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.

@BoringBarbie The LL or managing agent inspection should be annual. Tenants also report issues to LL. They should not redecorate without permission. The op didn’t check the property often enough and was too trusting. It’s what can happen when LL doesn’t take, or pay for, advice. Was there a mortgage? She could have sold and renter get no cheap house of course! Cheap rent should not equdl abuse and op should rectify issues and sell - now.

This is far off the original topic and absurd I can’t face engaging with it any more, but it is just SO SO far removed from any realistic understanding of people’s lives.

I work with families facing homelessness and dealing with awful housing situations - very often the result of the action/inaction of landlords and the idea that they’re there because they’ve been squandering their cash on a frivolous lifestyle is absolutely laughable. You don’t have a clue.

You’re ignoring my other less extreme examples. If your parents live somewhere very rural with few job opportunities in the fields you are interested in then living at home is not an option. If your parents ask you to consider moving out so that your younger sibling can have a room each instead of sharing then living at home well into adulthood is not an option. If your parents are happy for you to live at home but you have to share a bunk bed with your younger sibling then you’re unlikely to consider it a reasonable choice until age 25+ while you save for a deposit.

@Camelhasthehump
And what about people who did own a house with their spouse who then divorce and find they cannot buy a suitable house for them and their kids with their share of the equity in the area they now must live in to facilitate continued continued co-parenting?

This isn't very helpful I'm afraid, but we found ourselves in a similar situation some years ago, our tenant was a friend of a friend and we didn't have a legal contract (she was a friend, we were fools) so it cost a lot of money to get them out.
The people giving you a hard time on here are just enjoying being nasty as its obvious you were trying to be kind to your tenant and she has turned vicious and nasty, its very distressing. Prepare yourself for losing the battle and when she does eventually go, expect some considerable expense and even some damage to your house.

Give her notice . Say you need to move in as you have had a change in financial circumstances and tell her not to worry about the house it’s not to do with any mess . Offer the deposit back otherwise she may not move
she’s not your child and you aren’t responsible for her mental health or for her . It’s your house , she can find somewhere with her boyfriend. She’s taken the piss with it because you have been complacent to be honest .

My aunty has finally sold her rental property with a sitting tenant! This tenant has made her life a nightmare. She initially gave her notice to leave 3 years ago but then the tenant made a complaint which led to her going to court - I think it was something to do with damage to her personal property due to damp (but the tenant would never let tradesmen in to do work). Anyway my aunty settled out of court for £25k even though she hadn't done anything wrong

Sorry, but why are you not maintaining your own property? The terrible issues you have listed sound partly your fault. Why are you not painting or decorating it properly, why aren't you replacing carpets etc? Happy to take the money, not happy to do the work 😒

Your tenant has always paid on time, and has been reasonable to deal with up to now. Four years is a long time in the life of a cheap carpet. Rubbish can be cleared by her at the end of the tenancy, or you could deduct the cost of that from her deposit when she's left.

The easiest thing to do is to let the tenancy run on.
Don't think that letting a friend use the property is trouble free. My sister in law wrecked my flat, when I let her rent it for just the outgoings. And I became the class enemy. Just saying.

I’ve had a similar situation. The couple completely destroyed my house.

Then they refused to leave. The council actually advised them not to leave because they would be making themselves homeless. They then stopped paying the rent.

Absolute nightmare it was. All the legal stuff is on the side of the tenants.

Let’s be real here. You are being too soft. She had wrecked your house. Tell her you want her out asap. She clearly has zero respect for you or your property.

You really need to keep on top of regular landlord checks for future tenants.
Our landlords' property insurer now insists on three-monthly physical checks.....otherwise insurance becomes invalid.

You are allowed to ask her to leave if you want to sell the property or if there are rent arrears, just not to re-let to a new tenent at a higher rent which is what unscrupulous landlords have been doing.

That sounds like the plot of Caledonian Road

Serving a section 21 here means that she can go to the council and say she's been made homeless. Which will benefit her.

We had a tenant like this ordered a big skip told her to use it.. Also gave her contact details of two big guys to clear the garden out. Found them on local FB page. They were great.

Some people's lives become chaotic.

Once she's gone get the carpets ripped out, house treatment for fleas, bed bugs etc find someone to decorate properly from top to bottom.

