Landlords will pay a heavy price for the tenants to leave
We recently had an enquiry where we helped a desperate landlord and wanted us to assist in obtaining vacate possession. The landlord had served a section 21 notice on the tenant, which expired at the end of July, and there was also three months’ rent arrears owing .
The landlord was in the process of selling her flat, had a buyer and was desperate to for the sale to proceed and exchange contracts.
The landlord agreed to pay the tenant £10,000 to vacate the property immediately and agreed to write off the three months’ rent arrears. Of course the tenant accepted and yesterday one of my staff attended the property with the landlord, to meet the tenant and arrange for the tenant to sign a Deed of Surrender we drafted and the transfer of £10,000 to the tenant.
We had to stay at the property for a while to make sure the tenant took all his belongings, then after the locks were changed and the landlord had vacant possession.
I believe the landlord exchanged contracts today.
I suppose in a very buoyant London house market the landlord did not want to take the risk of losing the sale and being stuck with a tenant for another five months.
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Specialists in tenant eviction and debt collection. Regulated by The Law Society.
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Member Since August 2013 - Comments: 109
4:30 PM, 6th June 2014, About 12 years ago
Was there a negotiation, did the tenant demand that much, that has got to be illegal.
I do hope the tenant ended up on some kind of blacklist never to pass referencing ever again.
Comments: 226
4:35 PM, 6th June 2014, About 12 years ago
Hi Paul,
Thanks for sharing this story.
I recently suggested incentivising a tenant to leave on LinkedIn and the comment was met with shock and horror, one person calling it “bribery”.
We recently sold a tenanted property and I offered the tenant £750.00 to be co-operative about viewings, keeping the flat tidy etc. and she could not have been more helpful. I think it helped me achieve my asking price, not to mention a smooth sales process and conclusion to her tenancy.
The relationship between landlord and tenant is a commercial one and its a false economy to throw good money after bad with a delinquent tenant.
I can easily imagine that it was worth a reasonable sum of money to the landlord to get rid of the tenant but I must confess that £10K is very steep indeed! I can only imagine it was a high value property and the landlord stood to make a lot of money on completion.
Member Since July 2013 - Comments: 561
4:52 PM, 6th June 2014, About 12 years ago
Was the S21 invalid in some way?
Otherwise way did a landlord allow tenants to get away with that, is the tenant not being trained to try the same thing with the next landlord?
(If the tenant was up-to-date on the rent, then I could understand it more.)
Member Since August 2013 - Comments: 883
6:02 PM, 6th June 2014, About 12 years ago
Notice ‘expired in July’: Last year?
Something went terribly wrong along the way.
If time was of the essence now then there was not much choice, indeed.