Not sure what my options are - HELP

Tokalosh

Hi, -
hoping that someone can advice me what my options are in regards to my situation;

i own a house that has been let out for the past two and half years to a single mum with kid who are on housing benefit, tbh she has been okish, despite her son swinging from light fixtures and throwing fuses in the bin so she has no lights and then complains to me about it ! she had a leak in the kitchen which we said we would send a plumber to repair but she was going on holiday and refused to grant access for the plumber, can never get the rent paid on time or in full and so on.

Anyway, we have given her two months notice, actually we gave her an additional three weeks notice in case she found something sooner to move to. I got a telephone call from our letting agent who said the T was very angry with me for giving her notice as she has just installed a new kitchen !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTH, this is the first i know about it, she just decided to replace the kitchen in my house with a new one without asking permission - im not suprised she is angry - im livid, and all the letting agent says is oh it is very nice ! i pointed out that in their contract it states that ANY changes need to be approved by the owner, thats me and i was not informed about this, and if i was i would not have given permission as i have known for a few months that we were going to give the T notice. The T has also replaced carpet that i was not consulted about - despite the house being fitted with good new carpet before she moved in. AND she is running a business from the house despite her being on HB and has moved her boyfried and dog in - again dog needs to be approved by me, never asked me.

ive phoned today to see where the rent is, as i was told it will be paid on the 8th only to be told it will be paid tomorrow as she is HB, i explained that i was told this last week and that i am very wary that the T may decide not to pay the rent due to notice being given new kitchen etc.

What would you suggest i do, what r my choices, i need her out of the house due to change of circumstances for myself and family, and i have give her the required notice period but would like the rent paid, and also the outstanding amount from the previous month, even the letting agent said i have had the patience of a saint with this tenant.

Thanks for getting this far !

G_M

You need to get her out. This may cost you money, but the sooner the better.

So, some questions. Please answer all:

Is this England, Wales, Scotland or N Ireland?
What contract does she have? Fixed Term or Periodic?
When will/did the Fixed Term expire?
What are the Periodic tenancy peiods?
What date did you serve her notice? Who served it, you or the agents?
Was it in the prescribed form?
What expiry date did it give?
How much are the current rent arrears?
What is the monthly rent?
Do you hold a deposit? How much?
Is the deposit registered? Which scheme? Was it registered before you gave the notice?
Do you have a check-in inventory? Did she sign it?
What kind of contract do you have with the agents? Does it include managing eviction? Will THEY take the court action or do you have to?
Are you a member of a landlord's Association?

That should do for starters.

Tokalosh

G_M wrote: »

You need to get her out. This may cost you money, but the sooner the better.

So, some questions. Please answer all:

Is this England, Wales, Scotland or N Ireland? this is in England
What contract does she have? Fixed Term or Periodic? the 6 month contract expired over a year ago and we do month to month, her choice.
When will/did the Fixed Term expire? over a year ago.
What are the Periodic tenancy peiods?
What date did you serve her notice? Who served it, you or the agents?the agency served her notice, on the 8th November 2011
Was it in the prescribed form? the agents said they handed her a letter of notice to end the rental
What expiry date did it give? the 4th Feb 2012, if you mean date to leave the premises
How much are the current rent arrears? TBH only about £150. now
What is the monthly rent? monthly rent is £800
Do you hold a deposit? How much? deposit is in the deposit scheme arranged by letting agent the deposit is £800
Is the deposit registered? Which scheme? Was it registered before you gave the notice? as above
Do you have a check-in inventory? Did she sign it? yes and yes
What kind of contract do you have with the agents? Does it include managing eviction? Will THEY take the court action or do you have to? the agents will do the legal work, although they see nothing wrong with anything the tenant has done and non payment of rent !
Are you a member of a landlord's Association? no

That should do for starters.

have responded thank you

BitterAndTwisted

What are the Periodic tenancy periods? You haven't answered this question so it's impossible to be certain that your agent has served the correct notice.

Was it in the prescribed form? the agents said they handed her a letter of notice to end the rental. What form did this "letter of notice" take?

Whatever, you need to get this nuisance tenant out.

She's spent money putting a new kitchen in the property without gaining your permission? Tough! If she's got money for new kitchens presumably she had money to pay the rent in full.

Any rent arrears can be taken from her deposit

Tokalosh

Bitter and twisted (love the name)
What are the Periodic tenancy periods? we need to give her two months notice, we have done so, in fact given her an extra three weeks

Im not sure but im thinking section 21.

Oh and we have had compaints about ASB, on more than one occassion from the council about the T - lovely, not.

im just sitting here thinking she is not gonna pay the rent, rip the kitchen and carpet out and do a midnight flight and the letting agency can see nothing wrong with what she has done, they are totally on the T side, despite me paying their fee. and i did ask the LA if she can afford to have a kitchen installed why is she not paying her rent in full at the correct times - their response with silence.

G_M

Is this England, Wales, Scotland or N Ireland? this is in England
What contract does she have? Fixed Term or Periodic? the 6 month contract expired over a year ago and we do month to month, her choice.
When will/did the Fixed Term expire? over a year ago. WHAT DATE?
What are the Periodic tenancy peiods? PLEASE RESPOND
What date did you serve her notice? Who served it, you or the agents?the agency served her notice, on the 8th November 2011
Was it in the prescribed form? the agents said they handed her a letter of notice to end the rental PLEASE DESCRIBE THIS - THEY MAY HAVE GOT IT WRONG. If so, it is YOU that will suffer as the whole process will take twice as long.
What expiry date did it give? the 4th Feb 2012, if you mean date to leave the premises
How much are the current rent arrears? TBH only about £150. now
What is the monthly rent? monthly rent is £800
Do you hold a deposit? How much? deposit is in the deposit scheme arranged by letting agent the deposit is £800
Is the deposit registered? Which scheme? Was it registered before you gave the notice? as above
Do you have a check-in inventory? Did she sign it? yes and yes
What kind of contract do you have with the agents? Does it include managing eviction? Will THEY take the court action or do you have to? the agents will do the legal work, although they see nothing wrong with anything the tenant has done and non payment of rent !
Are you a member of a landlord's Association? no

Cannot tell yet if the agents have served a valid Notice. Need dates above. If they have, wait till the expiry date and if she does not move out, write instructing the agents to apply to court for possesion. Check if this will cost you extra, and check every step of what they do.

