Court process after section 21 notice served

muddlingmywaythrough

Thank you for all the replies so far, they've been really helpful. One thing I'm still not sure about though - if the eviction date comes and the tenant doesn't leave (and I fully expect her not to), literally what do I do next? How to I start court proceedings? Can I do this myself or do I have to employ a solicitor? I know there is a court form to complete (I can't remember the name of it now) but where do I send it? Do I have to inform the courts of anything before I submit the form? Sorry for all the questions but I can't find any answers to these online 

_Penny_Dreadful

muddlingmywaythrough said:

Thank you for all the replies so far, they've been really helpful. One thing I'm still not sure about though - if the eviction date comes and the tenant doesn't leave (and I fully expect her not to), literally what do I do next? How to I start court proceedings? Can I do this myself or do I have to employ a solicitor? I know there is a court form to complete (I can't remember the name of it now) but where do I send it? Do I have to inform the courts of anything before I submit the form? Sorry for all the questions but I can't find any answers to these online 

The date on the section 21 is not an eviction date. Once the notice period ends and the tenant is still in the property you’ll need to apply to court for a possession order. Then, once you have the possession order if the tenant still chooses to remain in occupation you will need to apply to the county court bailiffs to remove the tenant. 

PRAISETHESUN

muddlingmywaythrough said:

Thank you for all the replies so far, they've been really helpful. One thing I'm still not sure about though - if the eviction date comes and the tenant doesn't leave (and I fully expect her not to), literally what do I do next? How to I start court proceedings? Can I do this myself or do I have to employ a solicitor? I know there is a court form to complete (I can't remember the name of it now) but where do I send it? Do I have to inform the courts of anything before I submit the form? Sorry for all the questions but I can't find any answers to these online 

https://www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants

Go through the checklist as outlined above before you serve notice on the tenants. The S21 notice you serve is exactly that, a notice. All it is is a piece of paper telling the tenants that on XX date you will start legal proceedings.

After the notice expires and the tenants have not left the property, you then apply for a possession order through the courts (https://www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants/standard-possession-orders). If/when they don't leave after that you will need to instruct bailiffs to remove them (https://www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants/eviction-notices-and-bailiffs)

saajan_12

Does the tenant owe rent arrears? If not, download, complete and send the Accelerated Possession Order form to your local court. Then respond in a timely way to anything you receive and just wait. You'll either get a possession order, get a denial or get invited to a hearing to decide based on further information. If you get a possession order (before or after hearing) then you wait for the date specified to pass, and then possibly instruct bailiffs if they haven't left yet. 

muddlingmywaythrough said:

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. - irrelevant

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? - the process after is straight forward, not quick depending on court waiting times. The process beforehand to serve a VALID Section 21 form is more tricky given the multiple things to check (not complicated just detailed)
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. - irrelevant
The tenant is now sending my friend, who is elderly so doesn't need the stress, very aggressive emails - which may well continue.. its a business and you get aggressive customers sometimes. Friend will need to find a way of checking she's meeting her responsbilities and then not letting it affect her. 
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. - No more or less likely or quick than any other S21 case. It'll get reviewed when the court gets to it, and if there's a defence file then it'll take whatever time it takes to schedule a hearing. If the judge agrees the notice is valid, then the time given for possession will be based more on the T's circumstances than the history you've mentioned, but in any case 4-6 weeks is gthe goal. 
She's always had a good relationship with her previous tenants so has never had to take the court route before.