How much time, on average, for the landlord to evict me? 1 February at 1:48AM in House buying, renting & selling 36 replies 4.3K views

stranglekelp

Hi all!

I have been renting at this place since 2018. The landlord's been absolutely fine until recently (only ever saw him twice for an inspection), then he became horrendous. Our fixed term contract expired Sept, 22 and it is now just rolling, which he was fine with.

Then, I believe his new mortgage payments have started, he went ballistic, demanding a new contract with a nearly 30% increase. I have plainly refused it and invited him to send me a rent increase form and I'll then challenge it and settle to whatever the result is. However, he has refused to do so and keeps asking for a new contract to be signed, which I've again refused. I would have eventually settled, as part of civilised negotiations, to up to a 10% increase, which would bring it in line to current market value (as much as I can see). However, due to his behaviour I am now plainly refusing and will not be staying longer than necessary even if he just gives up and leaves me alone.

Therefore, I am assuming at some point I will be served a S21 notice. No major bother, because luckily I am able to fall-back to a friend who has kindly offered to assist us with an interim property, should it come to that. We are also in the middle of looking for houses to buy, so would like to avoid having to move twice/thrice, but I am stubborn and will fight my ground, even if not financially the best choice.

There's been no gas safety check since I moved in, so before any S21 notices he'll have to do that first, presumably. Let's assume that gets done quickly and then I receive my S21 notice on 01/03, and for the sake of the argument, let's say it's immediately a completely valid notice. From my understanding, 2 months will end on 01/05. As I am not moving, he goes for a possession order. I don't leave when the possession order, so he applies for bailiffs. I then leave the day before the bailiffs attend to avoid any hassle.

What timescale am I looking here, with all the backlogs and everything? 6-9 months? More, less? I'm hoping that if I'm it's long enough it gives me time to complete my house purchase.

Any feedback is appreciated, many thanks.

_Penny_Dreadful

stranglekelp said:

Hi all!

I have been renting at this place since 2018. The landlord's been absolutely fine until recently (only ever saw him twice for an inspection), then he became horrendous. Our fixed term contract expired Sept, 22 and it is now just rolling, which he was fine with.

Then, I believe his new mortgage payments have started, he went ballistic, demanding a new contract with a nearly 30% increase. I have plainly refused it and invited him to send me a rent increase form and I'll then challenge it and settle to whatever the result is. However, he has refused to do so and keeps asking for a new contract to be signed, which I've again refused. I would have eventually settled, as part of civilised negotiations, to up to a 10% increase, which would bring it in line to current market value (as much as I can see). However, due to his behaviour I am now plainly refusing and will not be staying longer than necessary even if he just gives up and leaves me alone.

Therefore, I am assuming at some point I will be served a S21 notice. No major bother, because luckily I am able to fall-back to a friend who has kindly offered to assist us with an interim property, should it come to that. We are also in the middle of looking for houses to buy, so would like to avoid having to move twice/thrice, but I am stubborn and will fight my ground, even if not financially the best choice.

There's been no gas safety check since I moved in, so before any S21 notices he'll have to do that first, presumably. Let's assume that gets done quickly and then I receive my S21 notice on 01/03, and for the sake of the argument, let's say it's immediately a completely valid notice. From my understanding, 2 months will end on 01/05. As I am not moving, he goes for a possession order. I don't leave when the possession order, so he applies for bailiffs. I then leave the day before the bailiffs attend to avoid any hassle.

What timescale am I looking here, with all the backlogs and everything? 6-9 months? More, less? I'm hoping that if I'm it's long enough it gives me time to complete my house purchase.

Any feedback is appreciated, many thanks.

