Eviction advice needed

silvercar

If you evict the tenant, or they give notice to surrender, they need to give you back the property in the same condition as given to them, except for fair wear and tear. They can't end the tenancy but leave people behind. ending a tenancy means giving vacant possession. Not ending the tenancy and leaving people in situ means paying rent. Throw the problem back to them.

Jowo_2

silvercar wrote: »

.. They can't end the tenancy but leave people behind. ending a tenancy means giving vacant possession. Not ending the tenancy and leaving people in situ means paying rent. Throw the problem back to them.

That's going to be tricky - the original tenant simply slipped away and left someone else there and has already indicated they are frightened of the person they left behind. Wonder if the threat of being taken to court for rent arrears worries them more than returning to the property to coax their mate out.

HeatherH

Bit of an update:

After still trying to get the tenant to give her notice in writing, we've decided to let the solicitors deal with it, mainly as their fees weren't as bad as originally thought. So as far as we know, it's going to start with a s.21 and if they don't move will then serve a s.8. We're hoping it's not going to get to bailiffs, but it probably will. The original tenant has been making herself hard to get hold of, so we're now leaving it to the solicitors to deal with. We know it's going to take forever if the tenants friend doesn't co-operate, but at least the legal ball is rolling.

Will keep anyone who's interested updated

Jowo_2

If the rent is due monthly and 2+ months rent is owed, then I feel your solicitor should have served both on the belt and braces principle. Anyone else got a view on that?

And was it definately determined that the tenant has an AST and isn't a regulated tenant as they have greater security of tenure?

I *think* that the notice is simply served at the address of the tenanted property to the original tenant with the solicitor providing indisputable proof its been served. They do not have to prove that the tenant has received it/read it, just that it was properly served (for example, some tenants will not accept any recorded delivery letters). Is that how you understand that its being done?

In terms of timescale, it will be two months notice timed to expire with the rental period (so can be almost 3 months if it's just been missed), then up to a month or so to get a court date for possession (your solicitor can advise the local court timescale), then the tenant gets around 2 weeks notice before the possession order takes effect (but can ask for another 6 weeks), then if they don't leave, you return to court to get court appointed bailiffs (and this can take a few more weeks to get a date).

There's also an accelerated possession process but I don't know much about how this operates.

If a contract has been signed with the tenant since 6 April 2007, and the property is in England/Wales, the deposit must be protected in a Tenancy Deposit scheme otherwise the S21 is invalid.

HeatherH

A problem we may have was there isn't a deposit.

When the original tenants moved in about 13 years ago there was a deposit, but when one of the two moved out a few years later, my dad gave him the deposit (no idea why) so basically the tenant thats been previous mentioned in other posts was living there without any deposit.

What effect does this have?

Jowo_2

If the tenant that is being served notice has not paid a deposit, then there is no deposit to place in a tenancy deposit scheme so no issue there that I can see. Does your father have proof that he received a deposit and/or paid it back in case this is disputed?

Also, its not the date of payment of the deposit that's the issue, but date of the AST. What is the date of the last signed contract and was it an AST? As other's have previously indicated, 1997 saw the introduction of changes in types of tenancy.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/private_tenancies/assured_tenancies

HeatherH

It's definitely an AST thats in place, it was renewed last when the current tenants ex moved out (not sure of date). It seems that things are just rolling on a monthly basis at the moment.

Thanks for the info about the deposit, glad it's not going to create much of a problem.

HeatherH

After speaking to the solicitor, we're not very reassured by the fact that she doesn't know how to define the tennants friend either. We're hoping by the time our appointment comes up next week she'll be a bit more clued up. My dad will not be happy in paying money to be represented by someone that knows no more than we do!

Fingers crossed!

Jowo_2

Get a second opinion on the Landlordzone rental forum as some of their members are housing solicitors. Post a brief summary of the situation there (they don't like long ones), including the abandonment by the original tenant who left a friend there in their place, date of tenancy, that there's no deposit.

HeatherH

Thanks Jowo, I've posted on there, and I personally don't feel very welcome to be honest, I've been putting on there generally what I'm putting on here but not really getting the same back.