Help – Tenant not moving out and claiming extreme hardship!

Help – Tenant not moving out and claiming extreme hardship!

0:01 AM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago 39

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Hello, I moved from Kent to another part of the country for my son’s education and I rented out my house to a family with 3 kids. It didn’t work out for my son’s school and we wanted to come back to our home, but the tenant didn’t want to move out.

We had to find alternative accommodation from December 2022. I served Section 21 to the tenant in January to move out at the end of March, but he didn’t. Since then he stopped paying rent. We asked the court for a possession order in April, but the tenant put up a very dramatic defence claiming extreme hardship. The case was heard outside the court and the judge awarded him another 6 months to stay at the property due to some specific wording he found in our contract (our lawyer said that shouldn’t be the case!). We have been advised by the lawyer to reissue s21, which we did and we also served him with s8 for unpaid rent (now 6 months unpaid) and we have a hearing on 25th September.

Most likely our tenant will be using all sorts of tricks to get away from paying, using extreme hardship. Some time ago the tenant offered to buy our house, therefore he must have money! Recently, we also discovered he already has 3 CCJs on his name.

Please advise how can I deal with that kind of tenant to get out to have our home back quicker. How can we believe the law system will be on our side with the tenant claiming extreme hardship? We have to pay the mortgage and rent while waiting for him to move out!!!

Thanks,

J0


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Jo Walker

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11:39 AM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Thanks for your comments, much appreciated. We don’t have to remortgage as we only obtained a permit from the bank to rent out and we are on 5 year fixed.
We knew it is not the best situation for everyone that’s why we have returned the deposit right away when we knew we are coming back.
We have tried to agree the price with the tenant too, but he kept saying he can’t find alternative accommodation. We have helped him with a search for alternative accommodation, but nothing we offered was good enough for him. We know the council advised him not to pay and wait for the court decision, he mentioned it.

Beaver

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11:44 AM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Jo Walker at 12/09/2023 - 11:39
So is this your principle private residence?

Happy housing

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11:52 AM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Jo Walker at 12/09/2023 - 11:39Why would council advise not to pay?

Beaver

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12:05 PM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Happy housing at 12/09/2023 - 11:52
Council would advise him not to pay because he'd be making himself homeless if he did it and they'd have to house him.

However, if this is Jo's principle private residence, not mortgaged with a BTL mortgage then she needs to make sure that her solicitor and the judge knew that.

The judge also needs to understand that there is a shortage of rental accommodation and that no homeowner is going to consider renting out his or her principle private residence if he or she cannot be assured of getting it back when they need to move back in. Furthermore, if mortgage lenders find out that a judge stops a homeowner from moving back in when required then the 'bank' is not going to sign a permit for the homeowner to rent out.

There is the potential for thousands of potential tenants to be adversely affected by this decision.

Martin Hicks

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12:07 PM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Aside from the unethical council advice to discontinue paying the rent, it would seem counter productive in finding rented properties for their own needs.

Happy housing

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12:08 PM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 12/09/2023 - 12:05
I still not understand what the mortgage has to do with it. As long as they have a tenancy agreement and in rent arrears this should be sufficient, mortgage compaines don't get involved in this unless you stop paying the mortgage.

Beaver

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12:09 PM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Happy housing at 12/09/2023 - 12:08
The issue is that as far as I can tell from the detail, this is Jo's principle private residence.

Happy housing

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12:09 PM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 12/09/2023 - 12:05
If council advised not to pay then it would make tenant homeless?

Beaver

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12:12 PM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Happy housing at 12/09/2023 - 12:09
You're right I could have phrased that better. 🙂 It's just standard council advice. Don't pay until you get evicted.

But the issue as far as I can tell here from the little detail available is that this is Jo's principle private residence.

Happy housing

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12:21 PM, 12th September 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 12/09/2023 - 12:12
Yes but that does not matter, the bank have given jo a letter saying they cam rent it out

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