Every landlord enters into an agreement with a tenant hoping for a fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship. However, with nearly 35% of the UK’s population being tenants, it is demonstrable fact that these relationships do not always run as smoothly as they should.
You may need to remove your tenant from the prproperty through a formal procedure should they fail to leave the property when you want them to. There are multiple ways you can go about tenant eviction in the UK, including the following:
1. Issue A Section 21 Notice:
If you have fulfilled your obligations as a landlord to the letter then you can serve and enforce a section 21 notice, which sets out the following:
- The salient terms of the tenancy
- The wording required for enforcement
- A valid date for when a tenant should leave, after which a landlord may progress enforcement
After deciding to serve a section 21 notice, you must give the tenant a minimum of 2 months to secure alternative accommodation before formally progressing enforcement by way of the county court. You are not obligated to start enforcement immediately as a section 21 notice is generally enforceable up to 4 months after the date you’ve asked the tenant to leave. Enforcement is litigation, which potentially has costs implications for both the landlord and the tenant, and therefore should only be progressed as a last resort, when all other attempts to secure a voluntary surrender have failed. he minimum time frame which must be offered for a section 21 notice to be compliant and therefore enforceable increased during the COVID-19 pandemic but has now reverted back so don’t give more time than necessary unless you want to.
2. Send a Section 8 Notice:
If your tenant has broken the terms of the tenancy agreement or Statute, you can serve a section 8 notice on them. Similar to a section 21 notice, you must allow a minimum time frame to elapse before a court will permit enforcement. The time frames vary depending on the breach and the corresponding ground(s) for possession. Should your tenant surrender the tenancy during this time frame then enforcement will no longer be required. If your tenant is able to resolve the breach then enforcement may be less likely to succeed. Hence, why you should consult an expert in tenant eviction so they can ascertain the specific circumstances and let you know the chances for succeeding the desired outcome were you to progress any formal eviction activity.
3. Taking the Tenant to Court:
Unfortunately, this isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Anotice seeking possession is merely a means to an end. In the event a tenant fails to surrender the tenancy and/or remedy a breach will require you to engage the eviction procedure and file a claim for possession with the county court under whose jurisdiction the property falls. As a minimum, a court will expect a court fee of £355 initially but further court fees may be applicable depending on how the proceedings develop. A successful outcome is predicated on almost everything you have done from the time you decided to serve a notice seeking possession. For example, you may have filed a robust claim for possession and have compelling arguments for why you should be entitled to evict your tenant but if the notice seeking possession was defective in some way then a court will almost certainly decline to award you that all important enforceable order for possession. You will be effectively be pushed back to square one! In situations where the tenant is refusing to pay the rent then you can quickly gauge the potential losses you can suffer if you do not get the procedure right the first time around. Limiting your exposure should always be a primary focus of any eviction procedure.
For these reasons alone it may benefit you to consult a residential eviction expert.
4. Getting Help From An Eviction Specialist:
Even the simplest of mistakes in the eviction procedure can lead to you losing the case in court thereby allowing your tenant more time to stay in the property and possibly adding more pressure to you as a result of their conduct. To ensure that no such mistakes are made, you should work with an eviction company UK.
Firms which specialize in residential eviction will send your tenant the correct notice seeking possession for the circumstances of your relationship, with the aim of securing an eviction at the earliest opportunity the procedure will allow.
For tenant eviction services UK, contact Landlord Assist. The company can help you with tenant eviction, rent arrears recovery and more. Their years of experience in this environment has achieved thousands of positive what they can, and have achieved, on their clients behalf. Speak to them for free to learn what they can achieve for you, or read up on their eviction processes to find out how they would approach your case to give you peace of mind.
