How difficult is it to evict?
Discussion
My wife and her 2 brothers have inherited my late FiL’s house.
It was let while he was in a care home to partly pay off his fees but of course that’s no longer needed.
The intention was always to sell it and as such we had an offer made to include the sitting tenant. However the tenant in question is playing silly buggers about her rent potentially going up.
She’s now saying she’s bought a house and is waiting for that to go through but we suspect that might ‘fall through’. The potential buyer is so pissed off that he now won’t buy it with the tenant in it. It may therefore need to go on the market again.
So the question is how difficult is it to remove a tenant who pays their rent on time and in all other ways is a model tenant?
It might all work out peachy and she leaves for her new house but I’m looking on the pessimistic side.
i'd prob take it off the market until she's gone, not worth the hassle and stress of a 21
you've had 4 good years, which in the rental market is a touch. people think renting out houses is easy money, its not.
could try the hotel option for her. depends in the country where the house is. rent here is £600 a month for a 3 bed. in London it would be £2600, so if she does stop paying you could be in trouble. altho the liability is split 3 ways with ur brothers?
id take it off and say to her let us know when ur moving. money keeps coming in, no hassle. I assume you now if she's able to be buying a house ie DSS don't pay her rent!
you've had 4 good years, which in the rental market is a touch. people think renting out houses is easy money, its not.
could try the hotel option for her. depends in the country where the house is. rent here is £600 a month for a 3 bed. in London it would be £2600, so if she does stop paying you could be in trouble. altho the liability is split 3 ways with ur brothers?
id take it off and say to her let us know when ur moving. money keeps coming in, no hassle. I assume you now if she's able to be buying a house ie DSS don't pay her rent!
TL;DR version is get some proper advice as this can be an absolute minefield!
Landlord and tenant law is highly technical and any procedural failings can render an eviction void.
I would strongly suggest that you spend an hour or two engaging a solicitor to review the tenancy agreement and background to make sure that you have jumped through all of the various hoops and have served all of the prescribed information that the law requires.
Also, bear in mind that whilst virtually all tenancies are Assured Shorthold Tenancies, this is not the only type of tenancy and your reference to "sitting tenants" would make me want to first review the entire background to be certain that you are dealing with an AST and nothing more complicated.
Alternatively, if you do not want to incur the costs of a professional, you need to get your head around the relevant law. AST law is not rocket science, but it is very prescriptive. Other types of tenancy can be a nightmare however!
The law may have changed but last time I dealt with an eviction, but I recall that under one set of rules (note that England and Wales have significant differences) unless a specific leaflet had first been given to the tenant, you were unable to validly serve your Section 21 notice.
If the basic eviction notice is wrong, you could be left in a position of going to court for a final hearing, only to have the entire case kicked back to square 1!
Landlord and tenant law is highly technical and any procedural failings can render an eviction void.
I would strongly suggest that you spend an hour or two engaging a solicitor to review the tenancy agreement and background to make sure that you have jumped through all of the various hoops and have served all of the prescribed information that the law requires.
Also, bear in mind that whilst virtually all tenancies are Assured Shorthold Tenancies, this is not the only type of tenancy and your reference to "sitting tenants" would make me want to first review the entire background to be certain that you are dealing with an AST and nothing more complicated.
Alternatively, if you do not want to incur the costs of a professional, you need to get your head around the relevant law. AST law is not rocket science, but it is very prescriptive. Other types of tenancy can be a nightmare however!
The law may have changed but last time I dealt with an eviction, but I recall that under one set of rules (note that England and Wales have significant differences) unless a specific leaflet had first been given to the tenant, you were unable to validly serve your Section 21 notice.
If the basic eviction notice is wrong, you could be left in a position of going to court for a final hearing, only to have the entire case kicked back to square 1!
She pays the rent regularly but unfortunately split 3 ways and paying tax on the income it’s never going to be a worthwhile deal for us. Better to sell and get a decent lump sum.
It’s annoying as we had a buyer lined up at a good price but now he just wants her out. His mortgage arrangement is up in March and if it doesn’t go through by then he’s pulling out altogether.
Her main complaint was the rent would be going up but she got it cheaper than advertised anyway as one of my brothers in law has rented to her before and knew she’d pay up regularly. Even if it went up it was still only going to be the original as advertised. And the rent hasn’t gone up in 4 years.
Oh well.
Drawweight said:
She pays the rent regularly but unfortunately split 3 ways and paying tax on the income it’s never going to be a worthwhile deal for us. Better to sell and get a decent lump sum.
It’s annoying as we had a buyer lined up at a good price but now he just wants her out. His mortgage arrangement is up in March and if it doesn’t go through by then he’s pulling out altogether.
Her main complaint was the rent would be going up but she got it cheaper than advertised anyway as one of my brothers in law has rented to her before and knew she’d pay up regularly. Even if it went up it was still only going to be the original as advertised. And the rent hasn’t gone up in 4 years.
Oh well.
