Tenant going to prison – how do I gain possession of my property?

Interesting and valid point Mandy raises to which i'd like to know the answer too..

How about a scenario where a tenant signs up to an AST then does not reside at the property at all but sublets to contract-less, casual free for all cash-in-hand which seems a popular scam at the moment (happened to me a couple of years ago-fortunately they left of their own accord with a little persuasion!-long story 😉 )

Would the same point you raise about demotion of tenancy apply i wonder?

Good luck to Marinus, hope it works out..

Reply to the comment left by "John Maynard" at "19/05/2016 - 11:27":

Thanks, John and thank you, Paul for your detailed response to my original question.

In his Nearly Legal blog, solicitor Giles Peaker has written this about rent to rent,
"The R2R party most certainly can’t have an assured short hold tenancy, as they may well be a company, but will most certainly not be resident."

It's an interesting and informative blog and can be read here: http://nearlylegal.co.uk/2014/01/confederacy-of-dunces/

Reply to the comment left by "Mandy Thomson" at "19/05/2016 - 12:14":

That's right Mandy. I do like Giles Peaker. He mentions 'resident', but he is referring to the 'assured shorthold tenant' not living there as his only or principal home. This is referring to S.1 Housing Act 1988.
"Assured tenancies (and ASTs).
(1)A tenancy under which a dwelling-house is let as a separate dwelling is for the purposes of this Act an assured tenancy if and so long as—
(a)the tenant or, as the case may be, each of the joint tenants is an individual; and
(b)the tenant or, as the case may be, at least one of the joint tenants occupies the dwelling-house as his only or principal home;"
...If (b) isn't met, the tenancy cannot be an assured or assured shorthold tenancy and so the Housing Act 1988 (s.5, 8, 21 etc) won't apply. As stated earlier though, tenants will still be protected by common law and the protection from eviction act 77.

If the tenant is on LHA you can get this paid direct to you as he is 2months plus in arrears

Darlington Landlord - I am working on this as we speak. Will they re-imburse me the 2 missed months of rent, or simply start paying me direct from now on? Will they be contacting my tenant to verify the missed payments?

Reply to the comment left by "Darlington Landlord" at "19/05/2016 - 12:47":

Yes and usually LHA can continue to be paid for up to 52 weeks while a prisoner is on remand (but not if he has been sentenced in which case I think it can only be paid for up to 13 weeks). This is obviously dependent on the tenant being co-operative in supplying updated/supporting information to the council or dwp (for universal credit) to avoid problems/suspensions in payments.

Man on stilts - Payments will only be paid to the landlord after the date the landlord makes the application. Previous payments of LHA before this date will have already been paid to the tenant as normal. What the tenant has done with that money is another matter.

I had more than a couple of these situations over the years. Their housing benefit stopped after I think - 3 months inside, so Housing Authirity did not treat their flats as still being their homes - they would not pay for their accommodation - so why should I? I then stored as much as I could of their possessions and treated the place as abandoned, the tenant himself did not notify me of his plans. These people did not expect to be able to come back more than 6 months later - to hundreds of pounds of arrears which they had not been able to pay! They were grateful to get some of their gear back and One person never even showed his face once he got free. These people are normally too ensconced in their plight and want to start anew once they are free .

I would tidy up the place, serve the two Notices, then find out how long his sentence is with a view to clearing him out. After all, he won't be able to clear the arrears later will he! U could keep mailing these accruing areas to him at the prison - saying if you don't hear back you will consider the flat abandoned. With the amount of the debt, he will soon notify you of leaving -tell him if U don't hear back by a certain date - you will consider the flat to be abandoned! It worked for me without paying courts as well!
Best of luck

Reply to the comment left by "Ingrid Bacsa" at "19/05/2016 - 12:57":

Of course there is a lawful way to regain possession and a practical way, Ingrid. Until last week (Housing and Planning Act) there has not been a lawful 'abandonment' procedure. To lawfully regain possession of a property you would need to obtain a possession order after fitly serving a valid s.21/s.8 or NTQ. Your action was probably unlawful. It may have served a purpose in your circumstances but I would be very careful about encouraging others to do the same. There are both civil and criminal penalties for unlawful eviction.
Sending the heavies round with a baseball bat and drilling the locks might also work very effectively to evict a tenant, but it doesn't make it legal.

No,of course, common sense must apply. I simply evaluated the capacity of the offenders to follow up on something which would render them into "minus" thousands of pounds if they stuck with it, I knew "running" would be their best ultimatum.

Reply to the comment left by "Paul Franklin" at "19/05/2016 - 13:44":

Yes although there is a big difference between bringing the heavies in and averting further abuse by showing the tenant his options, and not my expensive but legal options, in a courteous way.