Evicting a tenent

shoe*diva79

Hi

I am after some advice for my nan please.

She owns a bungalow outright. She has a tenent in there are the moment who has been there since April 2012. For the first couple of months the rent was coming in fine but it started coming in dribs and drabs around 6 months ago. The tenent said they were claiming HB and it was taking its time to be sorted out. To cut a long story short, the council are now paying my nan the HB direct, altho it does not cover all the rent.

My nan wants to evict him and hs wife and served 2 months notice with their leave date being yesterday. They are refusing to go. He said he has spoken to the council who has told him to stay put.

Aso, my nan didnt put the deposit in a rent deposit scheme until about 3 months ago (on the advice of solictor that she had to). Anyway, this morning, the tenent has had their full deposit back, signed for it and then given the full amount back to my nan to come off some of the arrears. There are still several £1000s in arrears.

My father has spoke to solicitor this morning and has been advised that because the deposit wasnt put in a scheme the notice they originally gave is void. So they have re given notice today after giving him back the full deposit.

The solicitor has also said that my nan isnt to ask for any money from the tenent now as even if he pays a little bit towards rent then the court will view this as the tenent trying to pay so can postpone possession for 6 months.

Is this right? Its already been at least 6 months since he stopped paying full rent, my nan wants to sell the bungalow yet solicitor said she isnt allowed to put it on the market.

Can anyone offer any advice? If you need further information to assist please just ask.

sammyjammy

It is probably correct that the council have told them to stay put, if they don't the council won't help them get rehoused as they will be considered to have made themselves voluntarily homeless.

Once the notice runs out your Nan need to start court proceedings against them.

I assume the tenancy was for six months initially and was not renewed but left to continue?

If you have issued an S21 this is a no fault notice so I think the solicitor is incorrect about them being entitled to stay for another six months but I am no expert.

BitterAndTwisted

I'm assuming this two month's notice was a Section 21. As usual the Council would have advised the tenant to say put until your nan has court-appointed bailiffs at the door if the tenants are looking to be rehoused by the Council.

Your Nan should serve a Section 8 Notice for non-payment of the rent and go to court to enforce possession. That way, their hopes of being rehoused by the Council will be well and truly scuppered. They could try and pay down the rent owed to less than to month's-worth by the time of the court hearing but this would solve your Nan's problem. She should re-serve a new Section 21 Notice at the same time in case her Section 8 fails at court

shoe*diva79

Thanks, my dad has just said the solicitor has served a section 8 and a section 21.

Can she put bungalow on the market?

The tenancy agreement was for one year. The year was up yesterday and notice was given to them originally 2 months ago.

BitterAndTwisted

She can put the the property on the market if she likes but with an unhappy tenant in there she'd be lucky to find a buyer even if they could gain access for viewings. No-one needing to buy with a mortgage would be able to proceed until it's vacant.

The most sensible thing to do would be to wait until the tenants are out before putting it up for sale. They could choose to trash the place before they leave. Which may not be this side of Christmas in any case.

hazyjo

Pointless putting it on the market as I can't see the tenants permitting viewings! Get them out first. Do you really want viewers there with tenants who don't want to leave anyway?

Jx

shoe*diva79

Ok, thanks.

What about the rent that is owed? HB originally paid it direct to him, but he didnt pay the rent with it. And now she is only getting £215.20 per month direct from council when the rent is £650.

Obviously the arrears are just going to increase. Luckily there is no mortgage for my nan to pay, but this money is her living costs :-(

00ec25

shoe*diva79 wrote: »

What about the rent that is owed? (

nan will have to
1. take court action for possession - this is already underway as a S21 and s8 has now been issued
2. take court action for the arrears. Nan will then need to spend further money on enforcement action as the court will not recover the debt for you. The court awards the decision but does not collect the money for you, nan would need to apply for 1 of 4 options:
a) attachment of earnings - does the tenant have a job? If not then this is impossible.
or
b) pay for a baliff to seize goods to be sold
or
c) garnishee or d) charging order both of this are relatively unusual so no point explaining further

Whilst its great that you have come here to ask questions if you don't know the basics of L&T law then why not leave it to the solicitor that nan is already using?

1981trouble

She can put the property on the market but unlikely to sell until they have gone.

Good that deposit sorted and new notice has been issued.

Realistically are you going to get the arrears back? Do thery have the money to pay it (ie if court issued ccj would you get £1 a week or a decent amount?)

S21 could have them out in 3-4 months but there is no financial claim here just the possession of the property.

S8 is worse for time and if they bring it to less than 8 weeks worth of arrears then can't be enforced for eviction BUT it does include a financial aspect where you can claim the arrears as part of it. They can also appeal this if there are any repais not done etc

So what is more important possession or the arrears? (you can issue both notices but once 2 months are up then you should decide which court process to go with).

I would recommend serious reading up on s21 and s8's for the pitfalls etc. landlordzone is a good starting point (although the forum is a bit scary they get nicer as they get to know you!).

Also, this may be immoral etc but if they have rent arrears then council won't rehouse as they are intentionally homeless, this makes it harder for you to evict/more likely to resist. Therefore a s21 would mean they are rehoused as it is you wishing to gain posession, a s8 wouldn't be as it is posession due to arrears. More chance of rehousing = easier for you to evict. I can assure you bailiffs and forceful eviction is a horrible thing to have to do (plus the additional stress of storing stuff etc) and I would hate for your gran to have to do this if you can avoid it.

G_M

The original S21 was invalid as the deposit was not registered.

So it needs to be re-issued.

The S8 was valid (assuming correctly served). Was it ground 8 'rent arrears'?)

Nan will need to go to court to get possession. If the arrears = 2 months rent both when the S8 was issued AND at date of court hearing, the judge MUST give possession.

Getting the arrears paid depends on whether the tenant has the money! If not, suing won't help - you can't get blood out of a stone!

Pointless going on the market till tenant has left.

the other option is a bribe - pay the tenant to leave, or offer to write off all or some of the arrears if they leave.

shoe*diva79

Thanks everyone. Its annoying that the tenant has claimed housing benefit to pay the rent, had it paid direct to himself and not passed it onto the landlord.

Thanks for all the advice. I dont trust solicitors and fear they will just bleed nan dry delaying the eviction for their own financial gain.