It’s possible that as your landlord never provided a gas safety certificate at the start of your tenancy that he may never be able to issue a valid Section 21 especially if he never provided the certificate because he didn’t have the gas safety inspection done. It’s a bit of a grey area legally speaking. 

https://nearlylegal.co.uk/2020/06/the-trecarrell-conundrum/

Plus there are plenty of other “oversights” that can invalidate a Section 21. 

https://nearlylegal.co.uk/section-21-flowchart/

Sapindus

Tell your landlord you are looking to move out soon anyway at which point he will be able to set a new rent, and that if he just waits until then it will save you all a lot of time, money and bother.

deannagone

If everything goes smoothly, it used to take 4 months for an eviction process to complete. I went through one.  But now, who knows, depends on how long wait times for the court to hear a case in your area (phone the local courts)?  Remember that going through the complete process will cost you another £500 for court charges which will be awarded against you.

As you have discussed, with no gas certificate, it will take a lot longer, particularly if the LL doesn't get one before the process starts.  Is your deposit protected?  Check.  This is another reason a S21 can fail.  If not protected, the deposit will have to be returned to you before the eviction process starts.

If things aren't done properly and the LL is unable to get a possession order for the above two reasons, they will be paying the court fees until they get it right.

SusieT

As above, what other things have not been done? If the landlord issues the S21 before getting the gas cert, and only discovers that it is needed when you go to court and say dear judge the S21 is not valid as there is no gas cert, then it will give you a decent amount of time to find somewhere to buy. 

GDB2222

Sapindus said:

Tell your landlord you are looking to move out soon anyway at which point he will be able to set a new rent, and that if he just waits until then it will save you all a lot of time, money and bother.

It does seem to me that the OP is headed for a highly stressful period ahead. The landlord may hire a lawyer who specialises in this area, and gets everything right, and possibly may find some mandatory grounds for repossession under S8, etc. 

sourpuss2021

GDB2222 said:

Sapindus said:

Tell your landlord you are looking to move out soon anyway at which point he will be able to set a new rent, and that if he just waits until then it will save you all a lot of time, money and bother.

It does seem to me that the OP is headed for a highly stressful period ahead. 

And so is the landlord, by the sound of it!!

macman

Why have you not raised the issue of a missing GSC, 4+ years running? It's your safety that is endangered, and that of your neighbours.
This is a serious criminal offence, so I suggest you use it to your advantage in your negotiations? A cash payment for early surrender is the obvious tactic to use,
Sitting it out until the bailiffs are due will simply result in you being liable for the extra cots involved. Due to your LL's incompetence, you hold all the cards in this situation, so why refuse to negotiate?

MobileSaver

stranglekelp said:

I am stubborn and will fight my ground, even if not financially the best choice. ... he goes for a possession order. I don't leave when the possession order, so he applies for bailiffs. I then leave the day before the bailiffs attend to avoid any hassle.

Just to be absolutely clear, you do realise that you will likely be the one that ends up paying for many of the extra costs involved?

For someone taking umbrage at increased rental amounts this does seem to be very much cutting off your nose to spite your face!

stranglekelp

_Penny_Dreadful said:

It’s possible that as your landlord never provided a gas safety certificate at the start of your tenancy that he may never be able to issue a valid Section 21 especially if he never provided the certificate because he didn’t have the gas safety inspection done. It’s a bit of a grey area legally speaking. 

I can't recall anymore whether he has provided one when I moved in, it's quite possible he either provided one at the start of the tenancy, or slightly afterwards, as there was a gas man doing checks about 2 months after we moved in.

However, that certificate would expire sometime in late 2019 or early 2020, and there were no gas inspections since. So I am presuming that there is no valid gas safety certificate in existence anymore, so the S21 cannot be valid until he gets a new one, even if I were to receive a S21 tomorrow?

stranglekelp

Sapindus said:

Tell your landlord you are looking to move out soon anyway at which point he will be able to set a new rent, and that if he just waits until then it will save you all a lot of time, money and bother.

I've tried everything by now, but all he ever wants is for me to sign a new contract with the increased rent for a minimum of 12 months, he requested an inspection recently and came with a prepared contract asking me to sign it there and then.

I refused, hence being told between the lines that a S21 notice is incoming.

deannagone said:

 Remember that going through the complete process will cost you another £500 for court charges which will be awarded against you.

I get that, but paying that amount of money once he eventually gets it right in a few months is still cheaper than his increased rent for 3 months...