Tenant refusing to pay rent

Dodgysailor

Dear all,

I have a tenant living with partner and her son in my terraced house. They have been there for about 6 years. We now need to sell the house and we have send them all the right documentation to this regard, by post and email and they are not happy so they have not paid this month rent and they will probably not pay until they are forced to leave. I have ask them to pay the rent several times and they just choose to ignore me. I am afraid that they will destroy the house before they live. What is the best move for me right now? Any experience in this situation?

Emmia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6657761/tenant-refusing-to-pay-rent

Do you have all the relevant certificates, inspections up to date? Have you followed the correct procedure for giving notice?

If there is anything missing or not done correctly, you'll have difficulty evicting them.

Dodgysailor

I think so…But if they refuse to pay I should have more grounds to evict them I assume?

El_Torro

Unfortunately the only way to evict a tenant who is refusing to leave is to go to court and bailiffs will evict them. This is a slow process, even if the tenants aren't paying rent.

Even if all your paperwork is correct it can take months to force an eviction.

silvercar

Once they are 2 months in arrears (3 months when the new bill gets approved in May - so act quickly), you can serve notice and go to court to evict. 2 months in arrears means they owe 2 months rent, so it would be the day after rent is due and unpaid with already one month outstanding.

You then serve notice due to rent arrears, if they still owe 2 months on the court day it’s a mandatory eviction, so they may decide to pay some rent at that point. It’s certainly a lot quicker than a section 21 that you presumably have already served.

Herzlos

You need to sell the house, they need time and money to find a new one.

You may find it beneficial to try and come to some agreement with them: you'll waive rent for the 2 (?) months notice period if they leave on time and in leave it in good condition. But warn them that if it goes to court you'll seek full rent payments.
If they have been good tenants, then offer them a good reference whatever happens.

That way they can see you're being reasonable, and those 2 months rent will hopefully cover their deposit and moving costs.

monkey-fingers

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81907066#Comment_81907066

Not if they get 2 months behind.
That's an S8. Different rules apply.

monkey-fingers

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81907210#Comment_81907210

S21 can be accelerated.
S8 can't.

Saying all of this, I've seen some eviction specialists as low as £750. I think that sounds like ace value.

Dodgysailor

Thanks for the comments, I have tried to contact them but they refuse to talk. They are now two months in arrears and my worry is after we go through the eviction process what are the chances of recovering the missing rent months?

_Penny_Dreadful

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81907354#Comment_81907354

Since there are 2 months rent owing you can take a belt and braces approach and issue a section 8 using ground 8. No need for registered post but do get proof of postage from the post office.

With the section 8 you can deal with the arrears in court at the same time. However, if the section 21 makes it to court first or the tenants move out you can file a money claim online. You can use a tracing agent to track down the tenant, it isn’t expensive.

_Penny_Dreadful

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81907283#Comment_81907283

£750 for filling in forms you get from a government website for free doesn’t sound that good value to me.