Evicting tenant - eviction service/solicitor firm

mandm65

Hi Guys
Just need bit of advice on eviction service/solicitor firm.
My tenants living in the property for some time and I would like to have the house back for some major renovation work, it has not been kept well at all. I explained the situation to the tenants and they asked me to serve the S21, which I did. I believe they are claiming housing benefit and perhaps council advised them to do so. The two months period is over and they said they/council have not found alternative accommodation for them so they are not moving out and I need to go through the court to the property back, I was quite shocked to hear that!
I would like to engage evection service/solicitors firm to take over the eviction process as I dont have the time to go through this myself.
I would like to if anyone has gone through the process of engaging eviction service/solicitors firm and/or have any recommendations/pointers?
Cheers

princeofpounds

A normal solicitor with tenancy experience will have no problem at all with a normal S21 as long as it has been correctly served, as there is no defence available. That issue of correctly serving is the first thing to check.

You don't need to engage a solicitor at all really. If you pay attention to detail with serving the notice correctly it is not remotely hard. But the delay from messing it up could be expensive so if you choose to pay can understand that.

You may find simply serving court papers is enough to get the council moving.

There is a further issue in that councils are no longer supposed to wait until it hits court, a practice known as 'gatekeeping'. But it doesn't help you right now.

mandm65

Thnaks for your input.
Unsure what is gatekeeping?
Yep i apprecaite that process requires paying attention to detail but due to personal circumtaances its not an oiption at the mo.

Pixie5740

Gatekeeping is when councils advise tenants to stay put until bailiffs physically remove them from the property and then find somewhere for them to live. Councils are supposed to do this but due to the shortage of social housing they do.

Pixie5740

You might find this thread useful:

Ending/Renewing an AST.

princeofpounds

Gatekeeping is where councils wait until the landlord actually launches a court order or wins a court order for eviction, before taking action.


They basically hope that the tenant sorts themselves out in the meantime, and it can help reduce the burden on their limited housing resources.


Of course, none of this would happen if some people weren't incentivised to try for council housing every time a tenancy was ending, given the below-market rents and cushy long-term tenancies on offer.


So often getting a private landlord to evict you is just a way to get more points for your social housing application.

G_M

I doubt ou will save much time by using a solicitor - you will have to explain to him, in detail, the full circumstances, dates etc, and provide him with the documents (tenancy agreement, S21 etc).

You might as well just do that for the court direct and save yourself the money.

However, if you want to, use a local solicitor for convenience, but make sure they are accustomed to tenancy law. With a small firm, the partner(s) will generally not specialise and might or might not come across this kind of work often. Don't be afraid to ask.

With a large firm, some partners/solicitors will specialise in criminal, others in Probate, others in property/tenancy etc

giddypenguin

G_M wrote: »

I doubt ou will save much time by using a solicitor - you will have to explain to him, in detail, the full circumstances, dates etc, and provide him with the documents (tenancy agreement, S21 etc).

You might as well just do that for the court direct and save yourself the money.

However, if you want to, use a local solicitor for convenience, but make sure they are accustomed to tenancy law. With a small firm, the partner(s) will generally not specialise and might or might not come across this kind of work often. Don't be afraid to ask.

With a large firm, some partners/solicitors will specialise in criminal, others in Probate, others in property/tenancy etc

A female solicitor wouldn't do?

Guest101

giddypenguin wrote: »

A female solicitor wouldn't do?

Ooh can i recommend Missko on this forum - she's great....

jjlandlord

giddypenguin wrote: »

A female solicitor wouldn't do?

Female solicitors are practically men.

princeofpounds

A female solicitor wouldn't do?

We could refer to all solicitors as 'it'.


Personally think that might be more appropriate to estate agents.