Tenant not leaving after eviction notice?

Amazing! Doug and I posted the same advice almost simultaneously!!!

Hi, sorry to hear about your situation. Assuming that your tenant's on an AST and the fixed term has now expired then the section 21 route is clearly what you are referring to and unfortunately the speed with which these are dealt with is very much down to the Court dealing with the matter and the tenants attitude to receiving an eviction notice.

If the tenant doesn't want to leave then they can drag out the eviction by defending the claim (arguing the notice is invalid for some reason) which means the Court will likely set a hearing. Even if the Court dismiss the defence and grant you the possession order the tenant can claim 6 weeks grace on the basis that the eviction will cause them undue hardship.

I have had one recently which managed to sail through, Court granted order as not defended and tenant left within the timescales set by the Court, and so the eviction took around 2 months. On the other hand i had one which took 11 months because of the Court backlog and a difficult tenant.

On a practical note, have you considered whether the property is sellable with the tenant in place? If this really isn't an option then the first thing you should do is speak to your mortgage company and explain the situation. Clearly getting into arrears is not ideal however you have to remember that, even if you are in arrears, a mortgage company doesn't want to repossess your property. If they repossess they are only going to have to deal with the eviction themselves which they are not going to want to do unless they absolutely have to.

If you get a decent lawyer to deal with the possession claim you could ask them if they would contact the mortgage company for you and explain that the eviction process is under way and they will keep them updated with progress. If you do this and explain the position to the mortgage company you may find that they agree to take reduced mortgage payments until the sale is complete. I appreciate that this means that the arrears are going up and, when the property is sold, you will have to pay the mortgage inc arrears off, however if getting rid of the property and paying your mortgage off is what you need/want to do this may be your best option.

I appreciate that mortgage companies aren't known for their empathy but, as I said above, if you look at it from their point of view - if they repossess they are only taking on a problem that you are already in the process of dealing with.

If you want any more help or to have a chat about your situation feel free to message me and we can arrange a call.

Stay positive. Best, Charles

I inherited part of a property. In order to distribute the money, it was let to pay for care home fees. I told the tenant informally (Sept 21) that I would be issuing a section 21 for the end date on AST (Feb 26th 22) offering them their last months rent (£2200) back. The S21 was issued in Nov 21. They did not leave My insurance company took over proceedings. Court order was issued for July 3 22 my solicitor applied for bailiffs and they were evicted by bailiffs on 7th Sept 22. They paid their rent until the court order date. They were clear the council would rehome them if they were evicted. But they did not expect to with their 4 children being put in an budget hotel. They were still in it on Dec 16th my last contact with them.

Why not organise a meeting face to face with your tenants to discuss a rent rise to save evicting them

Personally in my opnion don't rely on your agents to deal with this matter

Welcome to the Real world it happend to me I had to go back to court and get bailiffs in and what a joke that is they told me its a delicate situation the tenants have got no where to go so I told the ballif to do what they are paid to and got charged another hour and the tenants disappeared and got left with a £ 22,000 bill

Hi. My tenants forged a 4 pages contract with shocking clauses (£300 per month with all bills included) and they got it certified and legalised to the notary in my absence! Last week S21 expired and they said they are not going going to leave the property because they have a valid contract until July 2024! I managed to get a copy of that contract from the notary and because my forged signature was on the last page, they just replaced the first pages with new ones with new dates...and are asking me now to pay them £5000 to vacate the property (£300x17 months until July 2024).
Police said they cannot do anything because is a civil thing and I cannot find a solicitor to help me even I wrote to many companies.

My tenant stopped paying his rent during covid. It took me 5 months before I could go to court then 7 months to get a court date. He didnt turn up I got an immediate repossession order 28.7.22. After 6 weeks the county court had still not issued the warrant. I paid and extra £2500 to go to the High Court. The High court warrant was supposed to take 10 days it took 5 weeks. I used private bailiffs who were brilliant and with the police he was evicted 14.11.22. The whole process to 17 months and cost £25000. Now I find out he was receiving rent allowance in his benefits all along. He is guilty of DHSS fraud - what are they doing about it - nothing. He didn't pay his council tax or electricity and has lived for free for 18 months with no consequence to him. This is theft. There are women with children in prison for having stolen less than 25 grand. Why is stealing from your landlord not a crime ???

Reply to Mel. You have no choice but to use the court system which is broken. I wish I had gone to Quality Bailiffs of London at the outset. It will take you months to get your tenant out but years if you do not do it properly and get cracking.

Reply to the comment left by Ray Guselli at 13/01/2023 - 12:12Just an update.
I already mentioned about how good our local court is.
I went on Friday with the N325 requesting a warrant for possession of land and bailiff attendance etc.
I explained the problems with the tenant and disruption for neighbours: the court officer issued the warrant that day and emailed me to confirm so.
Could not ask for better service than that.
Ray

Reply to the comment left by Octavian Birsanu at 14/01/2023 - 20:57
This is horrendous.... why can the professional bodies like NRLA /we put together these cases and forward to politician, councils, charities like "shelter" and medias organisations to argue our case for a more balanced fairer law/regulations ????????????????????????????????????
I am so sorry to hear but don't give up.. I would not pay for them to leave and would take to the end even if that mean they end up homeless on the street..
try property specialised solicitor

I THINK IT MAY BE THE CASE OF FORMING A TRADING UNION TYPE OF LLs...
YES, A LLs TRADING UNION WITH LEGAL MUSCLE TO FIGHT BACK ... representing members including in court also protecting against bad tenants & politicians....The NRLA model no longer function..... producing data/survey and like does no longer have effect as government at all level do the same and can twisted whichever way they like. WHAT DO YOU THINK? I would be keen to hear your thoughts