Is this council letter to tenant legal?

Is this council letter to tenant legal?

by Readers Question

Guest Author

9:09 AM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago 42

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This is what the local borough sent to my tenant after I had sent her a Section 21 notice:

“I have requested that you be assigned an officer who will go through the next stage with you.

“Please be aware that due to a backlog of cases, this may take a little while but you will be allocated an officer.

“In the meantime, you are advised that you have a legal right to occupy your property. Your landlord will have to go through the proper legal process if he wants you to vacate the property.

“He must issue you with Section 21 notice as he has done, a Possession Order and a Bailiffs Warrant. This process can take some time.

“Therefore, you are advised NOT to vacate your property until your landlord has issued you with all 3 notices, the last one being the bailiffs warrant. If you do vacate the property without finding alternative suitable and reasonable long-term accommodation for yourself and your family you will be making yourself homeless intentionally.”

Kind regards
Triage Team

Is this legal?

Debbie

Editors Note: Check out Property118’s investigation report on councils telling tenants to stay put here


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Comments

Judith Wordsworth

10:00 AM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

Sadly not illegal

As others have said the letter doesn’t tell the tenant they may/will be liable for landlords courts/legal costs. But getting those from the tenant is like whistling in the wind.

At least it doesn’t say stop paying your rent in writing.

Deb

10:04 AM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 27/06/2024 - 09:29
Just that I am planning to sell the property.
Thank you.

roly

10:20 AM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

Reply to the comment left by Reluctant Landlord at 27/06/2024 - 09:32
Fantastic and concise advice. Many thanks

Reluctant Landlord

10:22 AM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

Reply to the comment left by nekillim200 at 27/06/2024 - 09:53other thing to remind tenants is that apart from the all the legal costs that they will be liable for if they do not leave on notice expiry, an ultimate CCJ for non payment of any rent too if this is withheld while awaiting eviction plus court costs will stay on their record for 6 years and is a HUGE red flag to any private LL then will then approach for housing.
Also state that it is standard procedure for most councils to also now ask for a reference from the previous LL, so that they themselves can determine priority as housing is in such short supply.
You can again reiterate that they have time before S21 expiry to look for alternative accommodation which is what the notice period is for. (You may want to offer money towards their next deposit if you think that might help shift them out asap??)
Tenants REALLY need a dose of reality here and reminding them sharply of what their obligations are, coupled with the fact that the councils themselves are getting tough on who they deem to have a duty to house means then have no choice than to comply or they will get nothing!

Good Luck!

John Grefe

10:31 AM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

Similar words was coming out of the Labour leader on TV yesterday evenings head to head with the party leaders! Labour coming out with the usual claptrap of how good they will be? But, nothing is mentioned when the Tories took back power 14 "horrible years" ago! The out going team apparently left a note stating "sorry, no money in the kitty"! Humm, do we have short memories? I'm 75 and seen lots of BS from them all.

Southern Boyuk

12:09 PM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

Lets get real , councils have no property. They will bat back to the landlord.

They will only take the most needy or vulnerable first. All others MUST. Search for their own property.

Section 21 is a request.
Go to section 8 as soon as you can.

Tell the tenant you are doing this and the implications to their future credit referencing for finance, mobile, utilities and much more.
Plus you will get a court order for all costs, interest against their benefits or earnings until paid off.
It’s mega important you serve both correctly otherwise you will fail at the last step.

If you are not a NLA member join they have all the info to serve correctly plus lots if other stuff.

It goes downhill from here. Just been stung for £27k , pity I didn’t act earlier instead of trying to be a nice person. Business first everytime!!!!!

paul bell

13:23 PM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

Reply to the comment left by Gabriella Van Jennians at 27/06/2024 - 09:48
Councils telling tenants to stay put is not illegal at all.

Rob Crawford

16:08 PM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

How did you get a copy of the letter? Assuming the tenants have broken the terms of the AST, you could also serve a section 8 where the notice period could be as short as 2 weeks, depending on which terms they’ve broken. You could say, your only serving the section 8 because of the line taken by the council. The section 21 would still run alongside the section 8 as a fall back in case the judge doesn't award possession with the section 8.

peter kessler

16:15 PM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

Deb, which Council issued this letter/note to you?

Has anyone else had any similar correspondence from Newham, with whom I am having similar issues.
Thinking about issuing a County Court against them but could do with some back-up confirming their stance on advising Residents to stay put.

Mark Smith

16:34 PM, 27th June 2024, About 5 days ago

There is a significant difference is advising a tenant to wait for the landlord to obtain possession order , and advising a tenant to ignore a ca court issued possession order.

If the tenant ignore's a court issued possession order they make themselves liable for the landlords, and the courts costs in enforcing the court order!
This might include:_
the costs of the bailiffs
the cost of a locksmith
additional rent from possession date to eviction date
interest on rent at 3% ABOVE BASE RATE
the landlords costs in additional travel, and admin solicitors and and where the tenant does not remove leaves possessions storage costs

If the tenant incurs these costs following the instructions and guidance of the local council - the tenant (and maybe the landlord) may have a claim aganst the council as in this case they have issued guidance and advice that does has led the tenant into debt

IN addition the te tenant may find it completely impossible to secure a private tenancy again if they ignore a court order for possession and force the landlord to use the enforcement action of bailiffs. I will never accept anyone as a tenant who has their eviction has been enforced by bailiffs and always explicitly ask if this has happened to every applicatant..

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