Giving tenants notice

mumofthetwins

Hi
We need to give our tenants notice to leave the property.
They have been in the house for 3 years and went onto a rolling contract after thier first years agreement ended.
They are friends of the family and as such we have been pretty lax with them ( never renting again as people just trash the place).
Can anyone give me any advice on where to start?
We rented the house out rather than sell it and after tax have made little to no profit, and have now decided to move back to the property ourselves
Thanks
Lisa

jjlandlord

A good source of information if the property is in England or Wales:
http://tenancyanswers.ucoz.com/index/ast_tenants_not_in_breach_of_contract/0-37

Werdnal

There is no such thing as notice to leave. You issue notice that you are seeking possession, and hope the tenants move out on or before the last day of the notice. If they don't (legally they do not have to) you then apply for a court possession order to legally end the tenancy.

There is a post about how to give notice here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=52421475&postcount=6

The notice you give is know as a Section 21 notice, and must be served on the tenants correctly, with proof of serving (proof of posting, witness signature etc), to show you have given the full 2 month's notice that you seek possession of the property.

However, did you take a deposit at the start of the tenancy? If so, has it been protected in a scheme and have you given the tenants the prescribed information from theat scheme? If not, then you must return the deposit in full prior to issuing the notice, otherwise the notice is invalid.

As the tenancy has now become periodic, you need to follow the advice in the linked post abot of how to serve the correct version of the Section 21, and ensure you use the correct dates. If you should need to apply for court order, its is essential you get everything 100% correct, otherwise it will fail, and you need to start all over with another 2 month's notice!