Property Possesion

[atha1973]

Hi, I am hoping somebody can help me.

I rented one of my properties on 14th August of which the tenant paid the 1st months rent. He did not pay the deposit as he advised me that he was waiting for his old landlord to return his deposit. He signed a declaration confirming that he will pay the deposit by 31st August of which I was happy with. I have not yet received the deposit nor the September rent. I keep getting broken promises and know he is ignoring my calls and letters etc. To be honest with you I think I made a big mistake letting him move in without a deposit. The tenancy agreement has a clause where after 3 months either of us can give notice to terminate the agreement.

It would be appreciated if someone could advise me of the procedure for possesion and rent arrears as to when I can apply and which forms I should complete.

[Mortitia]

Hi Atha,

If there wasn't soooo much spam on the forum I might have seen this earlier!!

Did you not reference this person prior to giving him a tenancy or get a reference from his previous landlord!

In your tenancy agreement it should state there at some point the grounds for asking your tenant via Section 8 to leave. Use the ones applicable on your Section 8 form.

It is unlikely that he will pay you anything now nor will he leave until evicted. I would recommend, since you seem a bit naive about letting get a specialist landlord and tenant solicitor to step and and do the evicition for you - they usually do this as a fixed price of between £450 - 500 depending on where you are in the country + the cost of the court fees (£75).

If you want to go it alone you need to get forms for Section 21 and/or Section 8 downloadable from this site or HMRC (Her Majesty's Court Service). Good luck with filling them out! Then you have to wait while the court writes the tenant and see if he responds within a time limit. Later the case comes before a judge and if the forms are correct you should be awarded a court order to evict.....if you are lucky tenant may leave at this point.

Good luck

Mortitia

[Chestnut]

I answered another copy of this thread earlier!

Unless you have experience of successful eviction procedure it is best to consult a solicitor, as advised on the forms.

Yes, the tenant might depart if you're lucky, but if not you will need to invoke a court eviction procedure where any mistakes on your notice papers may cause a ruling in favour the tenant and the need to start your 2 months notice procedure all over again.

[Mobolettings]

Hi atha,

The tenant is clearly in breach of the tenancy agreement (I assume you did get a signed written tenancy agreement). It sounds like you have a rogue tenant here and you have come unstuck by trying to help someone and falling for their speil. It happens and you are not the only one!

You are unlikely to see either the deposit or any other rent. Therefore you need to serve a Section 8 notice asp (Chestnut says where to get these). You can serve under Grounds 10, 11, 12 and 17 now, with Ground 8 added as soon as the 2 months rent overdue period is reached. This should give him 2 weeks notice to get out from the date served. You should also serve a very strongly worded letter stating court action, costs, credit risk etc at the same time to put some pressure on.

Unfortunately, if he is a rogue he will probably be aware of the system and live rent free for the next 4 months until the bailiffs arrive. A sorry, but unfortunalely not unfamiliar, tale. Get the notices in early, keep on top of the tenant as much as possible until he leaves and put it down to experience.

Good luck