Tenant given notice but not handed back keys or taken belongings?

Reply to the comment left by TheMaluka at 01/02/2025 – 13:51Be careful getting a default judgement. The defendant can have it set aside, costs just over £300 and they’ll get it back (landlord will have to pay it) if they can show it wasn’t served correctly. The claimant knows the defendant isn’t at that address, so should take reasonable measures like a credit credit to find a suitable forwarding address.

By all means start the process, but you need to follow proper process otherwise you risk landing yourself with a bill.

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Willis at 01/02/2025 – 14:10
Agreed, but in over 30 years and tens if not hundreds of Money claims I have not had a single challenge.
In this thread, the tenant still has a legal tenancy, as he has not returned the keys.

Reply to the comment left by TheMaluka at 01/02/2025 – 14:20
They have possession, but not a tenancy. The tenant provided their own notice, which they can’t revoke. That date has passed and they are an overstayer as they haven’t returned the keys (possession).

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Willis at 01/02/2025 – 15:34
Thats what my understanding of it is on a common sense basis that the tenant has left (they left early before Christmas) and in accordance with what they said they were going to do as put in writing by themselves and in several different communications saying they would return to take their things at some later date when they could get it arranged and so they have not returned the keys or paid the final months rent. So I have written the tenant plus their guarantor (the tenant did not reference) and asked them to remove their things and given them fourteen days following the notice period they gave in accordance with their AST and in accordance with the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 and have arranged for a removal firm to empty one of the rooms (they rented two rooms) when the fourteen days is up and put the furniture in the other room on a good will basis (hardly deserved in view of how rude the tenant has been and forced two previous tenants to leave due to the way they have been bullied and annoyed by the tenant etc) and store it for a bit longer with a view to changing the locks at some stage but am unsure if I should change the locks soon or leave them, the tenant does not appear to want to move back but this could change if they are talking to CAB etc who may advise them to do this perhaps but if I change the locks could they claim they have been illegally evicted? The current situation is that the tenant has not been back since before Christmas and probably think they can now just take their things when it suits them and threaten me with CAB and the ‘housing law’ as they put it not to touch anything, This seems crazy to me especially as they are not paying rent or said they intend to continue to do so.

Reply to the comment left by DP at 01/02/2025 – 19:01
If the tenant hasn’t given a notice to quit, the tenancy is in effect and rent is due, until they or a judge ends the tenancy.

If they have given notice, but not the keys. The tenancy is over, but their occupation remains. Then they are an overstayer and mensi profits (double rent) is due.

As an FYI, a landlord has been prosecuted for illegal eviction by a prisoner. They were picked up, sent to court then prison. The landlord assumed it was abandoned, but it was just the tenant was no longer in occupation.

ASTs are flexible, If it’s no longer the tenants main residence, it’s no longer an AST, so s8/s21 isn’t required. Same with the tenant giving notice but then overstaying.

It’s annoying when tenants spout out their protections whilst also giving wish washy communication with no guarantee of actually paying the rent due, and if they do a runner and are utterly broke, all you achieve is trying to get blood out of a stone with a CCJ and throwing good money after bad.

It’s a toss up between taking back possession and risking illegal eviction, or leaving it and never getting paid rent due.

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Willis at 01/02/2025 – 19:12
“. . . trying to get blood out of a stone with a CCJ and throwing good money after bad.”

Certainly not, you are giving the tenant a bad credit record so that he will find life as difficult as he is making yours. Of course there is little prospect of repayment, but that is not the main aim.

Reply to the comment left by Jonathan Willis at 01/02/2025 – 19:12Yes I can see that regarding the prison sentence if no notice was given but in this case I have it in writing. Is there not some protection for landlords who are not receiving payment or likely to (guarantor aside) from tenants just walking out with the keys without fear of wrongful actions ! I suspect this tenant is, however, likely to try every avenue he thinks he can if there is a likelihood of him benefitting either financially and/or storing his furniture for nothing as he is that way inclined but to my mind he has given notice surely?

Reply to the comment left by TheMaluka at 01/02/2025 – 19:45
I imagine most landlords go on monetary decisions, than waste it on court fees they’ll never get back. It’s a decision up-to each individual.

Back to the OP. The tenant gave notice, OP acknowledged it, the notice has expired. The tenancy has ended. The tenant is now an overstayer, what I believe is also called an excluded occupier. The OP can’t remove them from the property without a court order, but then it would appear they aren’t living at the property anyway, they just left some belongings.

If the OP is happy the notice to quit is valid, and the property is empty. Then they are probably on solid footing to tell them the locks are being changed and they have 14 days to collect the belongings where you’ll make them accessible at a given location (doesn’t have to be the rented place).

The illegal eviction I believe is only going to be an issue, where the tenancy remains in force. But they should get an eviction specialist solicitor to review the paperwork and communication to be sure they aren’t committing an illegal eviction.

Looking after the ex tenants property under Torts if the easiest part of it all. The tenancy/possession/illegal eviction is the bit that’s up in the air, due to poor communication from the occuiper.

Once again, laws in the UK are an absolute farce. Tenant gives notice to leave on said date, tenant leaves but because he can’t be bothered to take his belongings the LL can’t move forward. The keys to me are irrelevant…he has left the property by his own free will as he initially said in his notice…weeks ago. He has had more than enough time to collect his ‘stuff’ so give him 14 days from now to collect it or it will be disposed of. Does it not say this in the contract ? He’s just being an a*** .

Housing legislation is terrible. The fact the distress of rent act is still in use nearly some 300 years later, plus multiple housing acts, revisions, and other related acts that interact with it is crazy. It’s messy then it’s also full of case law that’s not well published outside the profession, to clarify the ambiguity of it. You would think something as simple as setting up a start/end date would be simple.