Tenants have rent arrears-one month notice does not stand

confusedlittlebunny

Hi,can someone please help.

I have given my tenants a month notice to leave last week. They have now informed me that this is not worth the paper its written on and have thrown it in the bin (they have a AST) as i need to issue a possession notice under section 21?????? is this correct?
what does this mean,Two months notice?

I have given them notice as they have rent arrears from august 2010 totalling £1900 to date (their rent is £1100 per calender month and i have been getting it in dribs and drabs since august 2010)

just to clarify how their shortfalls occured and still owing: Aug 2010 (£200) sept (£100) Dec (£600) and Jan (due today but failed (£1100) (they say their housing benefit has been cut from £1000 to £100 since august 2010)

my questions are:

1. how do i serve this notice? do i have to go to court? whats the costing? (as i have no money)

2. i understand there is section 8????? not sure what this is but can i use this instead to get them out quicker.

3. i have a gut feeling they are going to let the arrears accumalate up until they leave with the offical notice, where do i stand them to get the money back? (they say i have £1100 deposit so use that towards the arrears, is this legal?) (i found the tenants through the local council whom i signed a "tenancy bond" with)


Please help.

clutton_2

call national landlords association tomorrow morning and join up (joining fee is tax deductible) and get their legal helpline to talk you through all the paperwork and how to do it. You clearly know little and NLA will save you months and help you get the tenants out far faster than you can, and all the paperwork you need is on their website. Court fees £150 - Bailliffs fee £95.

Trollfever

Another thread from the OP:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/40044898#Comment_40044898

ILW

It does appear that becoming a property tycoon is not as simple as many thought.

G_M

Your tenants have done you a huge favour by telling you this. They could have just sat back and ignored your notice, then when the month was up and you tried to evict them you'd have found out the slow way that you had to start again! They've given you a heads up!

Having said that, are they aware that the property is about to be repossessed? If so, I don't blame them for not paying the rent. They must be feeling pretty insecure. Wondering what is going to happen, and whether perhaps they should be paying rent to the bank instead of to you.

Have they perhaps received letters addressed to 'The Occupiers' from the bank?

Since you are considering declaring yourself bankrupt, why not make this decision first? If you go ahead with that plan, then you could leave it to the Official Receivers to deal with the tenants. The tenants probobly have the rent stashed in a savings account waiting to be paid when they find out who really owns the property.

tbs624

Your other threads show someone who is clearly in a huge financial mess. Did you seek consent to let on this property btw?

You don't say when this tenancy started and how long the fixed term is for?

Your first step should be to send your Ts a formal letter, setting out a clear Statement of Rent for the whole Tenancy and telling them that you want the unpaid rent cleared within 7 working days.

A S21 Notice of Intent to Seek Repossession has to be served with a min of two months' notice to the T and can only be used as a basis on which to proceed to court the day after expiry of the Fixed Term.

At any point in the tenancy , where a T is not paying rent, a S8 Notice can be served on G8, G10 and G11 (see below)* Note that, for the mandatory G8, the T has to have two months rent unpaid at the service of the notice and at the time of the hearing ( most Ts will be advised to pay down some/all of the debt immediately prior to the hearing) and G10 and G11 are discretionary grounds only.

Ground 10

Some rent lawfully due from the tenant—
(a)is unpaid on the date on which the proceedings for possession are begun; and
(b)except where subsection (1)(b) of section 8 of this Act applies, was in arrears at the date of the service of the notice under that section relating to those proceedings.
Ground 11

Whether or not any rent is in arrears on the date on which proceedings for possession are begun, the tenant has persistently delayed paying rent which has become lawfully due.

You may have to accept that these Ts get to stay put until booted out when/if the lender repossesses the property and serves notice on them to ensure vacant possession.

Given the mess that the rest of your affairs seem to be in you should get yourself some qualified professional legal/debt help asap.

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

call national landlords association tomorrow morning and join up (joining fee is tax deductible) and get their legal helpline to talk you through all the paperwork and how to do it. You clearly know little and NLA will save you months and help you get the tenants out far faster than you can, and all the paperwork you need is on their website. Court fees £150 - Bailliffs fee £95.

Check OP's other threads - the financial problems go much wider than those with the Ts. It's unlikely the OP will be acting as a LL in the near future.

puddy

reading all the threads is a bit depressing, i think you need legal and debt advice, not advice from us here. i think you're right about BR, sorry

PasturesNew

People can get technical and it can be complex, but, based just on the OP's first posting, an outline is:

Yes, you have to issue a proper/formal Section 21 notice, in writing. This has to be for two months. The two months will start on their next rent date. This means if the rent was due today, then it'd actually be three months before it came into force (next rent date) and the two month clock started ticking down.

But, issuing a legal/proper/correct Section 21 is only really notice to the tenants that you'd like them to leave and that you'll be wanting the place back. If they decide not to leave on the relevant date, then there's a whole other raft of specific forms/actions you have to carry out to get them out legally, which involves going to court etc. It could, potentially, if they dig their heels in, take another 2-3 months.

They might be awkward tenants and hang on, or they might be brassic and holding on because they can't afford to move out. Moving out involves lots of costs: new credit checks (£200-£400), new deposit (£1500), van hire and diesel (£50), overlapping dates with existing rental agreement (£500 for two weeks). So you can see that by issuing them with a Section 21, legally, you're effectively dropping a bill on their mat of £2000+.

birduk

If I were your tenants and I had recieved any mail to the house that might suggest the dire financial mess you are in (such as letters to 'the occupier' which will come from the mortgage company to assess who lives at the house in times of repossesion) I wouldn't be paying you rent either.

In fact, I have been that tenant with their house repossessed. I am not allowed to type the words I want to about people like you.....

They are currently living in their home- yes it is their home and your house, not sure when the baliffs are going to come knocking on the door for you, not sure when the house will be repossessed. If they do wait until they are kicked out, they will have a much better chance of getting housed by the council.

Sorry you do not have my sympathies, they do. Go and get proper financial advice and sort your life out.

theartfullodger

I do hope the tenants are reading this & OP's other threads...

Dear OP: You need help, probably including a course - either "how to be a landlord"
http://www.rla.org.uk/landlord/courses/course1.shtml

or a course of prescription medicine...