Tenant refusing to leave?

Tenant refusing to leave?

9:09 AM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago 22

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Hello, my wife and I bought a property, the completion date was January 2023. We bought with a tenant in situ who since April has been in rent arrears and is refusing to leave after section 21 and 8 has been issued.

The solicitor is about to issue an accelerated possession order but has requested us to get the Gas Safety certificate issued to the tenant when she moved in 2016, which is not available. Will the court not honour the accelerated possession order as advised by the solicitor?

Please advise as my wife and I are having to incur monthly costs from our pockets.

Thank you,

Stan


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Comments

Graham Bowcock

9:58 AM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

Can I ask if you/your solicitor requested/received all of the pre-commencement compliance documents? These should have included the gas safety certificate.
If you don’t have everything in order then you can’t use s21.

What was your intention when you bought the house? You really should have a contingency fund to cover repairs and, of course, rent arrears.

Markella Mikkelsen

10:18 AM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

Hi Stan,

Ideally you need to provide ALL GSC from the start of the tenancy (?2016) to now. There is some flexibility by the court in cases where, for example, the tenant has denied access.

Are you able to obtain the full series of GSC from 2016 to 2022 from the previous landlord? Have you conducted a Gas safe since January 2023 or attempted one? When was the last Gas Safe done and when is the next one due? Basically the court doesn't like to see big time gaps between GSC and your claim will be thrown out if that is the case and you have no justification for the gaps (e.g. tenant denied access or the property was empty). There may be some flexibilty by the court as you were not the landlord between 2016 and 2022, so make sure that this is made very clear.
I recently did an eviction where I was not able to provide a GSC from 2013 when the property was managed by a letting agent who is no longer trading. I could provide all the other GSC and the court allowed my claim.
I hope this helps you. Good luck!

JB

10:33 AM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

If you can find out which gas engineer did the annual certs, there's a chance he/she may have their copy but he/she wont have proof that the tenant received a copy

BRACKS Mead

11:05 AM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

If your section 8 is a mandatory clause eg rent arrears over 2 months, that doesnt need the gas safety certificate (thats only section 21). If you dont have the gas certificate, I don't know if you can reissue that now, so I will focus on section 8.

Go to section 8 court hearing and get the Order of Possession. That gives you the right of possession and is often the most important step in eviction. Ask for 14 days notice. Then after 14 days your solicitor applies for the Warrant of Possession. It is a form submitted to court that effectively is a fancy name for telling the court the tenant didnt leave and your case automatically goes to the court bailiffs. You get an actual eviction date then.

This long winded process is actually your quickest route.

Golfman

11:13 AM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

Actually in law the requirement is only to have a valid gas cert at the time the s21 is issued. Many judges and courts have to be pointed to the legal cases and aren’t aware of this-as many landlords have also shown to be unaware themselves here.

The N5B form also doesn’t recognise this quirk.

There is all the detail on this on the NRLA members website. Hope that helps.

Seething Landlord

12:08 PM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Golfman at 30/06/2023 - 11:13
Are you referring to Dean Byrne v Thomas John Harwood-Delgado [2022] ?
If so, you might not be aware that the original county court judgment was overturned and as far as I am aware there has been no other case to support your view that it is possible to succeed under S21 if there was no gas safety certificate in existence when the tenancy commenced.
In Trecarrell House Limited v Patricia Rouncefield (2020) the essential fact was that the GSC was in existence prior to commencement but served later.
Please cite any case that you think confirms that the position can be rectified if there was no certificate in existence at the start of the tenancy.

Stanley O-K

12:17 PM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Graham Bowcock at 30/06/2023 - 09:58
Hi,
Thank you for your time and reply.
The only Gas certificate made available to us is 2014 to 2015, 2021 to 2022, 2022 to 2023, renewal just done this month to cover 2023 to 2024.

Regards.

Stanley O-K

12:20 PM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

Reply to the comment left by Markella Mikkelsen at 30/06/2023 - 10:18
Hi,
Thanks for your response.
I will pass your feedback on to my Solicitor to specify clearly that we have just bought the property as the new landlord.
Regards.

Stanley O-K

12:23 PM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

Many thanks to you all for your valuable comments.
Regards,

Stanley O-K

David Houghton

12:48 PM, 30th June 2023, About 10 months ago

If in any doubt download form n5b from the court website. It's gives you a checklist of what you have to comply with. You can't get past the gsc not bring served pre tenancy if the legislation was in force. Sobuse s8

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