Shorthold Tenancy agreement

[George38]

I have a tenant on a shorthold tenancy agreement who is seriously behind with her rent. She has, however, given me a month's written notice of her intention to vacate the property. On the strength of this, I have found another tenant to take the property after she leaves. My question is, if the existing tenant refuses to move out on the expiry of her notice, and I want her out, can I make her leave, or do I have to issue a section 21 notice then wait the statutory two months before being able to force her to leave?

[boxtops]

I am no expert but when I have been a shorthold tenant, there has been no doubt of my requirement to leave at the time of expiry of the tenancy. Perhaps you should write formally to her accepting her notice and saying something like "as agreed, your tenancy ends on (date) on which date you are required to vacate the premises."

How do you stand re a refundable deposit, did she give one when she moved in? It may be that you can take the back rent from that?

[George38]

Yes boxtops, I can certainly get her rent arrears from her deposit. I just want to make sure that she leaves at the end of her notice as I have another tenant lined up, and what can I legally do to make sure she does leave. If she doesn't, do I have to go through the lengthy process of evicting her. This would normally mean giving her two months notice by means of a section 31 notice. If she didn't go at the end of that I would need to apply to the courts and then get a bailiff to remove her. All of that could take anything up to 4 months in total. I need to know whether the fact that she gave a months written notice would make the issue of a section 21 notice unnecessary thereby shortening the eviction process.

[Peter Pedant]

forget the rent arrears

take advice on the deposit - new laws
really important - if youarent registered you need to sort out if you can evict

and go along to her and say if you are out on the xth \i will forget the arrears
and I can tell you she will get out

you need updating on deposits

[tonywiltshire]

If your tenant refuses to leave you will have to go to Court to have the tenant removed, I have never known a Court not find in the Landlord’s favour in these circumstances. In can be a time consuming process but hopefully the tenant will go without you having to go to Court.

[Twenty20]

"forget the rent arrears " - err, why? Deduct it from the deposit. If she owes more than the deposit, because of dilapidations etc, then you can go to court to reclaim the remainder (assuming you have a good inventory at start and finish).

If rent owed is more than two months you can issue s8 as well as s21. The fact is though, if she doesn't move out on the day then, yes, you will need to get a court order and instruct bailiffs.

Personally, I'd try to have contact with her during the notice period - talk to her about what needs to be done on the moving out date, meters that will need reading etc, any cleaning that you expect to be done - that way you should be able to gauge if she is really intending to move out on the day or whether she is simply using delaying tactics.