UK Landlord Forum / Life

I need my tenants to leave due to non payment of rent and wrecking the house. rent is £380 pcm arrears stand at £690.88 previously dss now not entitled as earning. fixed period of tenancy finished 15 months ago dated 11th of each month. served section21 dated 4th sept giving two months two weeks expiry 14th of November just trying to be reasonable. having read the articles on here will this s21 be thrown out as it does not match tenancy agreement even though more than two months was given and do i have to re issue? used s21 so as not to specify reasons ie rrent arrears and damage to property however should I be issuing a s8 to coincide with expiry of s21 citing arrears damage and keeping of pets? instead of paying rent tenant complained to council about damp, its only damp cos she removed wallpaper without permission and took chunks out of the plastered wall while doing so.can she use this as grounds of defence?

Have a read of this, especially the bit entitled "Section 21 notices" about half way down...

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/eviction_of_private_tenants/eviction_of_assured_shorthold_tenants

...this seems to say that the Section 21 must end on the last day of a rental period only if the AST never had any fixed term... otherwise it would appear to be fine as long as you have given the "at least 2 months", which you have.

I'm no expert, but it does not sound like you will need to re-issue.

You can serve a Section 8 as well, if you like - it's not that you should by any means. As you would likely experience with this Tenant, Section 8 Grounds can be defended against (whether rightly or wrongly).

many thanks for this intially 12 month rental been in 2.5 years so does this revert to to rolling contract and as such needs to end on rent day or say before

Quote from: mbwelch2365 on September 26, 2014, 03:15:17 PM
many thanks for this intially 12 month rental been in 2.5 years so does this revert to to rolling contract and as such needs to end on rent day or say before

I'd bet quite alot of money you haven't reprotected the deposit and reissued PI when it went from AST to Periodic then?

mbwelch2365

The tenancy has expired so you need S21, it should ideally end on a rental term date, if your S21 was worded properly saying something like...

"I give you notice under S21 of the Housing Act 1988 that I require possession of the Dwelling house known as 10 Acacia Avenue, London W1A 1AA

After November 4th 2014

or at the end of the period of your tenacy which will end after the expiry of two months from the service upon you of this notice"

This would have given you the 2 months notice and the loose wording "or at the end of the period of your tenancy" means the next rent due date which would have been the 11th of November.

You should have re-issued the prescribed information and related it to the Statutory Periodic Tenancy that started June 2013, if your PI related to the original AST it can be challenged.  Each of the tenancy deposit companies has templates for issuing PI.

You can't issue a S8 because it is intended to end an AST within term, you are out of term and now in SPT.

The way forward will depend on what your intentions are, i.e. do you want to legally sue her for everything over and above your deposit or do you just want her out so you can get a paying tenant in?

If it is the latter then I would meet with the tenant and say that you want to solve things amicably, now assuming you protected the deposit and issued the ORIGINAL PI within 30 days of the start of the AST, this is what you say:

"right now I have started the first stage of possession proceedings, in those proceedings I will ask the Judge to not only grant me possession but also the arrears, damages to the property and of course my legal costs (which will be about £2k if I use my Lawyer)."

"Now if you agree to leave by the 9th October 2014 I will forget the legal action and just accept the deposit as full and final settlement plus I will provide you with a reference, but you would have to leave by 9th October 2014."

If she is not getting housing benefit and has no kids there is no reason for her to stay, she could move in with family or friends to take advantage of your offer.  If she has kids or is Disabled and wants to get Social Housing you are screwed because she will need your actual possession order to get a higher priority on the waiting list and to get emergency accomodation.  However, if she stopped paying rent she will be deemed as having made herself homeless, this might explain the complaint about damp (i.e. she is trying to justify non-payment).

If she goes you just chalk it down to experience, if NOT you issue a new S21 and PI together.

Assuming you screwed up the RECENT PI and S21 you then issue her with a new PI and S21 on October 9th 2014 to end on December 9th 2014 or at the next rental term which is December 11th 2014.

You should serve the PI in accordance with the Act, that means you ask her to sign two copies (keep one youself).  If she does not make herself available video your attempt to get her to answer the door, video your delivery of one copy through the door and tape one to the door on the outside and video those.  Email another copy for good measure.

Make sure the PI mentions the SPT that started on June 11th 2013 and that it mentions where her deposit is protected etc  Also include the leaflet of the scheme provider designed for tenants in plain English as well as the terms of the scheme.

If the Council say it is a health hazard then you may be asked to fix it, but if she had not asked you to make repairs prior to contacting the Council you cannot be reasonably expected to haved fixed it sooner .  Either way, now that you are aware of it you should get a contractor to sort it.  Contact the Council and show willing, meet with their Housing Officer and bring a contractor with you to do a quote.  The work needs to be done before a new tenant comes in and the cost of repair could be added to your claim with the possession order if you can show she caused the damage.