The Legal Eviction of Tenants

If as a landlord you begin to have issues with the tenants in your rental property, you should attempt to keep away from any confrontations with your tenants; always try to be fair and tolerant as you can usually resolve many issues by discussing the situation with them and hence avoid a detrimental and protracted court hearing.

Eviction of Tenants, Section 21

If despite you best efforts you still need to pursue court actions for eviction of tenants from your rental dwelling, you must ensure that you serve the right format notice. The notice may be either a section 8 or section 21 notice; where the section 8 notice should be served if a tenant has outstanding rent; dependent on whether the rent is paid each month or week, these arrears should be greater than 2 months or 8 weeks respectively.

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When preparing notices for the eviction of tenants, extra care must be taken especially with section 21 notices, as a mistake is easily made. For instance, there are varying provisions contingent on whether the section 21 notice is being served in the fixed term period or after the fixed term has completed. A court may deem the notice unenforceable and refuse to grant a repossession order if the paperwork is incorrect.

Landlords should commence legal action without delay if the issues are not resolved, even though there are situations concerning rent arrears where you may not want to throw your tenant out and straight forward proceedings for a CCJ are maybe more fitting. Longer fixed terms are never advised for new tenants because landlords may have to wait as they can only start proceedings under section 21 once the fixed term has concluded.

For outstanding rent circumstances where a section 8 is employed, it is always best to think about proceedings citing the mandatory rent arrears ground, then you can give your tenant notice requiring possession once the rent arrears are behind by at least 2 months or 8 weeks. Using mandatory grounds for repossession (section 8 of the Housing Act 1998, grounds one through eight); means that if the ground is demonstrated to the satisfaction of the court; then the court cannot refuse to grant the possession order.
Landlords must take into consideration that the section 21 process is not for resolving outstanding rent problems, as section 21 was intended to allow landlords recovery of their rental dwelling once a fixed term finishes, with the proviso that the proper legal steps have been taken.

Eviction of Tenants via the Accelerated Possession Procedure

A key advantage of the procedure citing section 21 is that you use a special court process, known as the accelerated possession procedure. This is where there is no hearing with the order being issued on the paperwork alone. When the proper procedures have been followed and the paperwork is correct, a tenant has no defence against a claim citing section 21, and is why this is highly advocated for the eviction of tenants.