Eviction process court

Soundgirlrocks

Hi All,

Hoping to pick the brains of some of the professional landlords on here regarding the eviction process.

Background - I am the director for a residents management company, we have flat in the building where the tenants are causing considerable distress to other residents (drug taking, fights, verbal abuse and sexual harassment) the anti social behaviour is being logged with the police, and has been going on for over 2 years.

The landlord has been made aware of the problems from the start and claims he is trying to evict and that there are very large rent arrears as well. However he has been claiming that he is evicting for nearly 10 months, and there seems to be no progress. He is going for a section 21 eviction.

I have asked him to provide evidence that he is evicting which he says he can't supply because of data protection. Can someone tell me what documents he would have received from the court regarding the eviction hearing and if they would contain and sensitive information regarding his tenant? Is there any way we as a residents association can verify he is actually going though the eviction process?

We are now at the point of pursing him for breach of his lease for allowing antisocial and illegal behaviour at the property but I don't want to be unfair if he legitimately trying to evict the problem tenant.

Many Thanks

wesleyad

If he is evicting using S21 then its a no fault eviction and if done properly cannot fail in court. It can take time but 10 months is quite long. He must surely have had a court hearing at this point? There's no reason he cannot tell you which stage the process is at (court, bailiffs etc). The average time to get to court from serving the S21 is 4 months.

More likely he messed up the S21 by not protecting a deposit or many other reasons.

G_M

This link will show you how easy it is to get a S21 Notice wrong, meaning when it goes to court after 2+ months it gets thrown out and the LL has to start again.


S21 checklist (Is a S21 valid?)


However if there are rent arrears he should also be serving a S8 Notice. This is quicker, and harder to get wrong.


There are 2 grounds that can be used:


ground 8 if the arrears are greater than 2 months rent, both when the S8 is served and when it gets to court. In that scenario, the court has to evct.


ground 10 for any amount of arrears. However in this scenario the court has discrestion and may decide not to evict.

Soundgirlrocks

wesleyad wrote: »

If he is evicting using S21 then its a no fault eviction and if done properly cannot fail in court. It can take time but 10 months is quite long. He must surely have had a court hearing at this point? There's no reason he cannot tell you which stage the process is at (court, bailiffs etc). The average time to get to court from serving the S21 is 4 months.

More likely he messed up the S21 by not protecting a deposit or many other reasons.

My thoughts exactly which is why I'm trying to find out exactly what is going on. We have had issues in the past with the Landlord (to long to go into, and irrelevant to the current situation but enough to say I don't trust him as far as I can throw him) That said he lets several properties out and I would have though him too canny to be caught out by not protecting the deposit.

Ideally I'd just like a copy of the court documents with a date for hearing to show it is happening. His excuse for the delay is its London, the courts are over stretched and the court also lost the original paperwork so the date has been shifted.

Soundgirlrocks

G_M wrote: »

This link will show you how easy it is to get a S21 Notice wrong, meaning when it goes to court after 2+ months it gets thrown out and the LL has to start again.


S21 checklist (Is a S21 valid?)



However if there are rent arrears he should also be serving a S8 Notice. This is quicker, and harder to get wrong.


There are 2 grounds that can be used:


ground 8 if the arrears are greater than 2 months rent, both when the S8 is served and when it gets to court. In that scenario, the court has to evct.


ground 10 for any amount of arrears. However in this scenario the court has discrestion and may decide not to evict.

Thanks GM! The arrears are a huge amount, I don't think the landlord is overly worried as there is a guarantor who owns a property outright to go after for that (Why any professional landlord would let them get to the amount they have is beyond me!)

Are there extra costs for going for a section 8 eviction? I asked if that was the eviction process he was following and was told he was considering it but it would cost him another £1500.

Comms69

Soundgirlrocks wrote: »

Hi All,

Hoping to pick the brains of some of the professional landlords on here regarding the eviction process.

Background - I am the director for a residents management company, we have flat in the building where the tenants are causing considerable distress to other residents (drug taking, fights, verbal abuse and sexual harassment) the anti social behaviour is being logged with the police, and has been going on for over 2 years.

The landlord has been made aware of the problems from the start and claims he is trying to evict and that there are very large rent arrears as well. However he has been claiming that he is evicting for nearly 10 months, and there seems to be no progress. He is going for a section 21 eviction.

I have asked him to provide evidence that he is evicting which he says he can't supply because of data protection. - Indeed, and that it's absolutely none of your business Can someone tell me what documents he would have received from the court regarding the eviction hearing and if they would contain and sensitive information regarding his tenant? Is there any way we as a residents association can verify he is actually going though the eviction process? - No. It's not your business

We are now at the point of pursing him for breach of his lease for allowing antisocial and illegal behaviour at the property but I don't want to be unfair if he legitimately trying to evict the problem tenant. - I doubt you're aware of the process for doing so

Many Thanks

Illegal activity needs to be reported to the authorities

G_M

Soundgirlrocks wrote: »

Are there extra costs for going for a section 8 eviction? I asked if that was the eviction process he was following and was told he was considering it but it would cost him another £1500.

Not sure what the court fee is for a S8, but nothing like that. I suspect that includes fees for employing a solicitor which is a) completely uneccesary and b) not reclaimable.

If he wins, he can claim the court fees back (from the guarantor if necesary), but not legal fees.


edit:
https://www.rla.org.uk/landlord/documents/rent_arrears/complete_courtPapers.shtml

Make the copies and send your cheque for £355 payable to HM Courts and Tribunals Service to the County Court.

babyblade41

Section 8 is fairly straight forward . I did it without legal advice as long as every form is filled correctly without any difference in spelling of names etc
You also have to give the correct notice and has to be at least 2 months in arrears before applying
S21 is no fault , section 8 is where a fault lies within sections allowed , predominantly arrears.
Depending on courts and where you live is the time which is determined , but most of paperwork is filed online until court hearing
On court date the contract , S8 notice , summary of arrears and notice served is what you need.
Defendant can counterclaim so deposit must have been put in a deposit scheme or the court will just throw it out again
Fees are a couple of hundred pounds max
I was in court last January and defendant called lan hour before stating their child was ill. Judge still heard the case as no defence was submitted.
Use PCOL , you will probably need to apply for bailiff as well

Soundgirlrocks

Comms69 wrote: »

Illegal activity needs to be reported to the authorities

As I said it is being logged with the police.

It is my business because I have a duty of care to the other residents as the director of the management company. If the landlord is not taking action to remove the problem tenant then I need to escalate it to the leasehold tribunal as he is in breach of his lease by allowing illegal and antisocial behaviour at the property.

childofbaahl

Is the landlord not able to scan the documents you need and black out the personal information? All you need is proof that he is proceeding with the eviction in a timely fashion, so as long as the dates and relevant information is viewable, he should be able to black out the names and personal information.