My tenants have not responded to my notice to quit

This is a question to the blog clinic  from Trudy (not her real name) who is a landlord.

I have given my tenants notice to quit and need them to be out not later than a month after the expiry date but have not heard from them.

I am worried as I need to live back into the property. Can I chase them to make sure they will move?

Answer

Before answering your question, we need to make sure that your notice is valid.

A Notice to Quit?

First of all – you say ‘notice to quit’ but I assume you mean a section 21 notice.

A Notice to Quit (NTQ) is a special form of notice which is now only used for certain tenancy types and which cannot be used for Assured Shorthold tenancies (I imagine your tenancy will be an AST).

So if you have served a NTQ you should arrange to re-serve the correct section 21 notice asap.

Even if you have served the proper form of section 21 notice, you need to make sure that you have done everything that is necessary as nowadays failure to comply with the various housing regulations can invalidate your notice.

The most common breach is failure to protect the tenant’s deposit (if you have failed to do this click here  – if you scroll down the page there is a free option).

If your tenancy commenced (or was renewed) on or after 15 October 2015 there are more requirements – you will find links to posts here.

Will the tenants leave?

Assuming your notice is correct, I am afraid that does not of itself guarantee that your tenants will leave at the end of the notice period.

Contrary to what many people think, a section 21 notice does not actually end the tenancy. It just means that if you go to court for a possession order, the Judge has to grant it. So your tenants are perfectly entitled to remain in the property until you have done this.

Most tenants will move out, but you cannot count on this.

You can certainly ask them what their intentions are, but don’t be too persistent as this can be deemed to be harassment. Also – if they change their mind, there is nothing you can do about it.

So I suggest that you have a backup plan for living arrangements in case they don’t move out.

For example if they have a family, they may be looking to be re-housed by the Council and the Council often won’t do this until the landlord has obtained a court eviction order.

If you do need to go to court, you can find out more here.