UK Landlord Forum / Life

A brief history.. Tennant has lived in property for 18 yrs, for the first ten yrs as a lodger. I moved out of the property 8 yrs ago when lodger became a tennant.
A tenancy agreement for 6 months was put in place and never updated.
As the tennant over the last 8 yrs has never paid full rent as it wasn't covered by housing benefit I have taken the hit as I felt she couldn't afford the extra and I could afford to top it up to pay mortgage. However my circumstances changed and I asked her to move out this was last October 2011, she asked to stay until after Xmas 2011 which I agreed. In febuary 2012 she advised me she had a house to move to in June then July. This did not happen. Finally she said she wouldn't move until I gave her a letter. In September I issued a section 21 notice giving 2 months notice plus one week taking her up to the last date rent is covered, rent is paid 4 weekly in arrears by housing benefit.
Her moving date is tomorrow, she advised me today that I will have to take her to court.
Again iv no tenancy agreement. What can I do I can not afford to pay mortgage and pay rent for property I am in.

As the tenancy commenced in 2004, it will be an assured shorthold tenancy unless a prior Notice was served saying it is not an AST or the tenancy agreement contained a clause saying it would not be an AST. Assuming it is an AST, then when the original 6 month fixed term expired, the tenant would have remained in occupation under a statutory periodic tenancy, which runs from month to month in line with the rent payments, until either party legally terminates the agreement.

You can issue possession proceedings under Section 21. This is a mandatory ground and you don't need to worry about proving arrears. If you have the original tenancy agreement then you can use the court's accelerated possession procedure (Court Form N5B), whereby the whole process is usually dealt with on paper, providing there is nothing unusual about the case or the tenant raises a defence. If you don't have the agreement, you cannot use the APP and would have to use standard proceedings (Court Forms N5 and N119) with a witness statement giving details of the tenancy history and explaining why there is no written agreement. The relevant court forms are available online at http://hmctscourtfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetForms.do;jsessionid=240F151F102DB1A495B0B81B5259C46A

Before embarking on proceedings, it is worth getting the tenancy agreement and Section 21 Notice checked to make sure these are in order as these are the main areas for defences to be raised.

Hope this helps. If you have any further questions please let me know.