UK Landlord Forum / Life

Can I get some advice on how I can perhaps approach this since July the EPC has run out and now the gas safety and boiler maintenance.  The tenant has refused all the appointments even when she agreed for me to rebook she still turns them away.  Now she has had no heating and hot water for weeks according to her yet she has been refusing the boiler engineer even up to this week.  She hasn't paid rent since last December, and she has no current contract as this has expired.
All I have is a long list of cancellations and refused appointments/refused access to property what can I do? 

Why have you not served notice? S21 while you still can.

You can't serve a valid s21 notice if the gas safety certificate has expired.

Serve a section 8 notice (ground 8, 10 and 11) and expect to have to show the court evidence of all the attempts you have made to get the heating and water repaired - in case the tenant uses that as a defence.

If that doesn't sound like something you would be confident in doing, use an eviction specialist.

Does that still apply to 21 if all efforts to get the certificate have been prevented by the tenant? What if there are no other grounds that could be used, could a tenant live there indefinately if they paid rent?

Possibly right now. Until a court decides otherwise and others follow suit. And there's nothing in the legislation that gives the court's any discretion in that regard.

A landlord could get an injunction to compel the tenant to allow access.

Landlords can get a check done up to two month's ahead of a certificate expiry without compromising the anniversary date (like an MOT). So that's the simplest route for most landlords - if the tenant starts to become difficult about the GSC, a valid s21 notice can be served before it becomes a bigger issue.

I have had my share of problem tenants, but never had anyone refuse access for anything. I can't understand why anyone would play silly buggers about a gas inspection. If anyone is harmed by a faulty boiler it will almost certainly be the tenant themselves, and possibly adjoining neighbours.

If landlords can face heavy fines for failing to get gas checked, surely tenants should have some penalties for obstruction of a legal duty?     

If it was evident to a judge that access for a GSC was being refused purely to prevent a Section 21 being issued, might he or she look favourably on a Section 8 under Ground 12, if reasonable access for essential maintenance was a term of the contract?

They might.
They might also suspend the hearing instructing the tenant to allow access and comply with the tenancy agreement, and then decline the possession claim if that then happened.

But any s8 claim would take months at the moment with unknown results.
It might turn out cheaper to pay to get an injunction.