone out of their home, inc their DD, for no real reason at all, damage by tenants is usual, part of being a LL.

I doubt she painted the cupboards of a nice modern kitchen.

Thanks.
yes I guess I need to re think my approach.

The bill isn't law yet. You can evict her. Get a property agent to help you with the process.
She sounds grim.

I literally don’t know what you are getting at. It was a pretty, clean, newly decorated house with 2 year old carpets when she went in.

I’ve got the info I need from this thread. Thanks to those of you who have helpful advice - but I’m not up for some weird fight club. Byeeeee

She’s paying below market rate, I get the feeling. So will struggle to find anywhere she can afford or if she does find somewhere then she’ll be able to afford it but will mean a big drop in her and her boyfriend’s disposable income. I think you have to tread very carefully here to try and avoid the situation of my housemate who has strung out the process for 12 months and cost the landlord over £12k in lost revenue and legal fees. Getting on her side by doing what you can to help her is one way to go. In the past, some landlords I’ve known have paid off other people I’ve lived with (but I don’t know if that’s legal).

Air BNB it from now on, that’s what I’ll be doing from next year.
Good luck OP

Can’t you just raise the rent to market values for the area? Then it’ll. become unaffordable and will find an alternative. Or at least you’ll have the extra ££s when she does depart to make property good.

Make sure the tenant has a copy of ‘How to rent’ good luck with the process I’ve been there it’s really hard to see your property ruined.

Section 21 has to be 2 months clear. So if rent I'd due on the 1st or last of the month it would be January anyway now.

She was close to tears and clearly anxious, and if this was a work situation I’d be fine to be firm, but some how, someone’s home is so personal.

But it is your property, not hers! You know she is causing damage but are prepared to let it continue because the poor wee lamb is anxious. I'd be tearful in anxious too if I'd trashed the place and my landlord was visiting.

Grow a backbone. Start the process of getting her out.

I ask because after the new law changes in the Spring, you can't evict and then let it out to someone else. The timescales involved mean that even if you do issue a notice to quit she might still be in the house come the spring and therefore fall into the new rules.

I'd get some local expert legal help now to be honest.

Before you do anything else, make sure you've done everything right so far before opening yourself up to claims that will extend the length of time in the house.

Also of course, this means that you will be kicking her out over Christmas so be prepared for a backlash about this.

We put our rental on the market last week as we don't want to hassle of the new rules, and with the ability of tenants to never pay a penny and still be allowed to move in, even changing tenants can be a huge risk with these new laws.

WTF tenant is a lazy entitled piece of work. Assuming.she isn't a young student, she needs a kick up the backside (so to speak) and get her act together.

These type of tenants deserve to be thrown out and no council should help them
One strike and they are out. Let them fund themselves. Despicable waste of space.

No landlord should be concerned about the outcome for these grifters.

To be a professional landlord you have to have over 4 properties

We had 6 now all air b and b and in process of selling because we had hideous experience after 30 years with several tenants. Please get on landlords uk Facebook very informative and pm me if you want help

OP I think you are being a bit dramatic.

• After a 4 year tenancy you would want to repaint anyway.

• If you need new carpets due to pet damage you can take that from deposit. Also worth considering how old carpets are and whether you would have wanted to replace anyway.

• What pet is it? She should have asked but most landlords would have previously said no. If she asked now you wouldn’t have much choice. You can ask for her to get insurance to cover damage. I’m not sure if they will want to see state of property before as might be difficult if so.

• Garden junk /unkept was largely irrelevant. Ask her to sort out.

The problem is that for a lot of people who are in the position they won’t get another private rental because they don’t earn enough the only alternative is for the LHA to house them.

However they have to be taken to court and an eviction order served on them and then have to wait for the bailiffs to come round and physically evict them. Anything less is considered as making themselves intentionally homeless and the HA won’t house them.

You need to issue the section 21 notice and forget about making this person and her family anxious

Thry think nothing of you. They are going to cost you thousands and a whole lot of hard work, stress and financial issues. I can guarantee that you have another 8-12 months of destruction of your property and no rent to look forward to.
Stop feeling sorry for someone who has deliberately broken their contract and thinks by looking close to tears and acting anxious that they can pull the wool over your eyes

They are laughing at you.

Exactly this. If a tenant has been in for 4 years you would have to pay to repaint anyway (and I successfully helped a friend fight back when her landlord tried to deduct repainting after she had been in the property that long)

If she has a pet presumably you took a bigger damage deposit. And again after 4 years I would expect some carpets may need replacing

Also , why were you not inspecting annually?