Court process after section 21 notice served

muddlingmywaythrough

My friend has rented out her flat for years with a few different tenants without any issues. Last year her previous tenant gave notice after 14 years in the property and my friend instructed a local estate agents to find her a tenant only (not manage the property). The estate agents weren't very happy to not be allowed to manage the property but did find her a tenant. Fast forward a year (and without going into a long back story!) and this tenant has been served a Section 21 Notice. This (among many reasons) is due to causing considerable mould damage to the property, having 3 people (her and her 2 teenage children of different genders) in a 2 bed flat without telling the landlord (she told my friend she had an 8 month old baby when she moved in). My friend has had numerous complaints from other neighbours about noise, shouting/arguing/banging to such an extent the police were going to be called on a couple of occasions. The tenant has also been very obstructive when my friend asked to do a flat inspection after a year and was extremely confrontational when we did do an inspection.

Anyway, 2 months notice was served but the tenant has already made it clear she won't be going so the next step will be to apply to the court for a Possession Order and I wondered if anyone had any experience of this and can advise what to do and how to go about it? I found the form online though it is too early to do anything yet. Is the process fairly straightforward and relatively quick? I understand it will depend on different things but my friend has plenty of evidence against the tenant including the terms in the tenancy agreement she has broken. The tenant is now sending my friend, who is elderly so doesn't need the stress, very aggressive emails so I'm keen to get this sorted as soon as possible once the eviction date has passed. I wondered if, having read this, anyone would think the court is likely to rule in my friend's favour and she can proceed quickly with getting rid of the tenant. She's always had a good relationship with her previous tenants so has never had to take the court route before.

Brie

step one - does she have ALL the paperwork done properly?  deposit scheme, inventory, gas cert and about 85 other things.  Without these the tenant can't be moved out really.  No point in proceeding towards court if the case is going to thrown out because 1 form wasn't filled in or whatever.  If anything at all is missing the S21 needs to be served again.

propertyrental

Your first paragraph is mostly irrelevant. The condition of the property will be assessed when the tenancy ends, and your friend can claim for any damage either via the deposit or direct from the tenant or via the courts.

Likewise, the extra adults, neighbour complaints etc are irrelevant so far as the S21 is concerned.

The key factor will be whether the S21 is valid. Check here:

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

Once the court process starts, the T may challenge the validity of the S21 and if successful the LL is back to square one.

Alternatively the court may grant the LL possession. The T may or may not then leave. If not, bailiffs.

Post 3: Deposits: Payment, Protection and Return.

muddlingmywaythrough

Brie said:

step one - does she have ALL the paperwork done properly?  deposit scheme, inventory, gas cert and about 85 other things.  Without these the tenant can't be moved out really.  No point in proceeding towards court if the case is going to thrown out because 1 form wasn't filled in or whatever.  If anything at all is missing the S21 needs to be served again.

All I can say is that I have spent hours online and checked with a local estate agents and to the absolute best of my knowledge all the necessary paperwork was given to the tenant. Off the top of my head this included: Section 21 Notice, no gas certificate as flat is electric but she was given ECIR (energy) certificate, EPC, how to rent guide

propertyrental

muddlingmywaythrough said:

Brie said:

step one - does she have ALL the paperwork done properly?  deposit scheme, inventory, gas cert and about 85 other things.  Without these the tenant can't be moved out really.  No point in proceeding towards court if the case is going to thrown out because 1 form wasn't filled in or whatever.  If anything at all is missing the S21 needs to be served again.

All I can say is that I have spent hours online and checked with a local estate agents and to the absolute best of my knowledge all the necessary paperwork was given to the tenant. Off the top of my head this included: Section 21 Notice, no gas certificate as flat is electric but she was given ECIR (energy) certificate, EPC, how to rent guide

go through the flowchart. there are 80 odd questions......

muddlingmywaythrough

propertyrental said:

muddlingmywaythrough said:

Brie said:

step one - does she have ALL the paperwork done properly?  deposit scheme, inventory, gas cert and about 85 other things.  Without these the tenant can't be moved out really.  No point in proceeding towards court if the case is going to thrown out because 1 form wasn't filled in or whatever.  If anything at all is missing the S21 needs to be served again.