Fair one, but at present even split 3 ways and tax its an income. she stops paying now and its 6 months to get her out.It’s annoying as we had a buyer lined up at a good price but now he just wants her out. His mortgage arrangement is up in March and if it doesn’t go through by then he’s pulling out altogether.
Her main complaint was the rent would be going up but she got it cheaper than advertised anyway as one of my brothers in law has rented to her before and knew she’d pay up regularly. Even if it went up it was still only going to be the original as advertised. And the rent hasn’t gone up in 4 years.
Oh well.
if the sales going to be a decent lump each other to pay her rent else where for a few months until het house is ready. if that £1500 each still better than the 21.
avoid the eviction process if you can. will cost more money and stress
[quote=R56Cooper]TL;DR version is get some proper advice as this can be an absolute minefield!
Landlord and tenant law is highly technical and any procedural failings can render an eviction void.
I would strongly suggest that you spend an hour or two engaging a solicitor to review the tenancy agreement and background to make sure that you have jumped through all of the various hoops and have served all of the prescribed information that the law requires.
Also, bear in mind that whilst virtually all tenancies are Assured Shorthold Tenancies, this is not the only type of tenancy and your reference to "sitting tenants" would make me want to first review the entire background to be certain that you are dealing with an AST and nothing more complicated.
Alternatively, if you do not want to incur the costs of a professional, you need to get your head around the relevant law. AST law is not rocket science, but it is very prescriptive. Other types of tenancy can be a nightmare however!
The law may have changed but last time I dealt with an eviction, but I recall that under one set of rules (note that England and Wales have significant differences) unless a specific leaflet had first been given to the tenant, you were unable to validly serve your Section 21 notice.
If the basic eviction notice is wrong, you could be left in a position of going to court for a final hearing, only to have the entire case kicked back to square 1
Whilst I agree with the excellent contents of your post, whether the OP can clear all the hoops to serve a valid Section 21 Notice, there is no way the OP will be granted repossession by the courts by March 2022.
Being that a Section 21 Notice is mechanism for a LL to inform a tenant/s that repossession of the property is required by the LL, before the expiry of the Section 21 Notice, the LL can either proceed to the courts for possession, or do nothing. With the latter in mind, if a LL is unable to serve a valid Notice, nothing prevents a LL serving an invalid Notice, since the tenant may not question the validity of the Notice, and simply vacate the rental property.
When serving a valid Section 21 Notice, I attach to the Notice further copies of documents supplied to the tenant at the start of the tenancy, being copies of the Annual Gas Safety Certificate, Energy Performance Certificate, HMG's "How to Rent" brochure, *Deposit Protection Certificate*, Deposit "Information for Tenant" leaflet, Electrical Condition Report.
Landlord and tenant law is highly technical and any procedural failings can render an eviction void.
I would strongly suggest that you spend an hour or two engaging a solicitor to review the tenancy agreement and background to make sure that you have jumped through all of the various hoops and have served all of the prescribed information that the law requires.
Also, bear in mind that whilst virtually all tenancies are Assured Shorthold Tenancies, this is not the only type of tenancy and your reference to "sitting tenants" would make me want to first review the entire background to be certain that you are dealing with an AST and nothing more complicated.
Alternatively, if you do not want to incur the costs of a professional, you need to get your head around the relevant law. AST law is not rocket science, but it is very prescriptive. Other types of tenancy can be a nightmare however!
The law may have changed but last time I dealt with an eviction, but I recall that under one set of rules (note that England and Wales have significant differences) unless a specific leaflet had first been given to the tenant, you were unable to validly serve your Section 21 notice.
If the basic eviction notice is wrong, you could be left in a position of going to court for a final hearing, only to have the entire case kicked back to square 1
Whilst I agree with the excellent contents of your post, whether the OP can clear all the hoops to serve a valid Section 21 Notice, there is no way the OP will be granted repossession by the courts by March 2022.
Being that a Section 21 Notice is mechanism for a LL to inform a tenant/s that repossession of the property is required by the LL, before the expiry of the Section 21 Notice, the LL can either proceed to the courts for possession, or do nothing. With the latter in mind, if a LL is unable to serve a valid Notice, nothing prevents a LL serving an invalid Notice, since the tenant may not question the validity of the Notice, and simply vacate the rental property.
When serving a valid Section 21 Notice, I attach to the Notice further copies of documents supplied to the tenant at the start of the tenancy, being copies of the Annual Gas Safety Certificate, Energy Performance Certificate, HMG's "How to Rent" brochure, *Deposit Protection Certificate*, Deposit "Information for Tenant" leaflet, Electrical Condition Report.
- If by chance the LL has not protected the Deposit monies, the same either under an AST or a Periodic Tenancy, then merely handing the Deposit monies back to the tenant, can assist in partly validating a Section 21 Notice
NMNeil said:
Does the existing lease give you the right to increase the rent.....a lot?
An idea that has been considered. The tenant is already paying quite a bit less than market rate and the rent hasn’t been raised for 4 years.However we don’t want to antagonise her as at present she pays on the button every month and a bird in the hand is better than 2 in a bush.
Hopefully she’ll move out peacefully when her house is ready.
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