UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all. I have the tenant from hell. This time last year, he gave me a list as long as your arm on things he wanted done in the house, and promptly stopped paying rent as a result. Despite my attempts to get things done and have an inspection done to decide what is essential and what is not, he started preventing access to contractors and being very aggressive and abusive to both me and our chosen contractors, and refused to agree to an inspection. Section 21 and section 8 were served back in March pre lockdown, we have not seen a penny in rent since, we are just waiting for our court date now. Due to his aggression, we had to send him a message saying that we simply cannot continue working with him, and that until the case goes to court, he needs to get any critical items sorted himself, and that he should present evidence in photos and invoices to the courts for them to consider in the final settlement. However, this weekend he has said the front door won't shut and we need to sort it immediately, we continued our stance of not engaging with him due to his aggression, and he has now contacted environmental health. My question is: if environmental health agree that the door needs fixing, is this likely to affect our case in court on the section 21 and 8? Obviously we will action anything they suggest, but we simply cannot deal with the tenant, he is totally out of control. Any advice much appreciated!

My understanding is that having served notice long before EH got involved you are still fine to evict.I would get all your proof about his behaviour ready to give to the council,and I doubt if they will take action against you. He is making it impossible for you to get work done,so your suggestion about finding  a way round this sounds very fair to me.Good luck!