Help with tenant eviction, house sold subject to vacant posession

sunjeev

Someone please help. I have a house with a tenant refusing to leave. The tenenat is a lady with two children, one a minor. The tenancy agreement has expired in feb 2009. My Solicitor has issued a section 21 notice which expired on November the 24th. I notified the tenant in September that i will be selling the house which is now sold! However the solicitor wont exhange contracts because the house is not vacant. Furthermore the buyer is panicking because in january he would be liable to £1500 stamp duty. For this reason the buyer has agreed to offer one of three of his vacant houses with 1 months free rent to the tenant (my solicitor has also sent a letter to her confirming this and has begun eviction proceedings), we have taken her to these properties but which are larger and at a better standard. Her motive is that she believes she will be given a council house by being forcibally evicted.

Q. can i move into the house with her to pi** her off.
Q. can i prevent her from getting a council house by offering her another house ( at the very least i want to make her life as much stressful as it has been for me).
Q. can i legally move her belongings to another vacant house immediately.

I urgently need her out what can i do

robpw2

sunjeev wrote: »

Someone please help. I have a house with a tenant refusing to leave. The tenenat is a lady with two children, one a minor. The tenancy agreement has expired in feb 2009. My Solicitor has issued a section 21 notice which expired on November the 24th. I notified the tenant in September that i will be selling the house which is now sold! However the solicitor wont exhange contracts because the house is not vacant. Furthermore the buyer is panicking because in january he would be liable to £1500 stamp duty. For this reason the buyer has agreed to offer one of three of his vacant houses with 1 months free rent to the tenant (my solicitor has also sent a letter to her confirming this and has begun eviction proceedings), we have taken her to these properties but which are larger and at a better standard. Her motive is that she believes she will be given a council house by being forcibally evicted.

Q. can i move into the house with her to pi** her off.
Q. can i prevent her from getting a council house by offering her another house ( at the very least i want to make her life as much stressful as it has been for me).
Q. can i legally move her belongings to another vacant house immediately.

I urgently need her out what can i do

no you need to go to court to get her evicted im afraid


you are not allowed to touch her belongings or forcibly evict her

poppysarah

Pay her money.

I assume you've given her notice properly etc. You can't interfere with her right to live there except by court action.

Yes if she's playing the want a council house game you will have to evict her.

Money is a powerful motivator.

theartfullodger

Realistically if she wants to stay and not be helpful you are looking at several months.... maybe... to...

a) Apply to court for possession order
b) Find paperwork (S21, other court papers..) were wrong and need to ...
c) Apply to court for possession order again
d) Get possession order...
e) Tenant does not leave.. you need
f) To line up Bailiffs to carry her out...
g) 1 day before bailiffs arrive she leaves, having satisfied the council's requirements...

Only alternative would be bribery: Might be quite expensive!

Cheers!

Lodger

PS And why are the council being so difficult about not rehousing people until they've been forcibly evicted?? Well, various governments over the years have kept making the rules of "are you homeless and do you qualify for help" harder & harder & harder.. Now, why would they do that?? Well, would it be so they could keep council spending down & claim that there are fewer-and-fewer homeless people about?? Sigh....

sunjeev

Thanks to all for your prompt help....why can't I also move in?! She has not paid rent since the section 21 expired.

poppysarah

sunjeev wrote: »

Thanks to all for your prompt help....why can't I also move in?! She has not paid rent since the section 21 expired.

Because it's her home until you get her legally evicted.

If she's canny enough to know she needs evicting to get a council house then she's going to know exactly what you can and can't do.

blue_monkey_2

My mother wanted to sell her house, we had nowhere to go as it was too expensive and went to the council. They told she to do all that post 4 suggests. She gave us section 21 in November, when it finally got through the bailiff was due on 23rd May. The council would not consider us homeless until the bailiff date had been given. We got this place 2 days before the bailiff was due in.

We paid our rent though, they told us that we would not be housed if we made ourselves homeless by not paying our rent so not sure why she would think the council would house her if this is why she was evicted (what reason did you give).

If you apply to the court tomorrow for the possession order it will be (or it was in our case as it has to go back and forth to court) AT LEAST 5 months from that date before the bailiff date is given. Only then will the council consider her homeless.

If she get's rehoused she will be on a new contract and so the council will not help her.

The thing about a council house is the security it beings, knowing that a house cannot be sold from under your feet, that your landlord cannot give you 2 months notice, that your family can have roots and can stay there forever. Something that private tenancy does not give. And this is obviosuly why she is staying put. Because in 6 months time she could be in the same situation all over again and it is nothing but stress for all concerned.

clutton_2

let your solicitor follow through with the eviction and be very prepared to lose this sale..... you CANNOT get this tenant out other than through the court process - this will take you till probably Easter......

is she in arrears ? - if she is and your solicitor uses Section 8 as one fround for the Possession Order application - AND if she does not pay the rent on the day of the court hearing, then the council will NOT rehouse her - as they will classify her as having madeherself voluntarily homeless

theartfullodger

why can't I also move in?! She has not paid rent since the section 21 expired.

Careful lad... as poppy said, she's canny.

Your moving into her home (not your home, it's your "investment") would be seen by any judge as harassment and he'd delay an awful lot further any order for possession...

You have responsibilities as well as rights !!

Cheers!

Lodger

clutton_2

blue monkey says "" your family can have roots and can stay there forever. Something that private tenancy does not give." - this is sooo untrue.... what ALL professional landlords want are long-long-long-term tenants who will look after the property for decades..

its only the ignorant amateur LLS who dont know that this is the best business and people model

tbs624

sunjeev wrote: »

Thanks to all for your prompt help....why can't I also move in?! She has not paid rent since the section 21 expired.

Unfortunately, she is still the tenant and has exclusive occupation of the property, despite not paying rent. As the others have said, you have to go through the courts to evict her properly.

You should deal with all of this professionally or pay someone else to do so on your behalf.

You are risking a heavy penalty if you give your tenant grounds to pursue you for harassment and/or unlawful eviction. See here and here for examples.

You may want to look at Landlord Action or at paying the membership fee to join one of the national LL associations or Tessa Shepperson's LL Law site ( fees are tax deductible)

Your tenant needs to understand that if she has rent arrears, she may be deemed to have made herself intentionally homeless : you may want to get advice on using a S8 notice as well as the S21. (Note that if you haven't scheme registered any relevant tenancy deposit, any S21 will be invalid)