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Evicting Tenants

Evicting Tenants

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Personalised Advice on Evicting Tenants

The risks associated with illegal eviction, missed rent payments and possible damage to your property if tenant eviction is badly handled are significantly reduced by paying for professional advice or services.

More advice is available from our sponsors who provide a variety of services in relation to evicting tenants and general advice on tenant eviction and recovery of debt. You could do everything yourself but we do not recommend it as there are so many legal pitfalls.

Simply complete and submit the contact form below and we will be happy to arrange for our recommended suppliers of tenant eviction advice and services to contact you. Our introduction service is also completely free of charge.

FREE introduction to tenant eviction specialists Landlord Action

THE EVICTION PROCESS

To evict a tenant legally you must serve notice (either 2 weeks or 2 months depending on circumstances). If they don’t leave of their own free will you will need to go to Court to obtain a possession order. Once you have a possession order you may need to instruct a County Court bailiff or a High Court Enforcement Officer if the tenant still refuses to leave. If you fail to get the process right you may be charged with illegal eviction which carries severe financial penalties as well as the possibility of a custodial sentence.

If you want a tenant to leave a residential property there are strict procedures which must be followed. First you must ensure your own paperwork is fully compliant, otherwise you will very quickly run into difficulties and waste time. For example, if you didn’t protect a tenants deposit within 30 days or failed to serve prescribed information correctly any further action is highly like to prove to be futile.

With ever more complicated legislation being introduced it is becoming more common for both landlords and agents to make mistakes when it comes to compliance. But what are the consequences of failing to protect a tenants deposit and correctly serve prescribed information within the 30 day period allowed, and more importantly what are the solutions to fix the problems you will undoubtedly face. Tessa Shepperson, Founder of Landlord Law explains via this linked page.

Serving Notice

Two weeks notice – AKA Section 8

You can use this form of notice if your tenant has missed two monthly rent payments. Technically this can be one month and one day after the first payment is missed. There are other circumstances where a section 8 notice can be valid too.

Two months notice – AKA section 21

You don’t need to provide a reason to serve section 21 but the notice period must not expire before the end of a fixed term tenancy, or six months if the tenancy is for a shorter period and is the first tenancy. This type of notice will not be valid unless you have complied fully with deposit protection legislation.

High Court Enforcement

Waiting lists for County Court bailiffs services can be as long as 6 months in some areas. High Court Enforcement Officers can act within days of your getting a possession order but again there are processes to be followed.

Case Law on Tenant Eviction

Landlord and tenant law evolves as judges interpret legislation.

The most notable court cases in recent times are ……

Spencer vs Taylor clarified that commonly held industry perceptions over what type of section 21 notice to serve were generally incorrect. It was previously thought that different forms of notice were required depending on whether notice was served during a fixed term tenancy or a tenancy which had become periodic. The case also simplified issues over the date at which the notice period should end.

Superstrike partially clarified deposit protection law, i.e. where a fixed term tenancy became a periodic tenancy after the implementation of deposit protection legislation. However, the case also raised more questions than it answered, hence further legislation was implemented.

Johnson vs Old provided a clear distinction between deposits and rent in advance

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