HELP - Tenants have overstayed their agreement!

pinkaholic88

Hi

I am just looking for a bit of advice of where I stand with this.

I rent out a property and use an agency to manage it for me. The current tenants rented it for 6 months only, half way through the 6 months I asked if they wanted to extended their term or not. They said no. It is a family of Man & Wife and 3 kids. They have supposedly split up as of 2 weeks ago and yesterday was the day they should have vacated the property.

We had concerns that something was going on so I got the agency to call the tenants on wednesday and ask how the moves going etc, they then advised that they would not be leaving the property and that the council have told them to stay in the property and not to leave as they are now trying to claim they are split up and thus need a council house for the wife and 3 kids.

We are told that now we have to go through the process of evicting them which can take up to 3 months. Also if she has not paid any money to the agency by tuesday it will then go to the guarantor (her dad) and if he does not pay then the agency will foot the costs to take them to court however if the Dad does pay we are told that we will have to pay to take them to court and get them evicted.

Surely this whole situation is not right? I have tenants that have effectively been made homeless because they now cannot move into the property when they were due to.

What are my rights? and what can I do? :mad:

Thanks in advance for any help!

BitterAndTwisted

Any landlord who undertakes to let a property which has not been provably made vacant by the current tenants is crackers.

If you need to get shot of your tenants you will need to serve them with a Section 21 Notice giving them 2 full rental-periods notice and then make an application to the court for possession.

The S21 will be invalid if you have not protected the tenants' deposit in one of the three official schemes and provided them with the confirmation.

Your tenants are being encouraged to remain in the property by the local authority until you have secured possession, possibly until the court bailiffs are at the door, because if they do not they will be deemed to have made themselves "voluntarily homeless" and then the council can wash their hands of them.

Soot2006

We are told that now we have to go through the process of evicting them which can take up to 3 months.

... If council have told them they need to be made homeless to qualify for accommodation, then

- they are likely to continue paying the rent as normal as they will want a "no fault eviction"
- they are likely to see it through to the bitter end, as is their legal right; i.e. a court order for possession, bailiffs, etc
- this is likely to take longer than 3 months. Your S21 will need to be correctly served for starters - as you've just missed a rental period with the end of the AST, that'll essentially be asking them to leave just under 3 months from now. If correctly served you will then apply to the courts to have it enforced. This too takes time ... and so on and so on ... How can you not know any of this as part of managing your business?

ruggedtoast

pinkaholic88 wrote: »

Hi

I am just looking for a bit of advice of where I stand with this.

I rent out a property and use an agency to manage it for me. The current tenants rented it for 6 months only, half way through the 6 months I asked if they wanted to extended their term or not. They said no. It is a family of Man & Wife and 3 kids. They have supposedly split up as of 2 weeks ago and yesterday was the day they should have vacated the property.

We had concerns that something was going on so I got the agency to call the tenants on wednesday and ask how the moves going etc, they then advised that they would not be leaving the property and that the council have told them to stay in the property and not to leave as they are now trying to claim they are split up and thus need a council house for the wife and 3 kids.

We are told that now we have to go through the process of evicting them which can take up to 3 months. Also if she has not paid any money to the agency by tuesday it will then go to the guarantor (her dad) and if he does not pay then the agency will foot the costs to take them to court however if the Dad does pay we are told that we will have to pay to take them to court and get them evicted.

Surely this whole situation is not right? I have tenants that have effectively been made homeless because they now cannot move into the property when they were due to.

What are my rights? and what can I do? :mad:

Thanks in advance for any help!

Well, just because they said they didn't want to extend the term didn't mean they wanted to move out.

Once the 6 months ended the tenancy became periodic and month by month. It appears you haven't issued a Section 21 yet?

I sympathise with your "new" tenants. Hopefully their next landlord is actually renting an available property, not one which is already occupied.

chewmylegoff

You may also need to provide alternative accommodation for your new tenants as you are potentially in breach of contract if anything has been signed and especially if you have received payment of any rent in advance. I expect if you just return all money they have paid and refund their credit check fees etc then they may just grumpily move on. You may want to seek legal advice about what your obligations are there.

G_M

pinkaholic88 wrote: »

Hi

I am just looking for a bit of advice of where I stand with this.

I rent out a property and use an agency to manage it for me.
then if they are any good they should have explained your rights, your tenants' rights, and your options.
The current tenants rented it for 6 months only, half way through the 6 months I asked if they wanted to extended their term or not. They said no.this is an indication of their intent only - it is not legally binding
It is a family of Man & Wife and 3 kids. They have supposedly split up as of 2 weeks ago and yesterday was the day they should have vacated the property.
I assume you mean "yesterday was the last day of their Fixed Term" - a VERY different thing!

