Council advising tenant not to vacate after being issued with Section 21?

Hello, I am approaching 70 and I issued my tenant with a letter to vacate the property on the 22nd of February 2023. I did not give a time frame but just to let the tenant know what my intentions were.

On receiving the letter my tenant decided that he was going to apply for a council property. He is an ex-serviceman and also very ill as he suffered from PTSD as a paratrooper for many years.

My tenant was assigned an adviser from the Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust which deals with homeless issues. My tenant met with the adviser who has been a great support and a good point of contact for me if I had any concerns or issues.

My tenant contacted me informing what documentation was required by myself to start the application process for accommodation for him.

The documentation I was asked for is as follows:

1. Section 21 form with the legal notice form to vacate the property. This was done and dated 15th March giving him two months’ notice. I was endeavouring to give him as much time as possible.
2. Gas Safety Certificate and Electrical Report. I asked the question why do they need these 2 items as it has nothing to do with him getting a property. They finally admitted that it was a checking-up process of the landlord.

By Easter, I was advised by my tenant that the mental health trust adviser had all the documents that he needed to forward to Solihull Housing for his application to be processed. The tenant will then be issued his PIN number to bid or express an interest in a home.

This is where everything went wrong.

The first contact I had with Solihull Housing was a telephone call on the 23rd of May asking me to supply the Section 21 notice as the dates did not marry up and part of the form was missing. I was not best pleased as I had given everything to the adviser by email. The council seemed to care more about following procedures rather than my tenant’s health!

I contacted the mental health adviser and asked what the problem was but he had no idea and confirmed that everything had been sent over.

I kept asking my tenant if he had received his pin number. The answer was no.

I placed the property with the estate agents mid-May and agreed to a sale 2 weeks later to a FTB. I informed my tenant of the agreed sale and said it would be the end of July before the sale would be complete. He still did not have his pin number.

I received another call from someone at Solihull Housing on Wednesday 7th June to say that my tenant was not getting his pin number as I had not started repossession procedures.

They said that if my tenant left the property of his own validation then he would go to the bottom of the housing queue. They said I had to follow procedure and apply for repossession at a cost of £375 and then wait for the bailiffs to evict him.

The sale was still progressing but no movement regarding the pin number.

I got another call on 1st August from Solihull Housing saying that they needed the section 21 form as all they had was my letter dated 22nd February. I was angry because I had sent the documents again to the mental health adviser as a precaution.

Solihull Housing said again that I had to apply for repossession to get my tenant out and to follow procedure.

The person said that they have told my tenant not to leave the property and that he had to be evicted. Solihull Housing asked for the Estate Agent’s details as they said they were going to contact them and tell them that he would not be leaving the property!!

By this time I was very agitated and rang my tenant’s mental health adviser immediately and told them of the situation.

The adviser confirmed that I had on several occasions sent all the paperwork. The adviser said they would contact someone they had dealings with at Solihull Housing and get the matter sorted.

The adviser told me my tenant should have received his pin number two months ago!!!

I rang my tenant late afternoon on Wednesday 2nd August told him the situation and said that he had to vacate the property by the 11th August as that was the exchange day for the sale.

Within an hour of our telephone conversation, the tenant received his pin number.

This was an appalling stressful and inefficient service as it has taken 5 months to get this far.  I hope my tenant will get a home so he can recover and I can complete my sale.

Thanks for reading.

Editors Note: You can find Property118 investigation on councils telling tenants to stay put here