UK Landlord Forum / Life

Im new to being a landlord and the tenants are being a nightmare.....................any way i tried giving them a section 21 then had shelter telling me on their behalf its not valid and i have to seek legal advise, they have shelter to do all their work!
So do i give them another section 21?  The other one was not valid as in their contract they should have paid a deposit but they only paid part, ( so i didnt put it into one of those schemes as i was waiting for the rest of it) , then after xmas they wouldnt pay for 2 weeks so now there is no deposit as they wanted to use their deposit money and me feeling sorry for them said it was ok now they have stitched me up!
i now have no idea what to do as they are out of their short term agreement...........................HELP.....................................
Thank you in advance

Hi Mrs Storm,

Tricky situation.

I would secure the deposit they did give you, even if it is only half. Then I would serve the section 21!!

Hello Mrs Storm,

Propertyfag gives you good advice (as usual).  As you're a new landlord, I thought I'd elaborate:
- You can get the half deposit secured on-line.  Ensure you complete the tenant documentation required to notify them of their deposit being secured.  Do not "net off" the amount deposited to deduct the two weeks not paid.  This is done when you release the money from the deposit when your tenants leave.  Yes, I know it makes no difference and the money's yours, but you now need to do things by the book.
- Re-issue the Section 21 notice.

There is an alternative.  You can contunie with your currently issued Section 21 notice.  You can point out that the tenant failed to supply the contracted deposit money and so the condition requiring the securing of the deposit, i.e. full payment, was never reached.  It's a higher risk approach as the court could dismiss your approach: It depends if you're so desperate to have your property back you're prepared to take the risk.  Probably not worth it?

Hi thank you for your help.
Sorry to be a little dim, but they dont have any deposit left as it was used up for the 2 weeks they didnt pay, do i try to get a deposit off them again which is not looking good or can i re issue the section 21? or do you mean i make up their deposit with my money?  Can you issue a section 21 without a deposit?
arrrr ....................... im confused sorry 

Hello Mrs Storm,

That's my pleasure.  Yur're not dim.  It's me, I wrote in short hand, not a good thing to do with someone who tells us she's new to landlording.

Lets pretend they paid the deposit money in full and you then protected it promptly.  Some months into the tenancy they defaulted on the rent payment and get into arrears.  You (politely - legally) hassle them to catch up with payments and they don't.  The tenancy nears its natural termination date and you issue a Section 21 notice.  On check out an assesment is taken for damages and unpaid rent.  At this point, and not any earlier, you now obtain the money from the deposit to cover the unpaid rent.

The court won't ratify posession off the Section 21 notice if you're not protected the deposit.  So you are best off re-crating the circumstances as if the deposit money they did give you at the start had been promptly protected.

This means using your own money to put half of their deposit amount into protection.  Then re-issue Section 21.  Then get the money back again on vacation and assesment for damages / missing rent.

I know this is a silly circle of money, but the issue here is not really about the money, it's about getting your house back.

Sorry if this next advice is patronising: Ensure you've got stuff like your tenant's statement of account, your bank account statements, chasing letters / e-mails to hand so you can promptly submit your side of the story to the dispute service of your deposit protector, should that become necessary.

Hope this goes well for you.  Let us know how you get on.

Good stuff, Jeremy!! Spot on.

On a side note, situations like this annoy me, because it highlights how backwards the law is.

Institutes like Shelter and Citizens Advice give legal advice to tenants on how they can prolong their eviction, even when they're in arrears. Obviously it is their job to make tenants aware of their rights. But it still doesn't sit well with me :|

Aaah, bless you Admin, you say the lovliest things!

Yes, it annoys me too, but the problem is you can only act on what you know.  Maybe the kind person at Shelter thinks mrs storm is a terrible woman, who's provided dire accommodation, refused to fix stuff when it kept breaking, entered the premises without notice, etc. etc.

And as Shelter's agenda is to pevent homelessness I wonder if they would seriously interrogate anyone who pitched up at their doors with a sob story.  If anyone from Shelter reads this, please feel free to inform us how Shelter operates.  The backwash of impeding the economy by prolonging rent avoidance may not be their problem.

Thank you for your advise