Evicting tenant - do I need a court order?

sarah1980

I am a landlord with a tenant who is behind with their rent. They have been in the property approx. 4 years, they fell behind with the rent in year 2 but have always made overpayments when possible, and I was sympathetic to their situation so I took no further action.

Around 9 months ago one of the couple lost their job and when the rent arrears built up to 2 months, I applied to the housing benefit office to have their payments made directly to me with the tenant paying the shortfall. This worked well, then a couple of weeks ago I had a letter from the benefit office to say their HB had been stopped as their tax credits had increased considerably.

Turns out the partner had found a new job, but when I explained to them that they would now be liable for the full rent each month he said he couldn't afford it as they now had childcare costs due to both of them working.

He said there was no way they'd be able to afford the full rent each month (plus they still owe me some arrears which they had been paying off monthly). With this being the case I told them they would need to vacate, but they are now saying they want ME to evict them as they are hoping to be rehoused in social housing and do not want to be seen as making themselves voluntarily homeless.

The thing is, I believe I will need a court order to evict them and also they are no longer 2 months in arrears so I'm not sure if I can even do this.

Obviously for me I would rather have someone new in there who actually paid the rent on time, but can I ask them to leave without a court order?

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to give the background to the case.

tom9980

You can use an s21 notice which may be enough for some councils but more likely s8. Please read this http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/content/section-8-procedure

sarah1980

Thanks, but they are not 2 months in arrears. Do I have to wait this long? Can I just ask them to leave, and they agree to leave?

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

sarah1980 wrote: »

Thanks, but they are not 2 months in arrears. Do I have to wait this long? Can I just ask them to leave, and they agree to leave?

I am sorry but you soujnd like an extremely nieave landlord to be asking that kind of question on here. If i knew you were like this and your were my landlord i would give you a lengh of rope to hang yourself (there is a meaning behind that, so please dont take it literally

You could issue them an S21 notice, which is a no fault notice and gives them 8 weeks notice. You just cant ask them to leave, i would just laugh in your face if you did

There are people on this board who know a lot more then me about this but you really need to know what you are doing.

sarah1980

I don't see your post is very helpful, but there is always one who enjoys putting others down in order to boast their superior knowledge.

The tenant wants to leave. They can't afford to live here. They have told me that. I have known them for 4 years and they have always made every effort to repay their arrears. The only thing stopping them from handing in their notice is that they will be homeless and this may be seen as them being intentionally homeless.

I don't want them to be living in my property for the next month or two, waiting for arrears to build up so that I can obtain a court order and have them evicted. Even i use a section 21 i have to give them 2 months' notice.

They are desperate to get out of there. The question is, if I hand them this letter and they show it to the council, will the council then refuse to rehouse them until the 2 months is up?

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

sarah1980 wrote: »

I don't see your post is very helpful, but there is always one who enjoys putting others down in order to boast their superior knowledge.

The tenant wants to leave. They can't afford to live here. They have told me that. I have known them for 4 years and they have always made every effort to repay their arrears. The only thing stopping them from handing in their notice is that they will be homeless and this may be seen as them being intentionally homeless.

I don't want them to be living in my property for the next month or two, waiting for arrears to build up so that I can obtain a court order and have them evicted. I would rather write them a letter giving 30 days' notice of possession for non payment of rent. They are desperate to get out of there. The question is, if I hand them this letter and they show it to the council, will the council then say it's not valid as there needs to be a court order in place?

i am not putting you down , i dont claim to be superior.
You cant give them 30 days notice!!!!!!!!! This is not corronation street. Has being a landlord taught you nothing?

To give you an idea of time scales if you went down the S8 route you would be looking at 4-6 months minimum.

I really think you need to do some proper research.

[Deleted User]

sarah1980 wrote: »

I don't see your post is very helpful, but there is always one who enjoys putting others down in order to boast their superior knowledge.

His point is you're operating as a business and have made no effort to understand the law. It's good that you're here asking questions now but you should have been learning about this long before becoming a landlord.

You cannot evict a tenant without a court order. You can ask them to leave (that is what a notice is) but it is unenforceable without a courts involvement. An S21 (or S8) is the precursor to court action.

If your tenants are looking to play the social housing game then you will need to evict them through the courts. To do this you either need 2 rental periods of arrears to issue an S8 or you need to issue an S21, wait for the ~2 months to elapse, and then apply to the courts. There is no other way to get them out if they are demanding to be evicted and refuse to leave.

You will need at least 3 months, probably 4 or 5 to get them out with court action, if they have no arrears. 30 days notice is not valid regardless of the situation.

jjlandlord

Of course you could ask them to leave, but they would be free to refuse. In fact they already did so.

kirkbyinfurnesslad wrote: »

You could issue them an S21 notice, which is a no fault notice and gives them 8 weeks notice.

That's the best option assuming deposit properly protected and tenancy is not a fixed term tenancy.
Note, though, that the notice period must be at least 2 months, not 8 weeks.

theartfullodger

No you don't need a court order. Just change locks & threaten tenant & they will be "evicted"

However such action would be illegal & could get you a :+free+: holiday in Holloway & a large fine.

Well, you did ask.

Cheers!

theartfullodger

BTW it's not 2 months "arrears" but 2 months owing (assuming tenancy states rent payable monthly). (3 in Scotland)

The landlord associations do good basic courses for landlords which would likely save more time & £££ than they'd cost

Londonsu

You may want to remind them that whilst is true that a council will only rehouse someone if they have been evicted but leaving before eviction
is not the only way someone can make them selves intentionally homeless

This is taken from Shelters website
Did you deliberately do, or fail to do, something?
The council should look at the whole of your circumstances in deciding whether you deliberately did or didn't do something. It may decide that you deliberately did or didn't do something that caused you to become homeless if:

you didn't pay the rent or mortgage when you could have afforded to
you were evicted for antisocial behaviour
you left accommodation that you could have stayed in.

So your tenants are going to be under scrutiny and their financial records put under a microscope if you have evicted them for not paying rent.

Added to this some Social housing LLs are loath to rehouse people with a history of rent arrears and of course another LL would want a reference from you .

So their ploy to get Social housing may not work for them it is not as easy as people think.

Still once you evict its not your problem