Can I evict a tenant after buying a property with no Gas Safety certificate?

The moral of this story is never buy a property at auction with a tenant in situ. It's just not worth it.

It's perfectly possible to get possession here, but it's also the type of scenario where specialist help is a good idea because if you come up against a judge who sees it as their job to keep the tenant in there.
I'd seek out an eviction specialist - there are plenty of decent ones around.

Reply to the comment left by Richard Baker at 07/12/2024 - 08:35
How do you get around the lack of "valid gas saftey check when the tenancy started", given the tenant has already successfully defended against s21 eviction on this basis?

Gaps in gas certificates and even the absence of a current current gas certificate are arguable issues generally in the landlord's favour (the requirement for annual checks although part of the gas safety regs is not itself a prescribed requirement for the purposes of utilising S21; See the Trecarrell case for insight as previously referred to.

Obtained gas certificates can also be belatedly served (as the set period for providing certificates is expressly excluded from the Prescribed Information regs.

HOWEVER if there was not a valid gas certificate in place when the tenant went into occupation that cannot be retrospectively rectified and you will be unable to satisfy the Prescribed Information Regs which require that a gas cert valid at the time of occupation is provided to the tenant (as well as any other gas certificates produced under the gas safety regs) before a valid S21 notice can be served.

In your situation S21 is off the table and you should try and either negotiate a deal where the tenant agrees to vacate or if a deal is not possible conclude the proceedings ASAP before you rack up extensive adverse costs.

You can then consider other options to regain possession of the property suggested by other members.

(I have shorthanded the regs for brevity)

Reply to the comment left by Landlord Solicitor @ RSPLegal.com at 07/12/2024 - 11:12
From what I read in the post, their wasn't a valid gas safety check when the tenant moved in as the engineer wasn't gas safe registered. And the tenant defended a s21 from the previous landlord on this basis.

Only option is cash for keys, unless the tenant does something to raise an s8 mandatory ground.

Current landlord can still do s13 notice to increase the rent.

NB: These comments are based on the tenant going into occupation on or after the 1st of October 2015 - if a tenancy commences earlier than that then the gas certificate arguments can be successfully resisted as the tenancy will pre date the implementation of the Deregulation Act 2015 which brought in most of the extra requirements for S21 Notices.

There's a reason the tenant is staying put. Let's address this now. They have been there for years and they're paying. Why would you want them out anyway? Use the legal procedure to bring up the rent to market rate asap. Problem solved. Now you get market rate, a fair price, for your property. They may want to leave if you do so. That's up to them. Once they pay market rate, if you truly want them to leave, raise the rent to a price which makes them want to leave. If you first get paid at market rate, they cannot appeal that later. Once they pay, that's the new rate - no arguing back. Next, increase it to a level which makes them want to leave. To be honest, if they're paying market rate, why bother moving them?

Why not put up the rent then offer cash (after they have paid you, so after it's fixed at the new rate and it cannot be appealed) like maybe a grand or two if they will leave

Reply to the comment left by Robert Sled at 07/12/2024 - 17:52
If you raise rents (doesn't have to be above above market level) the tenant can challenge the s13 notice and have it set by housing tribunal to what they think is fair, this can be lower or higher than the landlords request. Further to this you can only use s13 once every 12 months.

The new owner or landlord was not the landlord who first let the tenancy, so now the new owner and new landlord has a valid gas safe certificate when he took over as a new landlord, all he needs now is a good lawyer who could challenge the case and provide details of other cases where landlord had not issued a GSC at the beginning but a valid one was in place before he served a S21 Notice, and again make sure there is hard evidence of serving a S21 Notice so take a witness and get his statement, You are also required to serve a latest How to rent guide booklet., Get a good lawyer and fight on this case on the bases of you are a new Landlord., and you purchased this property in good faith with a sitting tenant, whom you now want out for whatever is your reason.

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 08/12/2024 - 00:05
I'm not sure how this helps. All that happens when a property is sold is a change in landlord name, the tenancy and it's protections remain.

Byrne v Harwood Delgado, 2022, has shown a tenant can defend an s21 if a valid gas saftey check wasn't done before the tenancy started. Selling the property has no effect on when the tenancy started. Further to this an s21 has already been attempted, the current tenant defend the eviction based on Byrne v Harwood Delgado, 2022, case, and the possession order was thrown out.

I'm not sure why you think attempting the same action again would led to a different result.