Exchanged on a property and the Tenant won't leave.....
Discussion
tomsugden said:
I had the exact above situation happen to me. Found an investor who wanted to buy my flat with tenant in situ. Then found out some rental payments had been late, so asked me to get rid of the tenant, and we would exchange/complete with vacant possession. I issued a section 21, and the tenant said I would have to evict her, and also stopped paying rent, despite being in receipt of housing benefit. You can't start court proceedings until 2 months have passed after the section 21 being issued. You're then looking at probably another 3 months until the court order comes through, and if the tenant ignores that, it can take a further month to get bailiffs to enforce the course order, and evict.
You're in for a rough and expensive ride. Unfortunately you can't just change the locks, or cut off utilities as you will then lose all your rights, and end up in deep s
t.
My advice would be to talk to these guys, and do it quickly:
http://www.landlordaction.co.uk/site.php/0333-240-...
Good luck, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.
Not forgetting if you have a PITA of a tenant and the property may accidentally get completely fYou're in for a rough and expensive ride. Unfortunately you can't just change the locks, or cut off utilities as you will then lose all your rights, and end up in deep s
t.My advice would be to talk to these guys, and do it quickly:
http://www.landlordaction.co.uk/site.php/0333-240-...
Good luck, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.
Edited by tomsugden on Wednesday 2nd September 15:10
king trashed and then you are completely fked.
@ some of the posts.Once the Section 21(1)b has expired, if the tenant fails to vacate, regardless of whether they are in arrears or not. You can then apply for an accelerated possession order (£280.00), once this has been served the tenant has 14 days to offer a defence. Then either a hearing date will be set or if the tenant fails to respond you can apply for judgement.
The whole process can be done in 6 weeks at the outside.
digimeistter said:
@ some of the posts.Once the Section 21(1)b has expired, if the tenant fails to vacate, regardless of whether they are in arrears or not. You can then apply for an accelerated possession order (£280.00), once this has been served the tenant has 14 days to offer a defence. Then either a hearing date will be set or if the tenant fails to respond you can apply for judgement.
The whole process can be done in 6 weeks at the outside.
I had one a bit like this years ago, except I was buying and decided to take it with the tenant because he was on an assured shorthold.
You try evicting a war veteran with 1 leg, one eye and virtually no income..........
To put some perspective on this I had to evict a tenant to complete a house sale. Served her S21 that expired in Jan 2015, started accelerated posession procedings at the start of Feb and I think i got posession via bailff mid may.
IIWY i'd add the app fee and the bailiff fee (£390) and offer it to the tenant with the offer to write off all outstanding rent, as long as they leave on the requested day. Or its court all the way for posession and court costs.
I had a family with questionnable cleanliness leave after a court order last year, with the usual 'fk you, you can't do anything to us' crap. I made the same offer to them, which they declined. However as they were on housing benefit their new prospective landlords, who were a nice housing association, found me and asked me what they were like. I spent about 10 minutes factually describing things they had done and offered to send pictures of how they had left the place. 'We dont want people like that', was their response. Very satisfying.
IIWY i'd add the app fee and the bailiff fee (£390) and offer it to the tenant with the offer to write off all outstanding rent, as long as they leave on the requested day. Or its court all the way for posession and court costs.
I had a family with questionnable cleanliness leave after a court order last year, with the usual 'f
k you, you can't do anything to us' crap. I made the same offer to them, which they declined. However as they were on housing benefit their new prospective landlords, who were a nice housing association, found me and asked me what they were like. I spent about 10 minutes factually describing things they had done and offered to send pictures of how they had left the place. 'We dont want people like that', was their response. Very satisfying. blueg33 said:
You try evicting a war veteran with 1 leg, one eye and virtually no income..........
Why would you want to do that?I'm not saying that it's the case here or with the op but landlords are utter
s as well sometimes...IMO the tenancy laws is this country are s
te, in that they offer decent tenants little protection while offering tttish tenants too much protection.VX Foxy said:
blueg33 said:
You try evicting a war veteran with 1 leg, one eye and virtually no income..........
Why would you want to do that?I'm not saying that it's the case here or with the op but landlords are utter
s as well sometimes...IMO the tenancy laws is this country are s
te, in that they offer decent tenants little protection while offering tttish tenants too much protection.Simpo Two said:
The tenant is destroying her case by going into arrears. Once it gets to two months, more stuff is possible. Section 8 I think?
Yes and No. Yes things can be done under a section 8. But all tenant has to do when something is about to happen is to pay a sum that takes it to under two months.Someone said at end of 2 month S21 notice it's a 2 week process, 6 weeks at worst. In the real world from start of notice to end it's a 5-6 month process. Hence the offer of hard cash.
BTW, if the tenant is of HB then once a certain amount is owing you can apply for direct payment, but I'm not sure what that amount is (think it's two months)
Sir Bagalot said:
BTW, if the tenant is of HB then once a certain amount is owing you can apply for direct payment, but I'm not sure what that amount is (think it's two months)
This certainly wasn't the case with my tenant. The council knew she wasn't paying me, but said it couldn't divert the payment to me, despite agreeing that she was committing benefit fraud.When I was evicting a tenant recently the council actually told her to stay in the house after the section 21 had been served until the bailiffs turned up to turf her out, which she did. I later found out she had also moved her brother and parents into the house. None of them were paying me any rent
furtive said:
When I was evicting a tenant recently the council actually told her to stay in the house after the section 21 had been served until the bailiffs turned up to turf her out, which she did. I later found out she had also moved her brother and parents into the house. None of them were paying me any rent
This is the exact cause of my situation. Council told her if she accepted my S21, she was making herself homeless, and they wouldn't rehouse her. She needed to wait for the bailiffs.As it happens, because she stopped paying rent, and I reported her for benefit fraud, they refused to rehouse her anyway. With luck, she's living in some s
tty hostel now.Du1point8 said:
Makes me scared to go get a BTL, have the money set aside for a 911, but OH says I should invest, but I read more and more stories like this and wonder if its worth it and a few months (6 or so) would see me in trouble with the bank.
done properly it shouldn't cause you any aggro. . . .problems occur when either corners get cut, the wrong advice is given/followed, but that can be said of more or less anything.digimeistter said:
Solicitor should have insisted the tenant signed an agreement to vacate form prior to exchange - mind boggles at the ineptitude
How would that help? A section 21 is a legal method, and so is a court order. The tenants can choose to ignore them all.They only have to comply when the baliff turns up to physically remove them.
The law is very much in the tenants favour, even if they chose to trash the place or steal the contents.
98elise said:
How would that help? A section 21 is a legal method, and so is a court order. The tenants can choose to ignore them all.
They only have to comply when the baliff turns up to physically remove them.
The law is very much in the tenants favour, even if they chose to trash the place or steal the contents.
When a tenanted property is sold this is part of the contract of sale, therefore if the tenant fails to vacate they can be sued for breach of contract, admittedly this will not form part of the eviction procedure but it is a powerful deterrent and an open and shut case in the event of an eviction hearing going before a judge.They only have to comply when the baliff turns up to physically remove them.
The law is very much in the tenants favour, even if they chose to trash the place or steal the contents.
Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 3rd September 17:49
VX Foxy said:
blueg33 said:
You try evicting a war veteran with 1 leg, one eye and virtually no income..........
Why would you want to do that?I'm not saying that it's the case here or with the op but landlords are utter
s as well sometimes...IMO the tenancy laws is this country are s
te, in that they offer decent tenants little protection while offering tttish tenants too much protection.A tenant can get away with murder. I recently had to watch mine loading my posessins (contents) onto their moving van.
3 months later they are still preventing the release of the deposit.
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