UK Landlord Forum / Life

We have a tenant where section 21 has been served yet he decided to stay so we were just about to start court action to evict. He also owes 2 months rent unpaid up to his official tenacy end date of the 8th December.

He should have left the property on the 8th of December 2014 after we gave 2 months proper notice in writing via our letting agent  to vacate but up to the middle of January he remained in the property breaking the agreement

Today (14th Janaury 2015) the tenant called me to say he had now left the property and would not be returning. A small sigh of relief...

....BUT... his girlfriend and her 15 year old son remain in the property and are refusing to leave claiming that we have to evict her through the courts which will cost us near on £1000 to do so.

The girlfriend is not named on the tenancy agreement at all ... Just the gentlemans name who has now left the property (the let is managed through a letting agent so it's an official let with all paperwork in order etc)

When the gentleman initially let the property he did not state that anyone else would be staying at the property. I believe the girlfriend moved in shortly after he went in

My question is ....how do we get the girlfriend to leave. Do we have to evict her through the courts, or is this not necessary as her name is not on the tenancy agreement. 

If we do have to evict through the courts, will it mean we will actually end taking court action against gentleman (the official tenant) as the girlfriend is not connected to any official paperwork

The gentleman hasn't returned the keys to the agent and hasn't officially checked out, yet has informed me verbally by telecom that he has gone and will not return.

Should he be taking his own action to remove his girlfriend rather than us going down the court eviction road. Is it up to him to remove her and then officially check out returning keys etc?   And then from there, we won't have to proceed through the courts for eviction as then the property will empty and we can regain access.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Before I reply to your post I'd just like to say that I'm not a professional in these matters, as I am a first time landlord having undergone my first eviction process just a couple of months ago, so anything I say is per my experience and best understanding. There are plenty of other people on this forum, however, who will be able to provide you with much more help and who may correct any incorrect information I provide you with (apologies in advance if this is the case).

From what I understand, the actual tenant doesn't have any responsibility towards removing his girlfriend her child from the property. This will all be down to you. Technically, since she isn't listed on the tenancy agreement and you did not agree to have her stay there, the police should be able to remove her for what is, essentially, 'squatting'. That being said, as mentioned in another post, it would be better to call the non-emergency number and discuss it with them, as certain criteria have to be met. Having a child in property almost always complicates the issue, with regards to forcibly removing someone. If the police cannot remove her, you will have to apply for possession through the courts - and I'd assume that any costs you'd want to claim would have to go through a small claims court separately (just an assumption as this is unfamiliar territory for me - I've only utilised a section .
The agent should have completed an inventory and have a record of the keys not being returned by the tenant, so I'm sure you can take action with regards to this if the time comes.

At the risk of me sounding like an imbecile, why do you say evicting her through the courts would cost you ~£1000? A possession order would cost around £250, CCB's another £110 (more if you choose to appoint a high court enforcement agent). I might be missing something completely obvious here as I'm referring to my knowledge of eviction through a section 8.

Very sorry I could not be of more help, I have only a year and a half's worth of landlord experience! Best of luck with this.

Ray

Hi Tony, like Ray i am not an expert ether I have only done one eviction. But on the face of it it sounds like squatting, Let us know how you get on with the police. In my experience it is a matter of luck getting an officer who is willing to act on your problem because they do view tenancy problems as a civil matter and try not to get involved if they can.