UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all

I gave two months notice to tenant on 5th November, but she does not want to leave and made that clear

On Friday I got a notice from the council that she conspired about heating not working which posed an imminent threat. So by Sunday morning I send a qualified gas man to inspect but she refused entry and said the letting agent had arranged for someone to fix on Friday (the day I got the notice)

I spoke with letting agent and they confirmed and said that the house isn't in good condition (it's been run down by the tenant), major refurb is required and the agents builder assessed it would cost £5,200 a couple weeks ago and involve digging out walls downstairs and putting the only bathroom out of order

The back story to this is that I gave her 6 months notice a year ago but the agent hadn't done the EPC hence it counted for nothing. Then after I chased a few months I got the electrical done and others updated

So with this in mind, I fear this is some kind of tactic to prolong her stay in the house. In the council letter they said that if the tenant doesn't confirm she is satisfied them they will investigate the heating and any other issues that come up will also need to be addressed

So my dilemmas are:
- do I proceed with repair with her still there
- will the council force me to do so
- if I don't, then can she challenge the inevitable court eviction process I will have to start on 6 January and say that I didn't fulfill my role as landlord

Any advice appreciated!

If the tenant has any outstanding repair issues that have been reported to you the S21 served is void, my guess is now they have the council involved this is the route they will try and take.
If the council inspect the property and deem it not to be upto standard they will force you to carry out the repairs and you will have to re-issue a S21. be very careful as they will make your life a misery...
You mention your letting agent, surely they should be dealing with this for you??

I'm confused. Why are you dealing with the tenant directly if you have a letting agent that's supposed to be doing it? More importantly, how the heck didn't you know the situation re. the assessment by the LA before now? Like seriously, they've been doing inspection and concluded the place is deteriorating, the the point of needing serious refurb and you didn't know anything about it? WTF?

Have the council visited and given you a list of what is required? I would ask them to do so if not,because they may give a different assessment than that from the builder.Pulling walls down sounds very drastic,and could not be done while she is in situ.It may be that getting the heating sorted will be enough to serve notice,then when she vacates you can get the place properly repaired.Have the agents been telling you about the problems ? If not, then I think you should ditch them as well . If she has never raised these complaints before,you may be ok to evict.
It was my understanding that tenants can only hold off eviction if the problems they have reported to the council have been reported to the landlord prior to issuing notice to quit.
   

Thanks all for your replies

My agent is useless and is reason why she is still there (by not doing their job properly the notice they gave a year ago was invalid). I have no trust in them as they've failed in other areas too and if I could have ditched them I would have but I spoke to another LA who advised me that as I have a hostile tenant who doesn't open the door for strangers and for whom their is a language barrier (she doesn't speak English), that it's better to try and end her tenancy through them

The leak she has complained to agent about has come after I asked them to issue her a new notice but before they actually submitted it (they took two weeks to issue it!!). The report to the council was about a separate issue (heating) which they or her hadn't reported to me but that is now resolved

I went today with another builder to view the leak and it's bad - he confirmed it would need digging up upstairs bathroom and putting it out of use for weeks and that water would need to be turned off as the leak is from a pipe under the floorboards. She refuses to accept this and said that no it's a quick job and that we are just trying to make her life miserable. We explained that the agents builder said the same thing but she doesn't listen and she started being abusive towards us so we left

The tenant's "complaint to the relevant local housing authority [has to be about] about the same, or substantially the same, subject matter as the complaint to the landlord". If the complaint to the council was about heating and there was no complaint to you or the agent about that beforehand, the notice should be good.

Thanks that's good to know