UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi, my name is Lorraine and my partner and I are renting out a small property, we have doing it for 10 years, virtually problem free. We use our own tenancy agreements, unfurnished 12 month lets, bought from WHSmith.  The present tenants we have in have been extremely difficult in terms of rent payments. They have rented our house since January this year and every single month they have given a huge variety of fantastical reasons as to why they haven't paid rent on time, ranging from family deaths, bank errors and account hacking (just some of the excuses). The stress on our lives as been huge as their rent pays the property's mortgage and we are a young family with 3 children under 5 and are struggling financially.

We warned them last month that if they didn't pay on time this month we would serve notice and they are now 1 week overdue with their rent.

We have no rent insurance and I am not sure if we could take it out now as we didn't rigorously check out references.

We have now decided we need to bite the bullet and evict them as this is putting a huge strain on our lives. Having never been in this situation before we are worried about our position. If they decide to not move out, what rights do we have? Can we just change the locks and allow them to move their stuff out if things get nasty?

Thanking in advance for advice.......Lorraine

Hi

You need to get a section 21 notice served against them straight away. This will allow you to proceed straight to court but only at the end of the tenancy agreement and they cannot defend it. If you want them out straight away you need to serve a section 8 notice. Or serve both. it might just be enough to scare the hell out of them and make them pay on time

Read this link

http://www.tenancyagreementservice.co.uk/section-8-notice-to-quit.htm

As I understand it on a section 8 notice there is only 2 grounds that the court will grant a mandatory eviction. Grounds 2 and 8

Ground 2

The property is subject to a mortgage which pre-dates the tenancy and the mortgagees are repossessing the property to enforce the charge. Written notice should be given before or at the time the tenancy begins that possession may be required under this ground

Ground 8

Rent is unpaid when the notice seeking possession is served, and at the time of the hearing for a Possession Order:

Rent is paid weekly or fortnightly and at least eight weeks' rent is owed.

Rent is paid monthly and at least two months' rent is owed.

Rent is paid quarterly and at least one quarter's rent is more than three months overdue.

Rent is paid yearly and at least three months' rent is more than three months overdue.

All other grounds are discretionary and the judge can rule either way. It's risky as they could go to court and lie their back teeth off i.e they lost their job, they have children to support etc etc and the judge could give them a few months to leave or a payment plan

I can only advise you on what I've just been through...

hope this helps