How does Breathing Space affect my ability to evict a non-paying tenant?

Reply to the comment left by Neil Robb at 28/04/2025 – 14:51
I believe that in practice, bureaucracy and assessor inaction prevents or seriously delays an eviction even where the tenant breaches the terms.

Hi Michelle,
I ended up serving a Section 21 four times. The first time, as the Managing Agent made an error by not enclosing a certain document, second time the name was spelt incorrectly, third time something was missing again and the Solicitor advised to reserve it.
I changed Solicitors as they were so slow in replying to emails and then the new legal firm advised that the previous solicitors has made an error. Now more than six months rent arrears.
Just make sure you have all he correct documents and follow the correct procedure when you serve the Section 21. If you have to reserve it again then the Renters Bill may have become law.

This is very interesting, I have served an S8 due to 10months arrears and my solicitor assured me NOTHING could prevent the eviction as I was simply getting the house back after the court gave it back to me. She even advised them that the breathing space would not alter the bailiffs eviction appointment because it was financial space not Mental Health space.Then the court halted the bailiffs due to the breathing space. Guess what, she is now off work with stress, no doubt a MH breathing space is coming my way and now we are a whole year of no rent. This is all affecting my lovely 83yr old who is really the victim here. I have asked the solicitor to pursue a S21 now to double my chances of getting rid of the tenant.
Such a nightmare but thank you for the advice.

Reply to the comment left by Neil Robb at 28/04/2025 – 14:51
I have been through this, and my tenant did not pay any rent during the breathing space, and they refused to revoke it.
Two months running he didn’t pay. And I informed them both times. They refused to consider cancelling it.
He played the system brilliantly.
He waited until the day before the possession hearing (on a section 8,) to send an email to the court to say he was stressed and been signed off work.
He had lost his job, so that was a lie, and he had had 6 weeks to prepared a defence., but hadn’t.
He offered no proof of stress to the court, but they gave him the full 6 weeks to vacate.
The day before that was up…he went into a breathing space. And paid nothing of his ‘ ongoing obligations’ during it.
When I finally got an eviction date, I was on the doorstep waiting for the bailiffs, when the solicitor rang to say he was back in court!!! No one had told me. How did he get away with that??
So the locksmith had to leave…
That cost me another £400.00 for the solicitor to drop everything and speak to the court. Mercifully the judge ruled against the tenant and the locksmith managed to come back just in time.
When we entered every single electric heater had been left on full while he went to court, a full cup of coffee stood by his computer, and there was a duty free Portugal bag by the rubbish bin.
He clearly thought he was not going to be leaving!
This was now a year that I had had no rent…no right to report his lying to the court…no help to object to the breathing space infringements and their total disregard for me in all this.
And to top it all off…my agent had failed to put a time limit on the Torts (interference with goods ) act 1977 in the contract, and so I had to store all his worldly goods for 3 months, having paid for an extensive inventory, and removal costs.
He even waited until the very last day of the three months to collect his stuff…but at the last minute said he couldn’t make it.
I had made a long journey to get there.
At no point was there any support whatsoever for me. I am an accredited member of the NRLA and they were supportive, but could do nothing.
As the tenant had implied on the day of the eviction that he expected that some of his things ‘ would go missing’ …I was very careful to make sure that the inventory clerk took pictures of everything , including all important docs .
He found 13 credit cards..and a summons for fraud by false representation.
I was unable to use any of this to try and show what a total crook and user he was. And to show that he had lied about losing his job ( around the time of the court case surprise surprise.) which he should have informed me if when I asked.
My tenant has 2 law degrees.
There is no support it seems for good landlords . It is beyond appaling, and the stress was unbearable. I felt so totally alone.
Lessons learned…..get the very best tenant default insurance, and don’t give people second and third chances .
If I try and take him to the small chains court to try and get the money he was ordered to pay me back, I know he will probably get away with 2p a month and I will have wasted even more money.

