tennant wont leave

Moneymaid

Hi I need some advice. I was in a difficlt financial situation and as part of this I rented out my home approx 4 years ago as a non resident landlord. The person I rented to was initially given a 7 month lease but has been on a rolling monthly tenancy since . She is dhss and topped up her rent which was often late. At one stage she was £1300 in arrears. This was partly the agents fault. Bizarrely she threatened me with going to a solicitor as she owed me money and i had toldbher if she didnt resolve this she could go. As it emerged an agreement to pay it off over 10 months was the outcome. There have been other problens with ongoing irregular payments. I got fed up and asked her to go. She hasnt left and I gavecher a months notice followed by a solicitors letter to
ask her to go in 7 days but there has been no sign that this is likely to happen. I cant afford the protracted legal
proceedings and I suspect she will stop paying altogether.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Better_Days

Join a LL association so that you are fully aware of all your obligations as a LL, and how to evict your tenant complying with the relevant legislation. Is the property in England/Wales or Scotland?

pinkshoes

Moneymaid wrote: »

Hi I need some advice. I was in a difficlt financial situation and as part of this I rented out my home approx 4 years ago as a non resident landlord. The person I rented to was initially given a 7 month lease but has been on a rolling monthly tenancy since . She is dhss and topped up her rent which was often late. At one stage she was £1300 in arrears. This was partly the agents fault. Bizarrely she threatened me with going to a solicitor as she owed me money and i had toldbher if she didnt resolve this she could go. As it emerged an agreement to pay it off over 10 months was the outcome. There have been other problens with ongoing irregular payments. I got fed up and asked her to go. She hasnt left and I gavecher a months notice followed by a solicitors letter to
ask her to go in 7 days but there has been no sign that this is likely to happen. I cant afford the protracted legal
proceedings and I suspect she will stop paying altogether.
Any advice would be appreciated.

er.... what do you mean by "asked her to go?"

Did you issue an S21 giving the correct notice period?

Is the deposit protected in one of the government schemes?

Better_Days

OP, plus review this excellent guide
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=52421475&postcount=6
as it appears you are unaware of the correct proceedure

jamie11

Before you go any further into this read and digest the excellent advice given by G_M in his sticky above. Do not even speak to your tenant again until you understand the correct way to end the tenancy.

The question above regarding the deposit and prescribed information is very important, answer it please.

kinger101

Merely "asking" someone to go is not considered as notice. It certainly cannot be done with 1 months notice.

At the very minimum, you need to issue a valid section 21 notice;

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/content/check-list-serving-valid-section-21-notice

https://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/386451/Is_your_section_21_notice_valid_Jan2014.pdf

Until this is done, you cannot even begin court proceedings to get her evicted. NB: it's likely that if the tenant is in financial difficultly, and they may be in a position where they need to be evicted before the council are willing to rehouse them.

If you have an agent, why aren't they providing advice on the correct action?

dancingfairy

If she is still in arrears you should probably sent a rent statement showing outstanding rent due. This won't be relevant if you are serving a S21 no fault notice but it doesn't hurt to get all your ducks in a row. You can also then rely on this evidence when you come to claim it back from her deposit.
Was a deposit taken and was it protected? If it has been taken but not protected and the correct information served then you will need to attend to this (ie strongly consider giving it back to her in FULL) before you even think about serving notice (or it won't be valid).
IF you get it right then you are looking at possibly 6 months to get the tenant out legally. Obviously if you get it wrong it could be longer
1 month and the 7 days is complete rubbish and is likely to have done more harm than good. (I can't believe a competent solicitor would write such a letter for you (as it's complete rubbish and has no standing in law)).
The good news is there is plenty of info around on the internet and plenty of help on here so there is no need to appoint a solicitor.
df

agrinnall

Moneymaid wrote: »

I cant afford the protracted legal
proceedings

What you really mean is you can't afford NOT to take legal proceedings should that become necessary (which seems quite likely given the circumstances).

Moneymaid

Reference GOV.UK RE SECTION 8

"To give your tenants notice using a Section 8, you must fill in a!‘Notice seeking possession of a property let on an assured tenancy or an assured agricultural occupancy’.You can give between 2 weeks’ and 2 months’ notice depending on which terms of the tenancy they’ve broken."

In 'asking her to go ' read a section 8 was served.

She was given 30 days notice. This has been followed by a
letter seeking possession in another week. I am using a very
reputable solicitor firm well schooled in this. The property and
I are in northern ireland.





With regard to the deposit she only had a lease for 7 months at the beginning of the tenancy in august 2010. See reference re deposit protection scheme below.








property and I are in Northern Ireland.

In reference to the deposit protection scheme ...

Moneymaid

You may be aware that new legislation concerning tenancy deposits will be operational from 1st April 2013 meaning that any deposit taken by us after this date must be protected in either an insurance based or a custodial scheme.

!

This legislation is not retrospective; however upon a current lease being renewed after this date your tenant can insist their deposit is protected.! In such event we will ask that you provide us with their deposit so that we may protect it in a scheme.orry last message was playing up so will submit info on deposit protection scheme

G_M

So tenant is in rent arrears.

You have servd a S8 Notice.

you have "a very reputable solicitor firm well schooled in this."

So provided you continue to follow the correct procedure you will be able to evict this tenant.

what exactly are you asking us here....?

I don't know if N Ireland procedure is the same as england, but if this was England I would advise you to serve a S21 Notice with 2 months as well as the S8 just in case....

If you wish to avoid "protracted legal proceedings", I understand that in N Ireland there are various non-jurisdictional groups that operate their own methods to enforce compliance.