UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello there, have not posted in a few years but keep an eye on this brilliant site :-)

So Section 21 was served to tenant ( I need to move back due to my crappy circumastances) he had till Feb 3rd 2017 to move out, out of the blue he told me he was leaving on 13th Jan at the beginning of January.
Firstly I was pleased he had found somewhere because he was showing signs of having taken root.
Trying to keep this succinct but its hard, he moved out and my flat now needs around £1000 and that is keeping things cheap!! of redecoration work done. In 8 years of renting out my home I have never kept back any of the deposit money, holes in the plaster ceilings and walls over 100 of them, ruined carpet, ruined laminate flooring in bathroom (did not know urine could corrode like that!!!) Shelving put up in the windows and just beyond dirty. I was hearbroken to see the flat like that from a so called 'professional'. So deposit is in DPS scheme, I claimed  the full deposit and he has grudgingly accepted this saying its not a fair process!!  Even though he had admitted in a text that he knew he would not get the full deposit back, that was his only admission of guilt as to how he had left the flat..Blah  Not that he really had a leg to stand on as I had before and after pictures and will have all the receipts for works. SO remember I have £495 rent that he paid for to cover January...I have to be very careful here and part of me wants to keep the money to pay for the rest of the works, the deposit will only cover half. Because I served the section 21 do they still have to give you notice or can they go anytime with in the 2 month notice timeframe? Or can I just take off the money for the 10 days he was in the flat and return the rest. Part of my wants to keep it all but want to know where I stand or do I just suck it up and if I ever rent it out again take 2 months rent as deposit and not just 1 month? Hope all that makes sense as my head is all over the place with stress due to living 100 miles from the flat....thanks for any advice

I empathize with your situation as it is certainly a bad feeling if the property is handed in the appaling condition as you said. Was the tenancy in periodic / rolling contract when the tenant walked out? Even in rolling contract there is a minimum days they have to give the notice I suppose. Section 21 is to repossess the property on the day it is stated. It cannot be used as an excuse for the tenant to just walk out right away. Did the tenant ask you to repay the remaining rent? Legally you can keep the rent until the notice period tenant should have given. Good thing is now you have your property back for yourselves.

If a Section 21 is served to a Tenant you only hope and expect that they will leave on, or before, that date.

As you are giving them at least 2 months notice, and if you're in a periodic tenancy, then there is a window for the Tenant to serve you a 1 month notice to effectively 'trump' your notice. If they don't serve you appropriate notice (at least 1 month), but just up-and-leave, or serve you inappropriate notice then they're liable for the rent for the full period. In your case I would think that is up until 3 Feb 2017 as that was the date of your Section 21 and you were only told they would be leaving earlier in very early January (let's assume the 1st) - therefore their 1 month notice would run from the next rent due date until the one after - taking them up to February.

Whether they move out before or maintain their presence in the property is neither here nor there... rent is due for when there's a tenancy.