Well I completely believe this tenant has no intention what so ever of giving up this property and is going to find another way to stay, like yours she didn’t show a copy to the court of the breathing space notification, I had to!!! I have now instructed the solicitor to serve a section S21 whilst I can and people are surprised the Reform have gained in the local elections. I have lovely Polish friends who have fully embraced our community but this tenant incites racial hatred by her actions and my poor other friends get the butt end of it. No matter what I won’t give up I am only relieved the 83yr old landlady is unaware of it all due to her advanced dementia. This forum has been such a help because before these conversations with other victims of bad tenants I have felt totally alone with it all. I just wish there was a collective legal route we could all use to highlight the state of affairs happening.

Reply to the comment left by Sara Rowland at 04/05/2025 – 20:32
Surely you realise that only tenants are allowed to be stressed. Landlords are exempt from stress!
As to your 2p a month, taking a tenant to court for debt is not about reclaiming your legitimate rent, it is about giving the individual a CCJ and screwing up their financial life. Take them to court for £300 no matter how much more they owe, cost £35 in court fees. No decent landlord will give a prospective tenant a property with a CCJ hanging over them.

I havent read the whole thread, but why do you want to serve a s21 notice when you already have a court order. A s21 notice doesnt end the tenancy, its just a gateway to court action so seems a backwards step.

I am hoping that because the landlady has no capacity to manage the property we can obtain an order to get it back regardless of the owing debt. I am clutching at straws really and just trying to belt and brace getting her out. So far although we were awarded the house back on 3rd March with the court ordering her to leave on the 17th March with a bailiffs date set for the 10th April, which had to be cancelled because the financial breathing space doesn’t end until 13th May and we will need to return to court ti get another bailiffs date I simply fear she will then tey to get MH breathing space to continue living there, some have advised both S8 and S21 in case she actually comes up with enough money to cancel the S8. What gets my goat is I can’t protect my elderly friend during the day when the tenant is out the back smoking her head off and my friend has only one entrance to her cottage and that is at the back also, she feels frightened to sit outside because of it. I just want her out, the money is no longer the issue. The court has given us the house back though so are you saying I really don’t need to serve an S21 as well. I get so desperate I can’t think straight. My own hubby has just finished 15 months of really gruelling cancer treatment and although we think he might be OK he isn’t that well from it all. This is so, so stressful.

Reply to the comment left by Sara Rowland at 04/05/2025 – 20:32
The section 8 possession order ( with what he was to pay me) was on 30th October 2022, but the eviction finally happened in March 2023. With
I was advised to wait a while to see if the tenant was more able to pay what he owes. He owed me £14,500.00 by the eviction date. The court had specified a daily rate of interest until eviction.
But what interest in the intervening time of 783 days since?
BUT….here’s the kicker…I had assumed a CCJ would have been recorded.
I just did a paid search..and it hasn’t!
Does this not happen until I take him to court a second time yo say he hasn’t paid what was ordered?
READ THIS! I was horrified….
Why are Tenants CCJ’s Not Usually Registered? (British Landlord Association)
The Registry Trust Ltd is contracted to the Ministry of Justice to maintain the public register of CCJ’s (and other orders and fines) for England and Wales, this enables other credit reference agencies, such as Experian, to update their data and provide up to date credit checks.

Although many CCJs are registered with the Registry Trust Ltd, certain judgements are not, which means many debtors can pass credit checks without their CCJ showing.

Under the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005, a CCJ obtained through possession proceedings will not be registered with The Registry Trust Ltd.
The consequence is that when carrying out credit checks on prospective tenants, you cannot be certain if the report is accurate regarding previous CCJs.

I had no idea!!! I comforted myself with the thought he could never rent again.
But no…
My paid search revealed another CCJ against him of over £3k…but zero about his failure to pay what the court had ordered him to pay me.
Is this my fault for not ( at my expense again ) taken him back to court??

Oh Sara, what a terrible time for you and SO much debt, not being able to protect other landlords nor able to feel confident about future tenants, it’s a wonder anyone goes into the rental market. In the inner cities I can assure you some landlords are dealing with bad tenants privately with heavies employed to encourage the tenant to keave! and I can fully understand why. I’m so sorry you have had this same experience.