Advice needed

barlos1973

Hi

My Dad has rented a house out to a friends son. The house size, area etc etc is really way above the tenants means, but as a favour to his old friend my dad did not take any deposit. Things have been perfect for the last 11 months, as even though the tenant, quite a few times did not have enough money, my dads mate paid.

However we have just heard that the tenant is spliiting up from his common-in law partner and now wants to leave. This is no problem as we can easily find new tenants, but the problem is that his partner apparantly does not want to move. My dads, mate will not ofcourse be bailing out his sons ex, who he quite frankly hates. Worse still is that she does not work and wants to apply for HB, something my dad hates dealing with ( for a start i dont think they will pay the £800 a month!!). She also we have heard from other LL has a reputation of destroying houses and running off.....

Just wondering can we evict her on the 8th may when the tenancy ends or as soon as the named tenant ( my Friends son) leaves.
p.s the cuople have 4 kids by the way.

thanks.

moneysavinmonkey

gah! 8th of may is barely a week away! Nice landlord you are!!

If you haven't already issued a section 21 notice requiring possession of the property at the end of the fixed term of the tenancy then you can't 'evict' them on the 8th May....( BTW you can't 'evict' them anyway without a court order)

Without a section 21 notice the tenancy rolls onto a period AST and you have to give them 2 months notice coinciding with their rental period. e.g if they pay rent on the 9th may you have to give notice before the 9th May to ask them to leave by the 9th June.. if you don't give them the notice even a day after the 9th May then it needs to run until the 9th July.

The 'notice' has to worded according to specific rules. If you get the wording or dates wrong it is invalid and the tenant doesn't have to leave + you won't be able to get a court order to evict them and will have to start the whole thing again.

If your dad doesn't know this and is intending on continuing renting out property then he needs to join a landlords association and get reading articles on landlordzone and similar as he could be breaking the law if he doesn't abide by his legal duties + responsibilities as a landlord.

barlos1973

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

gah! 8th of may is barely a week away! Nice landlord you are!!

If you haven't already issued a section 21 notice requiring possession of the property at the end of the fixed term of the tenancy then you can't 'evict' them on the 8th May....( BTW you can't 'evict' them anyway without a court order)

Without a section 21 notice the tenancy rolls onto a period AST and you have to give them 2 months notice coinciding with their rental period. e.g if they pay rent on the 9th may you have to give notice before the 9th May to ask them to leave by the 9th June.. if you don't give them the notice even a day after the 9th May then it needs to run until the 9th July.

The 'notice' has to worded according to specific rules. If you get the wording or dates wrong it is invalid and the tenant doesn't have to leave + you won't be able to get a court order to evict them and will have to start the whole thing again.

If your dad doesn't know this and is intending on continuing renting out property then he needs to join a landlords association and get reading articles on landlordzone and similar as he could be breaking the law if he doesn't abide by his legal duties + responsibilities as a landlord.

Well we arent that mean! we have offered and found a house for her which is within her means. But she doesnt wanna move. Infact she has always been complaining that the house was to far away from her mates (its kinda outside town) etc etc. I think shes just being vindictive to her ex, knowing that its going to put him in a awkward position with my dad etc, whom my dad 'really' gave the property to due to freindship.Dont forget the couple could not offered the payments anyway, if it was not for assistance nearly every month from the tenants father, who now is not going to give a penny.

So basically if we issue her with a section 21 she has to leave?

thanks

PasturesNew

barlos1973 wrote: »

Well we arent that mean! we have offered and found a house for her which is within her means. Dont forget the couple could not offered the payments anyway, if it was not for assistance nearly every month from the tenants father, who now is not going to give a penny.

So basically if we issue her with a section 21 she has to leave?

thanks

The fact is that the law requires a landlord to give 2 months' notice in writing, effective from the next rent date. So couldn't get her out before 8 July in any case. But if she digs her heels in then it would have to go to court.

A lot of lenders do not allow a landlord to take housing benefit claimants. Your dad should check this.

A lot of insurance companies charge extra if the house has housing benefit claimants. Your dad should check this.

The best way to proceed would be to persuade the son to stay, get him to persuade the woman to move (assist with removals costs), then issue the Section 21 to the son as he didn't want to stay there anyway.

If all could be in agreement that this is the best way forward (son to pretend and encourage gf just to get her to move to reduce the hassle/non payment to your dad), then it will cost quite a few bob ... but the alternative could take longer and be more expensive.

How much is the rent? Could the rent be put up to? What is the local Council? What ages/sex are the kids? As a Housing Benefit claimant she'd only be able to get the Local Housing Allowance. But with 4 kids I'd be surprised if she couldn't get enough paid.

carpetbelly

No, a section 21 to my knowledge doesn't mean that the people have to leave. Once it's been served (if done properly and on the right dates) then if they stay in after the dates up then you have to go to court.

Tbh there are a lot of good landlords on this site who will try to point you in the right direction and help out. But as has been said, if you're renting a property out this is the sort of basic info you need to know.

PasturesNew

barlos1973 wrote: »

So basically if we issue her with a section 21 she has to leave?

This gives her notice to leave and a tenant would be expected to move on that date.

However, she has no incentive to move on that date (unless you give her a cash bung?). If she simply stays put, doesn't pay the rent, then your dad would then have to take her to court etc etc ... so another few months.

Ultimately, it could end up in the full bailiff conviction with her being turfed out on the street.

Cash bungs might work. Ask her what she wants (apart from staying)... e.g. a house nearer her mates + moving costs. At least then you know her price (everybody has one) and can decide which action you will take.

bryanb

The first post indicates that the house is let to "a friend's son" No mention of whether the girl is joint tenant. Would this not make her a squatter when he leaves?

mlz1413

Can I just check something, the way it reads you Dad gave a tenancy to his friends son, not to son and partner?

Therefore when the son moves out the partner/ex-partner has no legal right to be there and if she stayed would effectively be squatting (i think).

bryanb

Snap! Great thinking !

moneysavinmonkey

ah ok. I think i've missed the point - the friend's son is the tenant on the tenancy agreement + the partner was just living there.....

I think you need to be careful. Did the rent payments come from the son or from the partner, did they pay with a joint account etc. If she ever paid rent then a tenancy could have been created.

I would suggest you join a landlords association and get onto their legal helpline asap.

moneysavinmonkey

barlos1973 wrote: »

Well we arent that mean! we have offered and found a house for her which is within her means.

My previous landlord tried to 'be helpful' and to did this to me and I found it sooo annoying, it's not just a house but a home, a very personable thing and you can't just find any old thing and expect that to match a persons requirements just because it is in their price range. How utterly demeaning.

barlos1973 wrote: »

So basically if we issue her with a section 21 she has to leave?

thanks

No, she doesn't have to leave. The section 21 is just a notice, if she doesn't leave you then have to get a court order to have her properly evicted. If she is going to be claiming housing benefit or after a council house this is probably the route she will take as if you leave at the end of your notice period the council deems you have made yourself intentionally homeless. as I said before YOU can not physically evict someone it has to be done properly by a court order. If you try to chuck her out and it is later found that a tenancy existed then you have carried out an illegal eviction and could be charged with a criminal offence.

Letting out a property, even to friends, is essentially running a business in a (regulated) environment. You really sound like you are in danger of falling foul of the law. Hopefully you lack of knowledge doesn't extend beyond ending tenancys and you have got everything else like gas safety certificates, permission to let, landlords insurance, and tax returns sorted!