How can I evict my tenant in rent arrears when I didn’t protect deposit

christian78

I’m a landlord who has a tenant on benefits on a short hold assured tenancy which is now just rolling over month to month.

The tenant is approximately 3-4 months in rent arrears. I also need to get the property back as I need to live in it myself. I have served a section 21 notice previously but they ignored it.

I have since discovered that as I haven’t protected their deposit it makes things complicated. In my defence they were immediately in arrears by the time the council paid part of their deposit and I never received it in full so I had to use the money to cover the rent arrears in the first month.

I finally got housing benefit paid directly to me but it’s still £140 pmonth short which they have also never paid. I used to send reminders by text each month but I have become apathetic and drained by it all

Anyway. I need my flat back ASAP as I need to live in it due to family breakdown and want to claim for the rent arrears too. I have looked at using a section 8 notice but will this even work.

What should I do??

spadoosh

christian78 wrote: »

I’m a landlord who has a tenant on benefits on a short hold assured tenancy which is now just rolling over month to month.

The tenant is approximately 3-4 months in rent arrears. I also need to get the property back as I need to live in it myself. I have served a section 21 notice previously but they ignored it.

I have since discovered that as I haven’t protected their deposit it makes things complicated. In my defence they were immediately in arrears by the time the council paid part of their deposit and I never received it in full so I had to use the money to cover the rent arrears in the first month.

I finally got housing benefit paid directly to me but it’s still £140 pmonth short which they have also never paid. I used to send reminders by text each month but I have become apathetic and drained by it all

Anyway. I need my flat back ASAP as I need to live in it due to family breakdown and want to claim for the rent arrears too. I have looked at using a section 8 notice but will this even work.

What should I do??

Make your own rules up, you seem to have done so far.

theartfullodger

s21 is therefore invalid. Return deposit TODAY (unless you have written agreement from tenant to use it for arrears). You can then serve valid s21 tomorrow. Check it's validity here....
https://nearlylegal.co.uk/section-21-flowchart/

Tenant is entitled to sue you for up to 3x deposit due to you flouting a more-than-10-year old law twice passed by parliament.

Serve s8 grounds 8, 10 & 11 TODAY. It expires in 14 days, then you can take to court, but easily defended by tenant over repair issues (that you may consider spurious but judge will likely adjourn & investigate).

That you need somewhere to live is your problem. Unlikely to evict tenant for several months, certainly not this year. In your shoes I issue s8 but evict with s21.

What training did you do in being a landlord & landlord/tenant law?



Painful lessons: I made worse, more expensive, longer drawn out, more difficult to resolve: So I decided to learn... - cheaper than the alternative....

Comms69

christian78 wrote: »

I’m a landlord who has a tenant on benefits on a short hold assured tenancy which is now just rolling over month to month.

The tenant is approximately 3-4 months in rent arrears. I also need to get the property back as I need to live in it myself. I have served a section 21 notice previously but they ignored it.

I have since discovered that as I haven’t protected their deposit it makes things complicated. In my defence they were immediately in arrears by the time the council paid part of their deposit and I never received it in full so I had to use the money to cover the rent arrears in the first month.

I finally got housing benefit paid directly to me but it’s still £140 pmonth short which they have also never paid. I used to send reminders by text each month but I have become apathetic and drained by it all

Anyway. I need my flat back ASAP as I need to live in it due to family breakdown and want to claim for the rent arrears too. I have looked at using a section 8 notice but will this even work.

What should I do??

Yes s.8 should work.

theartfullodger

S8, if landlord loses,tenant can have his costs awarded against landlord which can be £ks....

Wanderingpomm

Protect the deposit immediately and then go to court for baliffs
It sounds like you didn’t get a full deposit anyway?
Was it listed as a deposit in the tenancy agreement?

Soundgirlrocks

christian78 wrote: »

I have since discovered that as I haven’t protected their deposit it makes things complicated. In my defence they were immediately in arrears by the time the council paid part of their deposit and I never received it in full so I had to use the money to cover the rent arrears in the first month.

You have received some excellent advice, I'm just wondering if how anyone can prove that the money you received was the deposit if they were already in arrears, and not explicitly referenced as deposit money v rent owed?

theartfullodger

Wanderingpomm wrote: »

Protect the deposit immediately and then go to court for baliffs

But s21 invalid, and protecting it doesn't change that. Your suggestion is, IMHO, a waste of time & money and likely to p*ss off court.

Wanderingpomm

theartfullodger wrote: »

But s21 invalid, and protecting it doesn't change that. Your suggestion is, IMHO, a waste of time & money and likely to p*ss off court.

So you suggest that they just get to stay without paying rent?
The LL can either return the ‘part’ deposit they received or protect it.

foxy-stoat

spadoosh wrote: »

Make your own rules up, you seem to have done so far.

While your at it, just refund the deposit and offset it against the rent arrears, send them a statement and your'll be slightly better off when they finally go.

christian78

Without doubt I’ve made some obvious errors so I understand it won’t be simple. I’m an accidental landlord if u can call it that. Was unable to sell due to depressed market at the time and didn’t do my homework regarding protecting the deposit.

Thanks for advice theartfullodger. Just to be clear. Is it worth also using s21 with deposit issues. Or would s8 on it’s own suffice?? Also what did you mean by “repair issues”??