All I can say is that I have spent hours online and checked with a local estate agents and to the absolute best of my knowledge all the necessary paperwork was given to the tenant. Off the top of my head this included: Section 21 Notice, no gas certificate as flat is electric but she was given ECIR (energy) certificate, EPC, how to rent guide

go through the flowchart. there are 80 odd questions......

Thank you for this, it's really helpful. I have looked through (though will look again thoroughly) and it seems the Section 21 Notice we served is valid

muddlingmywaythrough

Re: flowchart. These are the answers I gave (to best of my understanding): Notice was given after 1 October 2021, the notice was served over 4 months after tenancy began, 2 months notice was given, notice was given less than 6 months ago, the tenancy was entered into after June 2019 and no additional money was taken from the tenant (other than 4 weeks deposit which is held in a government deposit protection scheme), the tenancy agreement started after 1st Oct 2015, tenant has received all necessary paperwork, it's not an HMO, the tenant has been given the EPC, the tenant did not make any complaints to the landlord in writing and the Section 21 Notice clearly gave an expiry date 

Voyager2002

Note that Section 21 is a no-fault process. The court will not consider things like the extra people or complaints from the neighbours. All that matters is that the notice is valid.

The waiting time for a hearing will depend on how busy the court is, but posts on this board suggest that waits of six months or longer are not uncommon.

muddlingmywaythrough

Voyager2002 said:

Note that Section 21 is a no-fault process. The court will not consider things like the extra people or complaints from the neighbours. All that matters is that the notice is valid.

The waiting time for a hearing will depend on how busy the court is, but posts on this board suggest that waits of six months or longer are not uncommon.

Thanks for the reply. So if a Section 21 is a no fault eviction, wouldn't that make it easier? I.e. we wouldn't have to prove/state why we have served notice? 

AskAsk

muddlingmywaythrough said:

Voyager2002 said:

Note that Section 21 is a no-fault process. The court will not consider things like the extra people or complaints from the neighbours. All that matters is that the notice is valid.

The waiting time for a hearing will depend on how busy the court is, but posts on this board suggest that waits of six months or longer are not uncommon.

Thanks for the reply. So if a Section 21 is a no fault eviction, wouldn't that make it easier? I.e. we wouldn't have to prove/state why we have served notice? 

As long as the notice is valid, and you will find lots of links on what makes a S21 notice valid or invalid.  But it requires a court hearing if the tenant does not move out and you need to apply to the court for an eviction.  The tenant will be able to fight the S21 if they have valid reasons, like it was done in retaliation etc, or they know of reasons why the notice is not valid.  And it seems to take 6 months, shock, horror.

Voyager2002

muddlingmywaythrough said:

Voyager2002 said:

Note that Section 21 is a no-fault process. The court will not consider things like the extra people or complaints from the neighbours. All that matters is that the notice is valid.

The waiting time for a hearing will depend on how busy the court is, but posts on this board suggest that waits of six months or longer are not uncommon.

Thanks for the reply. So if a Section 21 is a no fault eviction, wouldn't that make it easier? I.e. we wouldn't have to prove/state why we have served notice? 

Yes, that is right. 

For example, if you sought to evict because the tenant had been annoying the neighbours then she could say that was not true, and the process of establishing who was telling the truth would be complicated. 

With a Section 21, all that you have to demonstrate to the court is that it is valid, that is, that the 80 or so conditions on the flow diagram have been satisfied. (In practice, it is up to the tenant to point out to the court if any of those conditions have not been satisfied, meaning that the application fails, otherwise it should be approved.)