Is this right???

peterjohnson007

we let our flat out to council tenants on a 6 month lease, via a letting agents.
i gave my tenant 2 months notice on the 26th march 07 and therefore her tanancy ends on the 26th may 07. i spoke to my letting agent today and they said that as she is council tenant that even tho her tenancy ends on 26th may the council can however not stop paying her rent untill she finds a new property to move into. apparantly the council will only stop paying her rent if a baliff letter is sent to her, but to do that i have to go to court etc.
is this right or are my letting agents taking the mick?
thanks

lynzpower

yes, it sounds about right.

however you are less than clear. Do you mean you have let out your property via the council,. or to a tenant in reciept of housing benefit.

yes, the council will not house anyone who isnt homeless. No one is homeless unless they have been formally evicted.

dcould you be clearer it will enable us to help more

peterjohnson007

i rent the property out to someone whom is in reciept of housing benefit. her tenancy ends on 26th may, we served her notice( section 21).

scope

peterjohnson007 wrote: »

is this right or are my letting agents taking the mick?
thanks

Well if it is right then I would say nobody in their right mind would rent to council tenants.

lynzpower

can we be clear- they are not COUNCIL TENANTs as the council isnt housing them are they peter is :wall:

they are in recipt of housing benefit - completely different thing :rolleyes:

You can still serve your notice as normal and they can find another private rented property.

the local authority will not house them if they havent been formallty evicted. I had to turn families with thier bags away due to this.

Incidentally, just as an aside, why did you only let to them for 6v months- seems very short amount of time?

Swishter

It does sound as if the agency don't quite know what they are talking about, who served the notice, was it you or did you tell them to do it? If they haven't done so there is nothing you can do to speed up the process but you might be able to claim against them.

I used to work in Housing Benefits, and the money stops when the tenant is no longer entitled, either because they earn too much or because they no longer live there.

As Lynz says I think what the agency are talking about is the fact that the council will not house them until formally evicted. If the tenants do not move out you have to be careful about accepting rent, acceptance of rent after notice has expired can imply that a new tenancy has started and the 6 months starts again. Contrary to popular belief you do not need a tenancy agreement to create a tenancy, if it is considered reasonable that the tenant beleived a tenancy has started then it has. So if it goes to court to evict them and the tenant turns up and says but you accepted my rent after this date so I assumed it was all OK and I could stay, the judge could find in their favour and there is nothing you can do.

This does not mean you cannot accept or chase for payments but, if the situation arises you must make it clear in writing, prior to receiving the first payment that you are not accepting rent but mesne profit. Mesne profits are sums of money paid for the occupation of land to a person with right of immediate occupation, where no permission has been given for that occupation. Basically you've withdrawn the permission by serving notice but the tenant is still there and you can only remove them with eviction.

If this situation arises then I'd say speak to a solicitor to check you are doing everything right. However you may not need to, in all likelihood the tenants will find a new property and move into that.

This is not just an issue with tenants receiving Housing Benefit, any tenant can leave you in this situation.

scrummy_mummy_2

Got your dates wrong....if notice is served on 26th of a month, the tenancy will conclude at midnight on the 25th.....new rental period begins on the 26th and rent becomes due.
Some courts will throw S21 Notices out if dates are wrong.....common error although could be a problem..........watch out if tenants are on benefits with this one because they can use this as a defence!!

hearts

scrummy_mummy wrote: »

Got your dates wrong....if notice is served on 26th of a month, the tenancy will conclude at midnight on the 25th.....new rental period begins on the 26th and rent becomes due.
Some courts will throw S21 Notices out if dates are wrong.....common error although could be a problem..........watch out if tenants are on benefits with this one because they can use this as a defence!!

Yep this is quite right. You get the dates wrong and they take advice and you are snookered. If they go to the housing office they will look over everything and advise the tenant to stay put if they want.
Just as a matter of interest, if they are paying their rent on time and are decent tenants why are you asking them to go?

peterjohnson007

i wont be accepting rent and on the 27th of may we will be moving back into our property its just that the letting agents said that worst case scenario is that the tenant does not find somewhere else to live, even tho shes had 2 months to do it in, and she is entitled to stay in our property untill she has found somehwhere else(even tho it will be after the tenancy end date). then we can either wait for a few days untill she has moved out properly or go to the courts and only when the local council whom pay a large chunk of her rent each month recieve a letter stating that baliffs will be round to our property to remove her will they stop paying her rent to our letting agents.
this is what ive been told over the phone, TBH i think its crap and if that is the case i will not be letting a property out again. and council tenants wonder why they get such a bad rep!!!

peterjohnson007

scrummy_mummy wrote: »

Got your dates wrong....if notice is served on 26th of a month, the tenancy will conclude at midnight on the 25th.....new rental period begins on the 26th and rent becomes due.
Some courts will throw S21 Notices out if dates are wrong.....common error although could be a problem..........watch out if tenants are on benefits with this one because they can use this as a defence!!

i served her notice on the 16th march. and was told that they would do it from the 26th

peterjohnson007

hearts wrote: »

Yep this is quite right. You get the dates wrong and they take advice and you are snookered. If they go to the housing office they will look over everything and advise the tenant to stay put if they want.
Just as a matter of interest, if they are paying their rent on time and are decent tenants why are you asking them to go?

beacuse due to extreme financial difficulties we have to move back into out flat