Can I still evict a tenant with rent arrears despite council intervention?

If the arrears are cleared (or reduced to under 2 months), the serious rent arrears Ground under Section 8 wouldn’t work. Other Grounds for rent arrears are discretionary.
If Section 21 is available to you, that is potentially the better option.
I’d certainly pursue eviction before the Renters Right Bill is passed into Law. Maybe use an eviction specialist to avoid any unnecessary delays.

S21 - don't mess about with S8. If you don't get the arrears paid by the council then it sounds like he cant pay, so you wont get anything back if you go down the S8 route so why bother ?
Possession asap is now the goal so you don't lose more. If the Council do offer to pay it off at any point before the bailiffs turn up, don't forget to tell them you want the all the costs that you have also incurred to date including the bailiff fee (if already instructed) as well as rent arrears. After all they have more than likely advised the tenant to stay put until the bailiffs come knocking.
Up to you if you take the Councils 'deal', but if you said he has mental issues and like you say the Rights Bill is on its way....do you want to be in the same position later on with zero change of eviction?

I concur, S21 straight away while you can. If you do a S8 the council could always turn up at any court hearing and offer to pay the arrears then and there and you will be snookered as the judge would accept this offer. - then the bugger still wouldn't pay this rent after that.

Get rid of this tenant by any means possible, but before you do, take action to get him a CCJ using moneyclaim. You will never get your money, but he will have a CCJ which will stop him inflicting himself on another landlord. The claim does not have to be for the full amount, just the maximum you can claim for the minimum fee.

“Well, he was pretty much homeless when I agreed to take him as a tenant”. And that’s the source of your problem …… poor referencing.

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 19/08/2024 - 11:27
Yes, S21 now. I made the mistake of waiting for 6 months arrears, which turned into 15 by the time I evicted him. He tried the part-payment trick, but I was lucky because he got it wrong. He paid a month's rent just before the 6 months and assumed he was OK. I just waited a little longer and he failed to realise until it was too late. He tried to offer to pay at court but the judge did see through that.

I did use a specialist, and still wonder why they didn't advise me to use S21. But I just wanted shot of him and the property for the sake of my own mental health and didn't question it.

Reply to the comment left by NewYorkie at 19/08/2024 - 17:09
Well done. Hopefully that a-wipe will struggle to find someone to accept him as a tenant now. ARE YOU WATCHING STARMER ?

Ignore the council, they are only doing it as a tick box exercise, I had council called me to offer to pay off my tenants' rent arrears when I was evicting my ex tenants. When they found out my tenants had rent arrears, they never called back again, apparently, tenants were deemed to be making themselves homeless if they have rent arrears. use sec 21 to evict if you can, it will take over 6 months to come through, but it's a definite eviction if you have all paper work in order. if you're lucky, don't need to hearing day from the court, it maybe be quicker. Just pray your tenants don't respond to the court paper when you submit it. If they do, you'll have to go to court hearings even if you through sec 21 route. Sec 8 is a pickle route to take, especially your tenant claims mental health problem, you have to go court hearing and it could easily to be adjourned, it will take a long time to reschedule a new hearing date,
it could drag on forever. I put my case through back in June, the hearing date is scheduled at January next year, Just to give you an idea how busy the courts are now.

The BIG problem comes if the tenant plays the mental health card - having said that they have to be receiving mental health services from a recognised professional, they can't just say I have mental health issues backed up by the say so of mum or grandad or whoever.
But if they do have mental health services then

A mental health crisis moratorium is available to people who are receiving treatment from a specialist mental health service for a serious mental disorder.
A moratorium prevents creditors, including landlords and mortgage lenders, from taking enforcement action against debtors who are not able to pay.
There is no limit to how many times a debtor can enter a mental health crisis moratorium.

A mental health moratorium lasts as long as the person's specialist mental health treatment continues, plus 30 days.
So you can basically kiss goodbye to your property

Reply to the comment left by GlanACC at 19/08/2024 - 19:52
That Moratoriums applys to debt. It doesn't apply to s21 possesdion but it does apply to s21 costs