Help please and tenant’s surname spelt wrong?

This is a really difficult situation and I really feel for you. There’s no one right answer. My gut instinct is to start proceedings as soon as possible....but I DON’t know your tennant. It’s a matter of how much you trust them.. There are people out there who simply know how the system works, know that you can’t even start proceedings till the end of August and then you have no idea of how much backlog there will be.....and if you do start proceedings it will definitely worsen your relationship.
If you really need to move back in ( and yes I know it sucks) try to negotiate. Offer to write off arrears....if that doesn’t work offer to pay towards their move. The sad truth is at the moment the tenants have the majority of the power if you want them gone.

If you go the proceedings route If they want to mess you around it’s highly likely they can stay in your property till next year (what judge is going to hear a case if the tenants says they are self isolating).
If it were me I would try to negotiate and try to keep things amicable being a great landlord and trying to support your tenant. Probably not what you want to hear but in my opinion that’s your options. Be interested to hear other ideas.

If you are desperate to move in and their reason for not moving out is financial, you could defer their rent to enable them to move out and then to pay your arrears once they have moved out. Get this agreement in writing.
There is a chance that they may then renege on their agreement to pay the arrears, but at least you will have your property back. Only you know your tenants and can judge their reliability. If you go down the legal route, it is unlikely you'll get possession before 2021.

I agree, if you can afford to defer their rent do so. However get them to pay it and offer it back to them as a sum of monies when the keys are handed over, that way you will still maintain leverage over them.

Depending on how desperately you want your property back for your own use, offer them a package to get out and rent somewhere else, give them their deposit back if you took it, plus give them payment for them to pay their rent at the new property, and may be a bit more on top, like say another months rent, but you must give them a two weeks notice on Section 8 Ground 8 for rent arrears, on the notice you can use both names like known as xyz and also known as abc , one being spelled correctly the other being spelled incorrectly, keep a proof of service of this notice i.e. a witness present when you served the notice, or proof of posting, but tell them that you still have to follow certain legal procedures even if they verbally agree to move out , so that they can't come back and accuse you of illegal eviction, have them sign a surrender document, that they are leaving and surrendering their tenancy, they are happy to have received their deposit , and any outstanding rent they owed to you has been cancelled, and also state that you have agreed to pay for them their first months rent at their new place , they may accept this offer from you, you might as well tell them why you are making this offer because if you took them through a court route, it would still cost you about the same amount, and that we neither you or him benefits, and this way you are offering him the incentive which would help him financially. Yes I once made a similar offer to one of my tenant who had owed me £1500 in rent arrears, I offered him another £1500 on top thus making him £3000 offer overall, if he left on his own accord, but he refused, so in the end I ended up losing almost £6000 in total loss of revenue, as he did not want to move out, so I served him a Section 8 Notice, by which time he had owed me £2400, and whilst waiting for court date another 6 weeks gone, more rent arrears accumulated, and case got adjourned so another month rent loss added and by the time I hired a solicitor and a
barrister and a bailiff I was £6000 down the pocket.

Suppose now, If I had offered him £6000 in the first place, at the beginning, he would have left 3 months earlier, so that means my total loss would be a lot less as I would have been able to put a new tenant who would have paid me 3 months rent which in my case would mean overall loss of £4500 and not £6000.

Difficult situation for you. All the advice already given would be your best option. I always think that if you can stand the loss of rent and the arrears And gain possession then it's the way to go. Possession is the most important thing. When faced with situation like you have it's hard but it allows you to move on. Principals are ok but Possession trumps them.

Put the rent up and serve a sec 21, - that should " incentivise them to leave "

Reply to the comment left by Chris @ Possession Friend at 20/07/2020 - 23:37
I hardly think they are going to worry about the possibility of a rent increase as they are not currently paying the rent.And as for serving a section 21 if they know how to manipulate the system and they challenge it and then claim to be isolating on the court date It will probably be next year before they exhaust the tricks to postpone hearings in these dire circumstances and the courts trying to cope with a 6 months backlog.

Reply to the comment left by psquared at 20/07/2020 - 10:09
I think there is a lot to be said for some cut and run money.
The situation sounds like it has being fraught for a while and the stress of being a landlord right now is high.
I'd don't know your tenant but it's worth just saying to them that you need to move in and you need them out, offer a forgiveness of debt and a bit more for the pleasure of moving on quickly. It'll be enough to move most people and sell them gently on the idea of a move now being easy and a lot less stress, no courts or miserable eviction eventually.
You can always go for the legal route but in the current climate I don't think anyone is interested in helping landlord. It'll take a while and wear everyone down.

Reply to the comment left by Chris @ Possession Friend at 20/07/2020 - 23:37
Try imposing that 😂😂

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 20/07/2020 - 12:08
Notice period is 3 months at present not 2 weeks.