Help – Tenant not moving out and claiming extreme hardship!

Help – Tenant not moving out and claiming extreme hardship!

0:01 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago 39

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Hello, I moved from Kent to another part of the country for my son’s education and I rented out my house to a family with 3 kids. It didn’t work out for my son’s school and we wanted to come back to our home, but the tenant didn’t want to move out.

We had to find alternative accommodation from December 2022. I served Section 21 to the tenant in January to move out at the end of March, but he didn’t. Since then he stopped paying rent. We asked the court for a possession order in April, but the tenant put up a very dramatic defence claiming extreme hardship. The case was heard outside the court and the judge awarded him another 6 months to stay at the property due to some specific wording he found in our contract (our lawyer said that shouldn’t be the case!). We have been advised by the lawyer to reissue s21, which we did and we also served him with s8 for unpaid rent (now 6 months unpaid) and we have a hearing on 25th September.

Most likely our tenant will be using all sorts of tricks to get away from paying, using extreme hardship. Some time ago the tenant offered to buy our house, therefore he must have money! Recently, we also discovered he already has 3 CCJs on his name.

Please advise how can I deal with that kind of tenant to get out to have our home back quicker. How can we believe the law system will be on our side with the tenant claiming extreme hardship? We have to pay the mortgage and rent while waiting for him to move out!!!

Thanks,

J0


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Comments

Beaver

10:04 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

Did you rent this house out as your principle private residence? So is the mortgage a BTL mortgage or a normal mortgage?

Gary

10:10 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

I'm not a socialist, I'm a landlord myself but I really don't agree with what you are doing. You let the property to that person as their home and then, due to a change in your circumstances, you evict him from his home even though he's not done anything wrong. Do you have any idea how stressful that would have been on him? Did you consider his feelings or was it all about you? If he had breached the tenancy agreement then I would fully support him being evicted but under these circumstances, I'd say that this is a situation of your own making.

Happy housing

10:15 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Gary at 12/09/2023 - 10:10
Gary. Tenant owes 6 months rent, that should be sufficient to evict. What was incorrect in the contract?

Craig Vaughan

10:16 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

Very easy to get rid of him. Give him a grand in his hands and his deposit back....or spend months / years trying to evict him

Having been through this I would never use the courts. Find his price and pay it...

Happy housing

10:18 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

Have you tried s21?

Simon F

10:36 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

If the CCJs pe-date his original application, and the question was asked and false information given, the contract was fraudulently obtained. That's grounds for immediate possession on its own.

RoseD

10:44 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

Hi Jo
The legal system rarely works in favour of the landlord. To be honest there is no straight forward solution. It pains me to say this but Craig's comment is the best advice. The legal system will cost you far more. Harsh lessons but renting out your home not the walk in the park people think.

Beaver

11:09 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

Reply to the comment left by RoseD at 12/09/2023 - 10:44
We don't have all the detail but I'm assuming that the mortgage is a BTL mortgage and that the tenancy is an assured shorthold tenancy.

If the mortgage is a BTL mortgage the landlord cannot live in the property. I'm assuming that Jo intends to remortgage before moving her family back in but cannot do so because she will be unable to remortgage until the tenant moves out.

I know the details haven't been finalised yet but the renters reform bill is presently going (slowly) through parliament. As I understand the present proposals for the Renters Reform Bill the proposal is that a landlord needing to move back in to his or her property would be mandatory grounds for possession.

RoseD

11:20 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 12/09/2023 - 11:09
Beaver
I appreciate your comments regarding your fixation with the BTL mortgage and whilst you have a point we do not as you say have the detail. Working with the detail we do have is how I've based my reply. Regardless of the mortgage (and whose to say their is a mortgage in place) the tenant hasn't paid the rent in 6 months. Work with that as a reason to evict!

Trapes

11:25 AM, 12th September 2023, About 8 months ago

Hi Jo

If you have served the S8 PLEASE PLEASE make sure that there are no outstanding repairs to the property.
Pay a surveyor if you have to.
Take photos , do your inspections.

I didn’t - nearly 20 k of legal fees for me now - counter claim of disrepair was submitted and the tenant is still in my property 10 months later.
I’m due in court - a two day trial in November.
The stress is unbelievable.
Make sure you have everything covered
T

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