What's the best way to give tenants notice to vacate

Giraffe76

Hi all,

My wife has been renting out a property since the start of the year on a initial 12 month contract but she has told me that she wants to move back there.
I understand that we can't give the tenants a non fault notice to leave the property at the moment but could we give them notice to leave 2 months from the end of the tenancy so that they move out at the end of the initial 12 month contract?

Any help or advice would be appreciated

Kind regards Mark 

sevenhills

If you want to avoid legal costs, you could offer them £2,000 to move out, but that would be risky if it went wrong.
Are they likely to want to leave?

CKhalvashi

Good morning!

Assuming England;

It doesn't exactly work like this, the agreement will be ended either by the tenant or a court.

You can (at the moment, this is subject to change under government policy), however, issue a S21 2 months before the agreement is due to end and then proceed through the courts if the tenant wishes to stay. This at the moment is taking a few extra months to process.

There is likely to remain a similar provision for no fault evictions in the circumstances you describe, however I'm basing this from expectations the new legislation will remain something like Scottish law, which is widely expected but not guaranteed. There are not yet timescales for the passing of the Renters Reform Bill.

Giraffe76

sevenhills said:

If you want to avoid legal costs, you could offer them £2,000 to move out, but that would be risky if it went wrong.
Are they likely to want to leave?

Hi,
The tenants said that they want to stay there for a long time to build up their credit score so that they can then apply for a mortgage to buy their own property so given that they would want to stay at least 3 years.

Giraffe76

CKhalvashi said:

Good morning!

Assuming England;

It doesn't exactly work like this, the agreement will be ended either by the tenant or a court.

You can (at the moment, this is subject to change under government policy), however, issue a S21 2 months before the agreement is due to end and then proceed through the courts if the tenant wishes to stay. This at the moment is taking a few extra months to process.

There is likely to remain a similar provision for no fault evictions in the circumstances you describe, however I'm basing this from expectations the new legislation will remain something like Scottish law, which is widely expected but not guaranteed. There are not yet timescales for the passing of the Renters Reform Bill.

Hi

It is England where the property is.
I'm.not sure how they would react If we gave them notice to leave.
So given the fact that it will take a few extra months to proceed through the courts if it goes that far then we could be looking at about march/ April time 2024 to be getting the house back

CKhalvashi

Giraffe76 said:

sevenhills said:

If you want to avoid legal costs, you could offer them £2,000 to move out, but that would be risky if it went wrong.
Are they likely to want to leave?

Hi,
The tenants said that they want to stay there for a long time to build up their credit score so that they can then apply for a mortgage to buy their own property so given that they would want to stay at least 3 years.

On a credit score basis, a move on its own after a year shouldn't have too much difference. We were able to make a reasonably significant financing transaction (for business) at around the same time as we moved, however this will be circumstance specific.

If they are new to the UK (as your post may imply) then the circumstances may be a little more complicated.

CKhalvashi

Giraffe76 said:

CKhalvashi said:

Good morning!

Assuming England;

It doesn't exactly work like this, the agreement will be ended either by the tenant or a court.

You can (at the moment, this is subject to change under government policy), however, issue a S21 2 months before the agreement is due to end and then proceed through the courts if the tenant wishes to stay. This at the moment is taking a few extra months to process.

There is likely to remain a similar provision for no fault evictions in the circumstances you describe, however I'm basing this from expectations the new legislation will remain something like Scottish law, which is widely expected but not guaranteed. There are not yet timescales for the passing of the Renters Reform Bill.

Hi

It is England where the property is.
I'm.not sure how they would react If we gave them notice to leave.
So given the fact that it will take a few extra months to proceed through the courts if it goes that far then we could be looking at about march/ April time 2024 to be getting the house back

Assuming (say) January is the fixed term end date, that would be a reasonable guess.

There are significant changes to the legislation going through Parliament at the moment in the form of the Renters Reform Bill, so this may impact things further. This will affect England however is expected to look something broadly similar to the current Scottish law. Take a look at the rights under Assured Tenancies (not Assured Shorthold), as the requirements are likely to be similar.

The current status is here. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8756/

It's likely that all ASTs will be converted at a specific date once the new legislation comes into effect, which is why I'm warning you now that the legislation may change between now and the end of the year.

MultiFuelBurner

Personally the first step should not be to throw £2000 at your tenants. Such a bad more in so many ways and extremely poor advice as a first step.

You should however open up the conversation with them now so they know the score come the end of the tenancy. Plans have changed etc to give them as much notice as possible and perhaps and also tell them their are no penalties if they find another property sooner.

Gauge their reaction and then consider your next steps such as adding a sweetener (if necessary)

sourpuss2021

What’s the backstory, is it that you are living with your wife and she wants to evict her tenants rather than continue residing with you in the marital home?

Giraffe76

sourpuss2021 said:

What’s the backstory, is it that you are living with your wife and she wants to evict her tenants rather than continue residing with you in the marital home?

Hi, that's not the case. She has just expressed an interest in moving back to the property.

MultiFuelBurner

That does beg the question does an interest translate as "will be"