Tenancy Issue

[pravstar]

I have a tenant (quite a violent bloke) who has £1800.00 still owed to me in rent.I had an AST drawn out ten month ago, he said that he would pay a deposit, none received but I accidently put on that he had paid a deposit. The contract expires in July and I certainly dont want him there after that date. I am willing to forfeit the rent if it means getting him out. I was thinking of puting £800 in a deposit scheme of my own money, registering this with the Government deposit scheme, and then going via the section 21 route, Can anyone give me some suitable advice as to the best way of dealing with this as he is a real nasty piece of work

[Peter Pedant]

To put it clearly for the punters
you cant use the courts and the s21 route if you have taken a deposit and then not registered.

Write him a letter which you should give to him - saying that you are not going to continue the lease and include a s 21 notice in it. Dont send you have to hand it to him

Nearer the time- since you cant do anything until July 31 st anyway
write him a letter saying that if he give you vacant possession you wil not pursue arrears since you know he doesnt have the money anyway.

and keep your fingers crossed.

He may want a reference - say that the law doesnt allow you to say he is not in arrears when he is as you become liable for the losses of the nexxt landlord if you do.

and for your next tenant - either register for a deposit scheme or dont take one.

[pravstar]

Peterpendant, you may remember me from the TFL case I had. Many Thanks for answering both posts

[Peter Pedant]

yes indeed
as I typed away I thought to myself:
'who's having a busy week...'

I have not joined a deposit scheme. You could open an account, but if you put in money in Mr X's name, it might be deemed to be his, written in trust - you trustee, X beneficiary
that is you are effectively giving him £800, and you would not be able to call it back. I dont know.

[Peter Pedant]

Re-read your TfL posts

and it made me squirm a bit -

I dont see why the magistrate said sue - as I cant see what cause of action you would sue under. A case cant beget a case ( Genesis again I am afraid ) and at the time you didnt apply for a wasted costs order ( VERY difficult to achieve - see Nigel Evans' yowlings on this subject ).

I dont think there is a tort to fit - He tried to sell me a fixed fine like a used car salesman was selling a duff car he knew was a dog .....

so in the TfL case, I think you are stuck with magistrates' sympathy and not much else...

[pravstar]

Hi Peter, definitely not looking to sue, not worth the cost and as you rightly pointed out, I have not gone down the right procedures to do so. I won't get anything legally out of the TFL, more a point of principle. If I am lucky TFL might demote the officer (tongue & cheek)

[themas]

You are in a very difficult situation. You cannot issue a Section 21 notice because the contract document states that he paid a deposit & he will point to that if it is claimed he did not. Legally, it will therefore be assumed that you did receive a deposit. You did not comply with the legal requirement to protect the deposit within a scheme within 30 days of receiving it. That is an absolute time limit - you cannot protect it in a scheme now & then issue a S 21 notice - the notice would be invalid.

It is very likely that the only way you would be able to issue a valid S 21 would be to repay the deposit money to him before doing so (i.e. to give him the £800 which he should have paid as deposit).

He may be ignorant of all this but you can't assume he won't get qualified advice, or he may just ignore your notice - in which case you would have to go to Court & the case would almost certainly be thrown out as the notice would be invalid.

You need advice from a solicitor specialising in Housing Law.