Served S21 and tenants are still refusing to leave the property?

Served S21 and tenants are still refusing to leave the property?

0:04 AM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago 34

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Hello, can anybody help and advise with this situation, please? We have sold our tenanted property and the tenants refuse to leave (as suggested to them by the local council). We served a section 21 and they still refuse to leave on the prescribed date. Our insurance provides legal cover to begin eviction proceedings and having provided all documentation, our solicitor is telling us that the only issue is that the ‘How to Rent’ guide was issued to our tenants via email and this should only have been issued via this method ‘by agreement’ which my letting agents, apparently, did not receive.

All agreements were signed electronically by our tenants so they naturally assumed it would be OK to send them the ‘How to Rent’ by the same method but the solicitor is saying that if we go to court, this may be an issue. Has anybody experienced this before and can anybody provide any advice or guidance on what we can do?

Thank you,

Tony


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Comments

MasterG

12:08 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Happy housing at 28/07/2023 - 11:27
Not really. If the address was missing a dot, it wouldn't have been delivered. Not to the correct person at least.

Happy housing

12:11 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by MasterG at 28/07/2023 - 12:08
True,

Graham Bowcock

12:21 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

If the How to Rent Guide is being served by email, the tenant has to agree. If they don't agree then it has to be hard copy.

We (and agency) provide all documents on docusign so the tenants have a single bundle of all compliance documents that they sign up to.

Happy housing

12:29 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Have we noticed, I have not seen any positive comments from a LL in the uk.

Freda Blogs

13:07 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Happy housing at 28/07/2023 - 11:16
I don’t think you are correct in saying that the ’How to rent’ document needs to be signed, not least because there isn’t a signature provision on it.

However, you do need to demonstrate that it has been served on the prospective tenant, and if this has been done by email, or better still within a bundle of electronic documentation (I use Signable), there will be an audit trail which shows all actions/interactions with the documents by all recipients, so it should be possible to demonstrate that the tenant has received it.

That said, as others have mentioned, prospective tenants should agree to having documentation sent to them electronically. I include this as a question in my holding deposit form, also sent electronically, and the tenants sign to agree, so we’re good to go from there onwards.

There remains a potential issue as to whether the judge will accept that electronic signatures are legitimate, and there are plenty of items on the web (including from software providers) showing that they are.

RoseD

13:31 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Again as I have found all too often no straightforward answer to any problems associated with PRS and why we landlords are given the run around no matter how well we try to do the proper and correct thing. The How to Rent guide is a complete farce anyway. Surely if it's been emailed along with all other documented correspondence and tenants been in situ and paying rent it's been received . The wriggle room given to tenants just beyond ridiculous. No wonder you (and many others) selling.

David Frost

15:11 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

I am a ll i plan to sell after 12 years of renting with a very good tenant the new rent act and the EPC rules the cost to achieve a C is too costly so one more family will be homeless

David Houghton

16:46 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

You can serve by email, but email needs to be an accepted method of service under civil procedure rules part 6. I serve by email and ask them to reply acknowledging service be email and that they are prepared to accept service this way.

First thing to do print a copy and hand it to them in person. Log the time and datem Fill this in on n5b via a witness statement entitled proof of service with a statement of truth.

This should rectify the mistake

David Houghton

16:59 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Toni at 28/07/2023 - 11:22
That's really unusual. It doesn't sound right, of course the appeal cost more than the reissue. You could rectify by handing the other tenant a copy though

jackie Lines

19:52 PM, 28th July 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Russell Cartner at 28/07/2023 - 11:58
Are the local Authority housing having to make their properties EPC compliant also ???

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