Join a LLs Association (read here).

As the arrears are less than 2 months rent you cannot use the faster S8 route.

As for the new kitchen/carpets, in theory you could insist she re-instate the originals since she had no permission, but the reality is the new ones are probobly better (?) so you have a bonus. Unless she gets peaked at being evicted and rips them out!

Tokalosh

G_M wrote: »

Is this England, Wales, Scotland or N Ireland? this is in England
What contract does she have? Fixed Term or Periodic? the 6 month contract expired over a year ago and we do month to month, her choice.
When will/did the Fixed Term expire? over a year ago. WHAT DATE? the fixed tem expired 4th May 2010
What are the Periodic tenancy peiods? PLEASE RESPOND two months
What date did you serve her notice? Who served it, you or the agents?the agency served her notice, on the 8th November 2011
Was it in the prescribed form? the agents said they handed her a letter of notice to end the rental PLEASE DESCRIBE THIS - THEY MAY HAVE GOT IT WRONG. If so, it is YOU that will suffer as the whole process will take twice as long. spoken with LA and they said section 21 handed over.
What expiry date did it give? the 4th Feb 2012, if you mean date to leave the premises
How much are the current rent arrears? TBH only about £150. now
What is the monthly rent? monthly rent is £800
Do you hold a deposit? How much? deposit is in the deposit scheme arranged by letting agent the deposit is £800
Is the deposit registered? Which scheme? Was it registered before you gave the notice? as above
Do you have a check-in inventory? Did she sign it? yes and yes
What kind of contract do you have with the agents? Does it include managing eviction? Will THEY take the court action or do you have to? the agents will do the legal work, although they see nothing wrong with anything the tenant has done and non payment of rent !
Are you a member of a landlord's Association? no

Cannot tell yet if the agents have served a valid Notice. Need dates above. If they have, wait till the expiry date and if she does not move out, write instructing the agents to apply to court for possesion. Check if this will cost you extra, and check every step of what they do.

Join a LLs Association (read here).

As the arrears are less than 2 months rent you cannot use the faster S8 route.

As for the new kitchen/carpets, in theory you could insist she re-instate the originals since she had no permission, but the reality is the new ones are probobly better (?) so you have a bonus. Unless she gets peaked at being evicted and rips them out!

have answered the questions above - thank you

Yorkie1

What made you say that the periodic tenancy periods are 2 months? That is highly unusual and I suspect you have confused this with something else, i.e. the requirement to give 2 months' notice.

Was it a 6 month initial contract, running from 5 Nov 2009 to 4 May 2010; and was rent paid monthly?

If the agents served it on 8 Nov then it does look as though the dates are correct, assuming a periodic tenancy period of 1 month and not 2 as you state. You were obliged to give her until the 4 Feb because of the date of service of the s.21 notice - it must expire at the end of a rental period, i.e. on the 4th of a month. You cannot just give 2 straight months.

All you can do now is wait for the 4th Feb. If she goes, all well and good. If she doesn't, then you have to instruct the agents to start eviction proceedings.

tbs624

OP - you need to check with the LA that the deposit has *definitely* been scheme registered with one of the three schemes *and * that the T has been given the scheme's prescribed information.

This is vital. If no scheme registration then your s21 notice will be invalid. Don't just take the LA's word for it. The 3 schemes are mydeposits, TDS and DPS.

Note too that the "after" date on your s21 does not mean that the T has to move out by that date. It simply means that you are giving the T notice that you intend to seek repossession of the property after that date, via a court order if necessary. ( If Ts need to be rehoused by the Council they will usually be specifically advised to stay put until they are evicted, however, if their eviction is on the grounds of rent arrears the T is likely to be classed as making themselves intentionally homeless)

Do you have a jointly signed inventory in place from the start of the tenancy? If not, you will struggle to show the agreed original condition of the property.

Remember that your LA works *for you* - check the terms of your contract with them and hassle them to do the job for which you are paying (usually through the nose).

They should by now have sent the tenant a Rent Statement formally requesting that she brings her payments up to date. Have they done this?

G_M

Tokalosh wrote: »

have answered the questions above - thank you

From what you have said, my guess, like Yorkie1's, is that the rental periods are monthly, and run from 5th of each month to the 4th of the following month.

Rent IS paid monthly yes? Then the periodic tenancies are monthly with dates as above.

This being the case, the 2 months notice for a valid S21 served on 8th November would run from 5th Dec to 4th Feb.

So you are lucky. It looks like the agents got this right!

Checking a recent rent statement has been sent is a good idea.

Tokalosh

Thanks for all you help and input in regards to this -

HOWEVER

i have another question, went for a stroll with SIL today to show her the house - she has never seen our rental before, and the garage door has been totally destroyed, it is a metal up and over door that looks like someone has gained access by literally ripping up / bending up the bottom of the garage !
I have no idea when this has happend, but i have not been informed by the LA of any damage to the garage door, tried to call the LA but no answer and no facility to leave a message.

Who is responbsible for the replacement of the garage door - repair is not an option as the door does not even shut any more, as it is so badly damaged.

Why did i ever buy a but to let, this tenant is just the total pits, roll on the 4th Feb and she is gone (please God)