Letting Agent messed up the Notice to Quit to our tenant

BarleySugar

We bought a ground floor apartment a few years ago, in readiness for being less mobile. We rented it out till such time as we needed it. In July we asked our letting agents to give our tenants notice to quit so we could move into it (3 months notice due to Covid), and put our house on the market. Our house sold easily but our tenants say they cannot find a suitable property to rent and have not moved out. We then asked a lawyer (who was recommended to us by the the letting agents) to move to eviction proceedings. The lawyer found 5 mistakes in the notice to quit documents and recommended reissuing them correctly. We have moved into temporary accommodation and will now be here 3 months longer due to their mistakes.
They have offered to pay the legal costs of reissuing the notice to quit and will not charge the management fee until our tenant vacates. Does this compensation seem reasonable? 

BarleySugar

I should have said we are in Scotland

macman

If you re-serve the S21 now then you will have to give 6m notice, not 3m. It's not clear if you are aware of that?
On what basis are you assuming that the tenant will vacate at the end of the 6m notice period? If they don't, it will take you 6 to 9m to evict them, given the current court backlog. So, maybe Xmas 2021 if you are lucky.
To decide what is reasonable compo, we need to know what your quantifiable losses are, but, on the face of it, their offer seems derisory.

[Deleted User]

macman said:

If you re-serve the S21 now then you will have to give 6m notice, not 3m. It's not clear if you are aware of that?
On what basis are you assuming that the tenant will vacate at the end of the 6m notice period? If they don't, it will take you 6 to 9m to evict them, given the current court backlog. So, maybe Xmas 2021 if you are lucky.
To decide what is reasonable compo, we need to know what your quantifiable losses are, but, on the face of it, their offer seems derisory.

The OP is in Scotland so Section 21 doesn’t apply. 

unforeseen

Scotland you currently have to give 6 months notice. If it is the end of the 3 month notice now then that was wrong anyway as it has been 6 months since April 2020.
Also all grounds for eviction are now discretionary so you may not have got them out even if the notice was correct.

First mistake appears to be that the OP failed to investigate legislation changes since the pandemic began

BarleySugar

We’re have been informed that 3 months is allowed because we want to move into our own property.

AdrianC

Scotland differs, of course, but in England and Wales, s8g1 - "We want to move back in to our own place" - only applies when you previously lived there, and is the same notice period as s21.

I leave it to others as to the accurate situation in Scotland, but it seems to me from reading this that ALL grounds are now discretionary and six months...
https://www.mygov.scot/ending-a-tenancy-as-a-landlord/private-residential-tenancies/

[Deleted User]

BarleySugar said:

We bought a ground floor apartment a few years ago, in readiness for being less mobile. We rented it out till such time as we needed it. In July we asked our letting agents to give our tenants notice to quit so we could move into it (3 months notice due to Covid), and put our house on the market. Our house sold easily but our tenants say they cannot find a suitable property to rent and have not moved out. We then asked a lawyer (who was recommended to us by the the letting agents) to move to eviction proceedings. The lawyer found 5 mistakes in the notice to quit documents and recommended reissuing them correctly. We have moved into temporary accommodation and will now be here 3 months longer due to their mistakes.
They have offered to pay the legal costs of reissuing the notice to quit and will not charge the management fee until our tenant vacates. Does this compensation seem reasonable? 

Is a few years ago before or after 1st December 2017?

If it’s after and a Private Rental Tenancy is in place then notice to leaved served after 3rd October 2020 is 6 months for most grounds of eviction except for antisocial and criminal behaviour and where the landlord or their family need to move into the property. In the case where the landlord or their family need to move into the property then the notice period is 3 months. However all grounds for eviction have become discretionary until at least 31st March 2021. 

https://www.mygov.scot/private-tenant-eviction/grounds-for-eviction-private-residential-tenancies-if-your-landlord-starts-the-eviction-process-on-or-after-3-october-2020-and-on-or-before-31-march-2021/

If on the other hand the tenancy began before 1st December 2017 and there is a Short Assured Tenancy in place the process of eviction is slightly different but the rules and notice periods are broadly similar to those of the PRT at the moment. 

https://www.mygov.scot/private-tenant-eviction/grounds-for-eviction-assured-and-short-assured-tenancies-if-your-landlord-starts-the-eviction-process-on-or-after-3-october-2020-and-on-or-before-31-march-2021/

[Deleted User]

unforeseen said:

Scotland you currently have to give 6 months notice. If it is the end of the 3 month notice now then that was wrong anyway as it has been 6 months since April 2020.
Also all grounds for eviction are now discretionary so you may not have got them out even if the notice was correct.

First mistake appears to be that the OP failed to investigate legislation changes since the pandemic began

The notice period is currently 3 months if the ground for eviction is the landlord needing to move in to the property. 

[Deleted User]

BarleySugar said:

We bought a ground floor apartment a few years ago, in readiness for being less mobile. We rented it out till such time as we needed it. In July we asked our letting agents to give our tenants notice to quit so we could move into it (3 months notice due to Covid), and put our house on the market. Our house sold easily but our tenants say they cannot find a suitable property to rent and have not moved out. We then asked a lawyer (who was recommended to us by the the letting agents) to move to eviction proceedings. The lawyer found 5 mistakes in the notice to quit documents and recommended reissuing them correctly. We have moved into temporary accommodation and will now be here 3 months longer due to their mistakes.
They have offered to pay the legal costs of reissuing the notice to quit and will not charge the management fee until our tenant vacates. Does this compensation seem reasonable? 

No legal costs for having to re-issue the notice and no management fees until the tenant leaves is probably as good as it’s going to get. 

steampowered

Yes, that sounds very reasonable - generous, even.

Notices to quit are highly technical documents. You cannot realistically expect an estate agent to be familiar with all of the law and to guarantee to get it right. I know you are in Scotland but this flowchart gives you some idea: https://431bj62hscf91kqmgj258yg6-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/s21updatedSept2020-2-1.pdf

 If you wanted to be able to rely on the Notice to Quit being fully correct from the start, you should have got a lawyer involved from the start.

You are running a lettings business at the end of the day. You cannot expect the tenant to move out at a time convenient to you. Evicting them could take months. Could you be better off reaching an agreement with your tenant and paying them compensation to leave?