section 21 - selling buy to let. tenants wants early notice

[philv]

Hi,

buy to let on the market.
No offer/buyer yet.

Tenant has asked that i give her section 21 (form 6a)
notice now, so that she can get on the social housing list with the council.

If i give her the section 21 with a date in say 3 months time to leave, what happens if i have not sold the property?
Do i have to insist the tenant leaves on that date?

Is this sort of shooting both ourselves in the foot, as i will have an empty propertyu for a while and the tenant may end up homeless?

What happens if the date on the section 21 arrives and i have no buyer and the tenant has nowhere to go?
Can the date be extended?

(the tenant is also a friend so i don't really fear them not leaving when required. It's just that neithe of us know when that date is).

[ARHarh]

Frankly who is going to care if you let her stay in your empty house after she has been "evicted" if she has not managed to find social housing.

[LivLL]

It just lapses doesn't it if you don't then follow through.

There are some notes and explanations on the form from what I remember, should be on the gov website.

[philv]

We are on very good terms.

But i want to do things correctly.

I want to help the tenant and also don't want an empty property.

Idon't want to let the tenant stay past the section 21 date if it then means i can't ask them to leave or another 2/3 months, etc.

[Tigerj]

Social housing likely wont provide housing until she is homeless. They normally advise to stay put until a court order comes and the bailiffs are at the door. She’ll be told if she ignores their advise they will discharge their duties. So friend or not you have to be ready to go through the whole court process and for them to not leave.

They might not do so at all now, she’s asked for a section 21. If they find this out they will likely declare her to be intentionally homeless and discharge their duties.

Edited by Tigerj on Monday 13th November 08:23

[philv]

I deally we'd just keep extendign the date, but i don't think that is possible.
And it seems that i can't cancel the section 21 and start again.

[philv]

said:

So should i issue the section 21 6a and stick with that date?
I just accept property may be empty and get it started in case the tenant forces me to go for a court order.

[Tigerj]

philv said:

I deally we'd just keep extendign the date, but i don't think that is possible.
And it seems that i can't cancel the section 21 and start again.

If she is going into social housing. You aren’t really dealing with her you are dealing with the local authority. Unless she is high banding they won’t have anywhere for her and will try and keep her in your place as long as possible.

Might be worth speaking to her housing advisor, if she’s eligible for social housing they might even buy the place off of you l.

[Tigerj]

philv said:

So should i issue the section 21 6a and stick with that date?
I just accept property may be empty and get it started in case the tenant forces me to go for a court order.

If she is going into social housing your property likely won’t be empty. The LA will keep her in place to the last possible moment. Most don’t have spare houses waiting for people to move into.

You need to treat it as if the tenant is refusing to leave/unable to find somewhere else.

[philv]

Thanks.
The tenant was actually planning at some point soonish to move back to the EU.
Hopefully they can bring that forward.

What a pain.

[MustangGT]

philv said:

I want to help the tenant and also don't want an empty property.

Sounds like having your cake and wanting to eat it.

Letting means occasional voids. Selling a let ideally means it needs to be empty unless selling with sitting tenant.

[philv]

MustangGT said:

philv said:

I want to help the tenant and also don't want an empty property.

Sounds like having your cake and wanting to eat it.

Letting means occasional voids. Selling a let ideally means it needs to be empty unless selling with sitting tenant.

Not really.
I was trying to find a way that is best for both the tenant and myself.
It does seem that the social housing bit will cok this up and sour relations if it goes that way.
Hopefully not.

I had intended to leave the section 21 as late as possible.
But it seems that i should do that asap.

If the tenant doesnt get social housing then we both lose.
Great process.

[Maralago]

Issue the s.21. It’s valid for up to 6 months.

Issuing it itself doesn’t mean much, you need to go to court to get any eviction enforced. There’s nothing stopping the tenant issuing required notice to terminate the tenancy leaving you with a empty house anyway.

Tenant will take s.21 to council, but tenant cannot leave until the council have a property for tenant. If they leave, they will be deemed as making themselves intentionally homeless. Council won’t really do anything to find them suitable accommodation until they have an eviction order from the courts.

The house will likely be empty for 2-3 months whichever way it spins, unless your stars align.

Best case, you find a buyer, who is not in a chain or has flex in the timeline to complete with vacant possesion. Hopefully by this point, the min. 2month s.21 notice period has expired. You go to court for accelerated possession and get necessary paperwork, during the sale conveyancing process. Then court baliffs evict, tenant gets council accomm and you get vacant possesion. Risk is you don’t know what condition you get the property back in, which buyer may renegotiate price if poor.

Most straight forward, evict, refurb, market.

[NFT]

I would give s.21, (Gov hasn't taken that option away yet) and it really means little until enforced, until then it's a piece of paper that tenant can give to back up an involuntary need for social housing.

Some buyers may take it as a positive if notice already given, and any eviction issue timeline can be reduced.

Is there any way to negotiate/notify council this will be a fast and aggressive process (to refurb/redec increasing value to make up for eviction costs/tenancy void)making her homeless asap unless they wish to keep her in until an unknown date of sale to relieve emergency housing burden or something?

Friend was put in B&B years ago (at a high cost due to lack of places to emergency house), if they can put her on list and keep her in property for less while you avoid a tenancy void it could be win, win.

Edited by NFT on Monday 13th November 23:12

[Wings]

This LL had the same mindset of the OP, and that was to give consideration to the tenant, with the assistance of the local council housing authority, in the tenant finding alternative accommodation. I later learned from my tenant, that the council was instructing the tenant not to leave the rental accommodation until evicted by the court's bailiffs. If the tenant did leave the rental property prior to the visit of the bailiffs, then the council would consider that the tenant had made themselves homeless, and the council would not re-home the tenant.

The OP needs to serve the tenant with a Section 21 (6a) Notice, then proceed through the courts for repossession, with the probable assistants of the court's bailiffs.

[philv]

Thanks.

Im resending/posting neccesary docs (epc , etc) for ease of proof of delivery.
Section 21 will then be in the post this week.

It remains to be seen what happens.

[NFT]

philv said:

Thanks.

Im resending/posting neccesary docs (epc , etc) for ease of proof of delivery.
Section 21 will then be in the post this week.

It remains to be seen what happens.

Yes, keep us updated, if councils are making landlords go extra mile and suffer cost, inconvenience and hassle when clearly a s.21 is issued, it's bang out of order.