Here is a question to the blog clinic from Sandra (not her real name) who is a landlord. (She does not actually say that she is a single Mum, by the way, but I am assuming this).
I am in the process of evicting my tenant as I want to move back into the property, I have a new job back in the area and now have a baby too.
Currently I am having to live at my Dad’s in very unsuitable accommodation. Is there a way of quicken up the process and going directly to the high court, I can’t wait 6 months. I have served my notice 21 which ends in a month’s time, I am desperate to get back into my flat, but tenant is single mum, DSS with teenage son and has told me she won’t moving I have to go to court as she wants a council house.
Answer
Sigh. Every landlord thinks that their situation is different and that the rules should be bent in some way allow them to get a speedy eviction.
However all tenants are classed as ‘consumers’ with all landlords being treated as a business (even if, like you, they are just an ‘ordinary person’) largely because it is unfair for a tenant’s rights to depend on the personal circumstances of their landlord.
I quite understand that your situation is difficult for you – but that is not your tenant’s fault. So far as she is concerned you are her landlord and she has the legal right to stay in the property until she is evicted. As do all tenants.
Most Local Authorities will tell tenants to stay put and will refuse to re-house them if they move out early. There is a lot of complaint about this by landlords but from the tenants point of view she cannot risk moving out early.
Issuing proceedings in the High Court is not going to help. The HIgh Court does not have jurisdiction to hear standard eviction claims. All that would happen is that the case would either be moved over to the County Court or be rejected and the papers returned to you – which would only delay things further.
You could try offering the tenant a bonus payment as an incentive to move out early, but if she is hanging out for a Council Property she probably won’t accept it. So I am afraid you have no alternative but to just wait for the case to run its normal course. My experience when I did court work was that if you try to speed things up the usual result is that it actually delays things.
ALL landlords want their property back quickly. If there was a ‘magic button’ which speeded things up, all landlords would be using it.
Finally – it is very important that you have all your paperwork correct – as problems with paperwork will also delay things – so make sure that either you are using a solicitor who understands this work, or sign up to Landlord Law and use our online DIY Eviction Proceedings Guide.
“Most Local Authorities will tell tenants to stay put” – I don’t think that’s accurate.
I think most local authorities will say to tenants please, please find your own solution and find yourself somewhere else to live so we won’t have to accommodate you!
I’m sure most local authorities do not advise tenants how to play the system so that they can get social housing?!
Conversations with the council are more likely to go a bit like this; TENANT: “I’m being evicted and gong to be homeless”. COUNCIL: “Well you’re not homeless yet so come back when you are but bare in mind if we can get away with saying it’s you’re own fault we won’t help you. Also, if we do have to help you we’ll place you in temp accommodation as far away as possible to put you off wanting our help, so you should really try to find your own solution”.
Not that I’m cynical.