We had concerns that something was going on so I got the agency to call the tenants on wednesday and ask how the moves going etc, they then advised that they would not be leaving the property
that is their right - see below
and that the council have told them to stay in the property and not to leave as they are now trying to claim they are split up and thus need a council house for the wife and 3 kids.
to get council housing they need to be homeless. If they move out voluntarily, they will be 'voluntarily homeless' and not qualify

We are told that now we have to go through the process of evicting them which can take up to 3 months.
Correct (give or take)
Also if she has not paid any money to the agency by tuesday it will then go to the guarantor (her dad) and if he does not pay then the agency will foot the costs to take them to court
I will be amazed if the agent foots this cost - very unusual - however it depends on your contract with the agency
however if the Dad does pay we are told that we will have to pay to take them to court and get them evicted.
if the tenants, or dad, pays the rent, why evict?

Surely this whole situation is not right?
yes
I have tenants that have effectively been made homeless because they now cannot move into the property when they were due to.you must have been MAD to grant a new tenancy before the property was vacant. Have you actually signed a Tenancy Agreement with the new tenants? If so, THEY can now sue you for breach of contract!

What are my rights? and what can I do? :mad:

Thanks in advance for any help!

You need to read this post here to understand the law.

But I don't really understand the problem.

1) You did not apparantly want to end the tenancy ("half way through the 6 months I asked if they wanted to extended their term or not").

2) the tenancy has not ended

3) the rent will (probobly) continue to be paid - either by the tenants or their guarantor

4) so you have ongoing rent and no problem...

martindow

G_M wrote: »

4) so you have ongoing rent and no problem...

... apart from having to deal with your new and no doubt very upset 'tenants'.

suited-aces

removed as not good advice

G_M

suited-aces wrote: »

Not ideal, but if they say the council need them to be evicted, then the easiest way through this will be to go to them and ask them exactly what they need in terms of eviction, and make sure you comply with the legal requirements (so the council can't make them wait until you re-do it properly)

which sounds remarkably like conspiring to defarud the council. A contrived eviction in order to manipulate the housing waiting lists.

The current tenants have a home - there are 100s/1000s on waiting lists who don't.

Morally wrong and possibly legally too.

suited-aces

Sorry GM, I genuinely never intended to bring fraud into it. I was taking the view that the current tenants seem set on getting into a council house, and are going to get themselves evicted one way or another, and that the road of least heartache for the OP is to evict them in an above board manner.

As said upthread, signing a new tenancy agreement without vacant possession was madness, but what's done is done.

Fire_Fox

pinkaholic88 wrote: »

Hi

I am just looking for a bit of advice of where I stand with this.

I rent out a property and use an agency to manage it for me. The current tenants rented it for 6 months only, half way through the 6 months I asked if they wanted to extended their term or not. They said no. It is a family of Man & Wife and 3 kids. They have supposedly split up as of 2 weeks ago and yesterday was the day they should have vacated the property.

We had concerns that something was going on so I got the agency to call the tenants on wednesday and ask how the moves going etc, they then advised that they would not be leaving the property and that the council have told them to stay in the property and not to leave as they are now trying to claim they are split up and thus need a council house for the wife and 3 kids.

We are told that now we have to go through the process of evicting them which can take up to 3 months. Also if she has not paid any money to the agency by tuesday it will then go to the guarantor (her dad) and if he does not pay then the agency will foot the costs to take them to court however if the Dad does pay we are told that we will have to pay to take them to court and get them evicted.

Surely this whole situation is not right? I have tenants that have effectively been made homeless because they now cannot move into the property when they were due to.

What are my rights? and what can I do? :mad:

Thanks in advance for any help!

What do you mean 'should' have vacated, did you serve notice to quit, did they or were you just expecting them to leave?

Have you already signed an AST with the incoming tenants? If so you are at fault, you should not sign a legally binding contract when another legally binding contract is not yet ended. The old tenancy only comes to an end when notice has been properly served by either party AND the tenants move out, either voluntarily or through the proper eviction process. This basically means you should plan for vacancies between tenants.

I don't think there is that much worry about not getting your rent, a single mother will be eligible for housing benefit AND you have a guarantor as back up. I agree with G_M, I don't see the point in evicting a paying tenant under a section 21. If they do not pay serve them with a section 8 but make them aware this will mean they WILL NOT be eligible for social housing as they have made themselves homeless. It may be if you are clear you are not intending to enforce the S21 via the courts but rather revert to the guarantor they will move out voluntarily.