Then either hand to an agency or sell.

If it's not been said before, Shelter has a very clear information site, which outlines the rights and responsibilities of both tenants and landlords... which would help you do a checklist of anything you may have missed that could backfire on you.. the boiler checks eg.

But I agree get proper legal advice...think of it as insurance because if you don't do this correctly, it could cost you in the long run.

It sounds like you'd like to give her longer notice if you could particularly with Christmas in the way and legals could advise you of how this would impact any recent legal changes.

But if you did serve notice about the build up of clutter that irked you and they put them right - would you want to carry on? I guess the risk is that they may not do this to standard.

I know she hasn’t been looking after the property how you’d like it, but non of the issues are unfixable for the tenant/ you.

If she’s paying the rent on time, I’d ask her to repair the things she needs to do. She’s not asking you to replace the carpet - so it’s not a cost to you. Tell her that you really need her to fix x,y and z within three months. That gives her till after Xmas.

I couldn’t, morally, put a tenant on the street over this. She’s paying on time. If you ask her to leave, she may struggle to find somewhere new.

In new law you have to give 4 months notice i believe from what I read.
If the contract is up and your now just on a rolling contract you can still ask to leave. New law is you can't ask them to leave in the first 12 months because you want to sell or move back in there yourself.

you were trying to be kind to your tenant and she has turned vicious and nasty

The tenant has turned nasty? I don't think it sounds like that. She has not been upfront about pets, damage, painting, garden etc but also the LL has not issued clear rules or checked up on the condition of her property often enough. The tenant was upset because she was being found out.
As others have suggested one approach going forward would be to give the tenant a list of improvements she needs to make by a certain date, inspect again and raise the rent to cover expenses. She's paying on time after all.

This why I'd never consider being a LL. Small LL's are being driven out as it's too much hassle, with some tenants taking the absolute mick. It will result in rental all being either social (which might be a good idea) or large professional LL who will have the legal resources to deal with difficult tenants, but may not be an understanding LL to good tenants. I can only see rents rising because of this.

I wouldn’t throw out a tenant who regularly paid the rent. The painting thing is neither here nor there - ask her to make good or pay to have it repainted yourself as part of maintenance. It won’t cost loads.

Do have a word with her about the garden and ask her to clear it asap.

With the pet, I’d tell her that it’s okay to have a small pet like a cat or dog but that she should have sought consent. I’d withhold the deposit for sorting the carpets when she leaves.

I’d also get an agent to manage it if I were you as you find it uncomfortable (as would I). I do hope loads of people don’t stop renting properties because I think this is needed - there are very few rentals around these days. I was always grateful in the past for being able to find somewhere to rent - I don’t get this universal hatred of landlords.

It has to be said that tenants can be much, MUCH worse than this. Everything OP has said is fairly easily fixable - carpets and paintwork would probably need renewing at the end of tenancy anyway.

Tenant sounds a bit impulsive/chaotic but otherwise decent if rent is paid, they have been polite/undemanding and seemed anxious about OP visiting (which suggests they are well aware things are a bit of mess which is certainly better than a doesn’t-give-a-fuck attitude).

If this has all been a wake up call to OP and she realises she’s not cut out for this landlording business and wants to sell, fair enough.

But it doesn’t sound like the situation is completely unsalvageable to me.

She doesn’t have to help her find alternative accommodation or pay her removal costs.
None of us know if it’s fair wear and tear , we haven’t seen it.
OP is perfectly entitled to decide she doesn’t want to rent HER house out anymore.
She is obviously going to do it legally.

@cheeseandbranstonhave you got LL insurance ? They will help with legal fees if it comes to it.

Which is likely going to take months and months, costing OP thousands of pounds. You’re naive if you think that serving a section 21 these days guarantees the tenant moving out after two months.

We’ve rented many student accommodation houses. Believe me if you even have posters on a wall using blue tac you get charged how much it costs to repaint the wall (not my daughter but a flatmate). If you ruin carpets, paint things without asking, leave rubbish just piling up in the garden you ARE a bad tenant. Wanting to get rid of a bad tenant is not unreasonable, the OP is not a charity. So yes the tenant has to then find a new property and that’s her fault not the OP. Unbelievable.