UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all.
This is my first time as a Landlord and it's all going horribly wrong. The tenant moved in on 31 October 2015 on a six month AST.  Apart from the first payment which came from the agency, none of her monthly payments has been on time. She has now completely missed the January 28th payment and has told me that it will take 20 odd days for her to get any money to pay it. This will mean she has missed two months payments. Meanwhile, she is causing a disruption with the neighbours having her music up loud and late into the night and I've now heard she has moved her boyfriend in without asking me. So this is what I'm proposing to do and I wondered if this is the right thing or if you have any better ideas. 

- I thought I would call her and ask her to leave the flat within two weeks and forfeit the Jan and Feb rent payments in exchange for me keeping the deposit.
- If that doesn't work I was going to issue a Section 8 and Section 21 on the same day.  Can I post this by recorded delivery as I am getting conflicting answers?

Any help or advice you can keep me would be greatly received.  Thank you from a very stressed out novice Landlord.

As far as I know, there is no point issuing a section 21 before two months before the end of AST anyway.

Oh, there's usually lots of advice on the legalities of this sort of thing. I'm sure it will come. Meanwhile, here's my experience rather than advice.
- a registered delivery + 1 hand delivery is deemed sufficient
- people like this cannot be reasoned with or bargained with
- why is the agent not doing all this? Don't use one myself but if I did, I would think this was 90% of the reason for employing one
- forget the money. Success = getting rid of them at whatever cost. The tenant who leaves owing money is much, much preferable to the one who doesn't (leave)
- it's a situation that almost all of us recognise. Good luck, issue the Sect 8, hope they don't know the law and keep just 7 weeks in arrears (or whatever), and if they've got a car - well, 4 tyres are expensive

Comments...

Disruption with neighbours is nothing to do with you. That must be resolved between Tenant and neighbour, Landlord is not a party to this. Go down that road and it will all end in tears as the neighbours will be coming to you for every little thing your Tenants (these and future) will do that they don't agree with.

Asking her to leave is all well and good... you might even get lucky. If so, then make sure you get a Deed of Surrender signed so you know the tenancy is ended good and proper. It's unlikely to happen, but it might. It's more likely she would refuse to move and continue not paying you your rent. In that case you will need to be prepared for the long-haul.

The fixed term period of your tenancy was 6 months... that's good at least. It means you can serve a Section 21 in a short amount of time. That's the only sure-fire way of achieving eviction. A Section 8 has mandatory Grounds but can be defended and there are all sorts of tricks a Tenant can play (I don't get any sense of how savvy she is, is she a serial professional Tenant?).

I would do it all by the book.

Sect 21 Notice is probably going to be your best bet. First class post is acceptable by the Court as service of the notice, but ensure you get and keep proof of postage. Recoded delivery letters are often refused by tenants who anticipate notices arriving, so unless you really want to serve by hand 1st class post is fine.

Always be wary of advice from a forum especially my own.
Do your own research.

1. Not sure about the advice on not giving a section 21 2 months before the AST ends.  That's exactly when you should in your case.  As your tenancy started after October 1 2015 then you must wait 4 months before serving a section 21.  To do so before will mean a notice is invalid.

2. You can however serve a section 8 notice but I see that there has been no discussion on the grounds you will use.  You may not be aware but you can serve a section 8 on multiple grounds at the same time.  I would suggest that grounds 8, 10 and 11 apply,  Arguably 14 also applies. Ground 8 - rent arrears - will require the tenant to be in 2 months rent at the time of the court hearing.

2.a. I would however caution against taking a section 8 notice route to court (it's ok to serve on the tenant) given the vagaries of the court system today you may well find yourself embroiled in a long drawn out costly process and even paying the tenants legal costs to boot.  If you Google section 8 nightmare or similar you will see what I mean.

3. To specifically answer your question on service of notice no one can strictly answer you as it will be dependent on your tenancy agreement and what is specified in that agreement.  Usually it is per the Law of Property Act 1925 or Landlord and Tenanct Act 1927.  Most likely is that you should serve (my recommendation) not by recorded delivery but by 1st class mail but get a Certificate of Posting.  You can hand deliver a copy if you wish but the former will suffice for the purposes of serving a notice and critically for documentation when you send your N5B to the courts.

4. Regarding the anti social behaviour.  I'm afraid nothing to do with you however I would question whether your tenant is getting benefits?  Would the council help you if served a section 8 grounds 14 - anti social behaviour?  Unlike the other section 8  grounds this one result in an expeditious possesion order.  The real issue however is whether (a) the council will assist or not (b) will the courts support your application (c) can you prove the ASB?  I would tread carefully the other routes are better trodden - which sadly is rather important.  I would suggest leave this path alone (and the section 8 in general per previous paragraph).

5. If you do approach the tenant and ask her to surrender the tenancy agreement then ensure everything is enshrined in a Deed of Surrender.  You will need to have this carefully constructed as most off the shelf versions I have seen simply indicate there is no overdue rent.  The care must be taken in that in this case there will be overdue rent and you must preserve your right to retain the deposit.

6. I do agree with one piece of advice though....get the tenant out at all costs, far preferable than a tenant that doesn't leave.

Best of luck

Quote from: theangrylandlord on February 20, 2016, 03:16:15 PM
Always be wary of advice from a forum especially my own.
Do your own research.

1. Not sure about the advice on not giving a section 21 2 months before the AST ends.  That's exactly when you should in your case.  As your tenancy started after October 1 2015 then you must wait 4 months before serving a section 21.

Not sure if you were referring to my advice ALL ?  What I actually said was that there was no point serving it BEFORE the last two months... i.e. in the case of a 6 month contract, after 4 months.

Ah yes . Apologies I missed the double " before".
Although it's not the  case there is no point      it's really that the notice is invalid....
Thanks for the clarification