section 21 served to tenant, the moving date is 31st July 2021. When can I apply for court eviction

LesleySpence · 13 July 2021 at 12:49AM

In October 2020 my tenants gave me notice, this was set for 31st November 2020.
Unfortunately for my tenant, her husband had left the premises and gave notice without her knowledge, but as it was a joint tenancy, that stood for all members of the household.
When she advised me she had not been aware of his intention to give notice, in a written agreement I extended the notice period to 28th February 2021. I had no desire to see her and her children in the street with no roof over her head.
She informed me in February that she still had not found alternative accommodation so I further agreed to extend the notice period, only this time I served a S21 notice, at this point the corona virus ruling of 6 months was still in force. So the S21 runs out on 31st July 2021.
Later in. Feb 2021 she informed me she had found a property but she would have to move on the 1st April 2021. Which although very short notice, I agreed to.
(I am currently stuck in a foreign country with very little to survive on since I lost my paryner) I started making plans to sell my property and the house went on the market.
April 1st came and went, but I had not been contacted by my tenant, so I contacted her and she said her move had fallen through.
I had a buyer and as my tenant agreed in writing, to sign the sale contract to say she would vacate the property before or at completion, I carried on with the sale.
We are now 20 days away from the date stated in the section 21 and my tenant tells me that she can't find anywhere to move to and unless she does, she can't vacate on the given date as she must have a roof over her children's heads. (she has a 21 Yr old, 18yr old and 9 Yr old) My house sale is now in jeopardy.
I am broke, up to my ears in debt, can't get any help from either the UK govt or the govt of the country I live in.
I can't get home without selling my house and buying a cheaper one elsewhere.
The equity left from the sale of my house is the money I am relying on to get me home and clear my debts. Without the sale happening I will be destitute and homeless and no one seems to be able to advise me or help me.
Please has anyone got any advice that may help me resolve this?

tacpot12 · 13 July 2021 at 6:45AM

I'm sorry to hear about your problems, it sounds tough. I don't know how long the courts are currently taking to process possession cases. I assume you will use the accelerated possession process - my understanding is that this used to take six to eight weeks from the expiry of the S21 notice prior to the pandemic, and then upto 28 days (and 42 days if the tenant successfully pleads eviction will cause them hardship). I would assume that you are about two to three months away from being able to evict the tenant.

Your tenant is in breach of contract, due to the undertaking she signed to leave before the sale completed, but I don't know what remedy you have for this. Have you spoken to your home insurer's legal help line? (If the house is insured, you may have legal expenses cover.)

There are some other options you might consider:

Get a loan secured on your property that can be repaid from the sale proceeds. This would allow you to live until you complete the eviction and get back to the UK. You will find it much easier to arrange and manage the eviction if you are back in the UK.
Offering the tenant money to leave. If you offered her, say £1000, to leave the property before the completion date, she might well move as this money will help with the deposit on a new home and with any increase in rent, but I would not make the payment until she has signed a deed of surrender and handed back the keys to your agent in the UK. I would also require that the property is empty of all her possessions before paying the money, and that she provides you with her new address (and her bank details so you can pay her).

Note that if you go down the court route, you have to provide a statement to the court about any impact of Covid-19 on the tenant that you are aware of, so I would suggest you make a note of anything the tenant has told you about their situation or difficulties finding somewhere to move that have been cause by the pandemic or the government restrictions introduced to try to manage the effects of it.