This is a question to the blog clinic from Jamie who is a landlord.
If a tenant is evicted during a fixed-term tenancy agreement, can the landlord still claim rent until the property is re-let?
Answer
No. After they have been evicted through the courts, tenants no longer have any right to live in the property. Their tenancy has ended.
So this means that you no longer have any right to claim rent from them.
You have the property back. You can’t have the property back AND claim rent for it.
However this does not alter your right to claim for rent that is unpaid from before they were evicted.
Say the tenant was evicted due to antisocial beharbour on instruction from the local council, and the landlord not lost income due to the property then having a void etc. As the tenant did not keep to the AST, should the tenant to be liable for this lost income during the void and the costs of the landlord finding the next tenant?
(In the real would most problem tenant would never pay up whatever a court said anyway…..)
I can’t see any way that the tenant can be responsible for losses by the landlord after the tenancy has ended. A landlord does not have a God-given right to voidless income.
Plus, as you say, the tenant wouldn’t pay it anyway …
A Local Authority should not be ‘instructing’ a landlord to evict a tenant for anti social behaviour as it is outside their remit to do so. They may of course want to refuse or revoke a licence if such exists but it would be reasonable for a landlord to defend their actions even if it does not mean that they evict a person.