Council advice to tenants nearing S21 date – Help!

IMHO whilst I am also personslly aggrieved when thus happens, the LA is correct.
Form 6a states words to effect: You have to leave property AFTER whatever date you put in. IE min 2 months from date of issue
An AST only ends if .
1.T surrenders in one way or another therefore voluntarily homeless or
2. A court grants possession.

Where I think LA push the envelope is telling T to stay till bailiffs call. If they told them to stay till date of possession order becoming effective that would be fair to all parties.

This is the new, well not so new, normal and perfectly legal.

Do not put the property on the market until you have a Possession Order with a leave on or before date, depending on your local area and Bailiffs Orders.

I would ring your local court and ask timescale for Possession Orders and Bailiffs Orders then you can plan ahead.

Rent will be liable until the tenant vacates. All costs to evict are income from property tax/expenses deductible. Hopefully the tenant will continue to pay the rent.

Being the equivalent of a social landlord counts for nothing.

This happened to me. 15 months from serving s21 to getting possession by bailiffs and the whole thing was extremely stressful. Expect all parties to gun for you: Tenant, Council, Shelter rep, their free solicitor, their family etc. I had it all.
The only consolation I have now, given that they owed me thousands and left the house in a disgusting dirty hoarded state, is that apparently they are living in a complete hell hole of temp accommodation way out of the area,
I will never let to anybody on benefits ever again after this experience.

Reply to the comment left by JamesB at 04/09/2023 - 20:13
I hope you learned your lesson and have sold up
email your local MP and M Gove tell them you will not be votng for them at next election because of there anti Landlord policies
Wipe that smug smile off his face losing his £150,000 job
michael.gove.mp@parliament.uk

Reply to the comment left by Russell Cartner at 04/09/2023 - 20:55
My opinion is below:

I have been of the opinion that I must sell up a.s.a.p. to avoid all the detrimental effects caused by the government i.e. Michael Gove and the society in general.

Now I ask why sell up now? The government is heading for a crisis in respect of housing. Rents have gone up substantially. Councils are struggling with providing accommodation. A vast number of Landlords have sold up including me where I sold a couple of properties.

I am now in a state of quandary. Do I sell up when there is a huge shortage of accommodation, or do I ride it out with property prices falling and interest rates at a very high level biting into profits?

I am of the opinion to hold out as, the damage caused by the government and the likes of Michael Gove just cannot continue. Any opinions on this?
If this continues even us as the accommodation providers may be living on the streets. Ha Ha Ha

Reply to the comment left by Clint at 04/09/2023 - 21:16
The root cause to be addressed, with or without renters reform, is the issue of supply and demand of affordable housing versus cost of living.

Supply cannot keep up with demand.
Demand always increasing and fluctuating.
Affordable, not sure what that means anymore, or to whom?
Cost of living, well, rent costs, landlord costs, both affected as you say.

The balloon has to burst, I would ride it out in my opinion.

Rents have risen, but can people really afford them
So no Sec 21 and Lawyers at the renters beck and call
No rent for 8 months and huge litigation bills
EPC improvements to fund
Boy oh boy wait till Labour get in

Reply to the comment left by Collins John-chieme at 04/09/2023 - 13:22
A view from the other side: a couple I know have an S21 to leave and get on well with their landlord. They are willing to leave and can afford the higher rents (£950 not £650 for the same sized place). There is NOWHERE for them to move to.

There are 20+ people applying for every property and they have pets so go straight to the bottom of the list even though they keep the lace immaculate.

They really don't want to stick it out like the council are telling them to but the choice is that or a tent as it heads into winter. What would you pick?

It's a crisis all round. I definitely understand the private landlords point of view because I've been looking at getting a place to rent to them myself and even without wanting to make any sort of profit I can't make the numbers work out.

Eviction will take months at best. Try to go fast using the high court. Get professional advice.

I managed to get rid of a tenant once by paying them to leave. They didn't want the property so a 4 figure payout was sufficient. You may want to ask them politely if you could offer support to get them to leave. I recommend withdrawing a large sum, perhaps 3 months of rent or even more. Ask the the tenant for a conversation and if it's your style possibly say this is how much you could offer as a support package if she needs help to move on.

It may be in her best interests to go the eviction route, so you may wish to respect her choice and offer to give a good but honest reference

If they can't afford market rent they will stay put until evicted to be housed by the council at council rate rent or covered by the benefits. If they stop paying rent because of whatever reason (property in disrepair, etc) the money they save will be more than what you are "bribing" them to leave so they will want to hang onto the property until the dying end. If bidding for council property references are not required, so it won't affect them. If living on benefits no chance recovering the money back; it's just a s### system for tenants and landlords.