Tenant does not let landlord in to inspect property

[Vic123]

I have licenced HMO property for 4 tenants, 3 of them moved out and only 1 still stays in the property. I decided to stop renting this property as HMO so withdew planning permision what has been pending. I also informed remaining tenant about my intension and gave him the notice. He informed me he could not move out as he sent his passport to Home Office as he applied for permanent residency in UK, not having passport he can not find new accomodation, he also must wait under this address for his passport to return. he told me it may take up to 6 months. I told him I can not rent him the room only for so long and keep other rooms empty. My intesion was to refurbish property and move in. He insisted he must stay so I suggested him to rent the whole property then and told him price. He neither agreed nor denied but refused to move out and pretends to be upset the way I act he does not let me in since. He behaves as he rents the whole property he requires from me the 24h notice to enter/inspect property but at the same time did not confirm he was happy to enter into new agreement to rent the whole property. When i try to arrange visit the property he does not let me in. I called police but was told it was nothing to do with police.
What should I do in this case. He keeps paying for room only, he does not let me in despite it is still HMO, and he feels upset if I wanted to rent him the whole property if he wanted to stay. Is it enough reason to give him section 8 notice?

[JK0]

Can you not rent the other rooms to your wife & kids, and then they can let you in?

[DoricPixie]

Presumably this is the same property in your previous thread where the tenant has a contract to rent a room not the entire property. You may well have served him notice and even if you have served notice correctly good luck getting him out legally through the courts quicker than 6 months. Just because the tenant doesn't want to leave doesn't mean you can unilaterally change the contract from renting a room to renting the whole property and as the tenant I sure as hell would not accept that change.

If you have already served him notice (Section 21) what good do you think serving a Section 8 notice would do? On what ground would you serve the Section 8 notice?

As the property is a HMO and the tenant only rents a room not the whole property then 24 hours notice is required to enter his room not the communal parts of the property or the other vacant rooms. How is he preventing you from entering the property? Has he changed the locks? Can you not give 24 hours written notice so that you can inspect the whole property including his room?

If I remember correctly you have been a bit slapdash in setting up this HMO so no matter how annoying you might find the remaining tenant tread carefully because he might well have some legal route to take for letting a HMO illegally.

[jpkeates]

The tenant can't exclude you from the property, they can only exclude you from the parts that they have exclusive possession of.
You don't need to give notice to enter the common areas (unless you've done something very weird in your tenancy agreement).

The tenant's issues with his passport and needing to use the same address aren't your problem and could be overcome by a simple mail re-direct to his new home.

[AndrewDod]

You could always let other rooms to some other characters who are predicted top behave very nastily. There is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing whatever you like in any other areas of the property including staying there yourself.

[Vic123]

Thanks for your comments.
Unfortunatelly it gets nasty now. After 3 tenants moved out I decided to have the whole property for myself and stop HMO, as I said I had the licence but not from the very beggining let's say 3 months after he moved in not sure if it is a big issue. I found a form where tenant can apply for return rent for that period but only if it was not longer then 1 year ago (not sure if he can claim only within certain time or he needs to use other form to do it). in my case it was over 3 years ago so not sure then. I do not mind to give him rent for this period just let him go, but issue is with his passport.
The thing is he does not let me into the house. He locked the front door from inside so I can not turn my key inside lock from outside and he uses back door I do not have tke key for so I can not enter the house. He txt me saying if I break into house he would call police as I woud be intruder I would agreed if he rented the whole property what I offered to him for time being he gets his passport as he said (I agree he may change address etc but it is conforbable for him to stay assume). Even if he gets his passport he can not move out or tell me he still did not get it yet so it may last long. How about if he will not get residency?
I wrote emai to council about the situation let see if they can do anything, As it is licenced property they can inspect it if they wish.
I was thinking about section 8 grant - 12: Breach of tenancy agreement, He did agree to to get into new agreement re renting the whole property so old agreement to rent room only is in force so I have right to enter common area of the house. It is still HMO with 3 vacant rooms I understand. His wife might move in so he does not want me to know it etc.
It may be grant 13 also after house inspection but he may blame others who just moved out.
I do not want HMO anymore I belive it is hard job especially in the area where property is where tenants are often from completely different cultures/religions etc I did not want to discriminate anyone and rent the rooms base on above what is illigal too. But first of all I can not get in to rent the rooms.

[DoricPixie]

Grounds 12 and 13 are discretionary. The general consensus is that no sane landlord would use them and instead go down the Section 21 route. Do make sure you haven’t overlooked anything that may invalidate the notice.

Get a locksmith to gain access through the front and/or back doors. You are legally entitled to enter the communal areas and presumably neither the front or back door leads straight into the tenant’s bedroom.

[Vic123]

Do not think lack of licence over the time of tenant moving in may be objection for section 21 to be served?

A landlord cannot use a Section 21 notice if any of the following apply:

• It is less than four months since the tenant entered into occupation as the tenant of the property.
• The property is a house in multiple occupation and requires a licence under Part 2 of the Housing Act 2004 S55 and that licence has not been obtained. Unless a temporary exemption applies, an application for a licence has been made and is still effective or the landlord has notified their local authority that they are seeking a temporary exemption and that notification is still effective. (This applies even if a licence application or notification could not be made due to COVID-19 outbreak).
• The property is other residential accommodation and requires a licence under Part 3 of the Housing Act 2004 S79 and that licence has not been obtained. Unless a temporary exemption applies, an application for a licence has been made and is still effective or the landlord has notified their local authority that they are seeking a temporary exemption and that notification is still effective (this applies even if a licence application or notification could not be made due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak).
• The tenancy was granted on or after 6 April 2007 or is a statutory periodic tenancy that arose on or after that date and the landlord has not complied with the relevant tenant deposit protection legislation. and if they have not given their tenants copies of:
• the property’s Energy Performance Certificate.
• a current Landlord Gas Safety Record (if the property has gas appliances installed).
• the government’s ‘How to rent’ guide

Section 8 grant 1 Landlord wants to move in is option but requires 2 months notice.

Locksmith is the option he may call police but even if they come he can not proof he rents the house.
It will be proof I will ,fight, with him and can finish either way better and it push him to go or he will resist even more. I will wait for council response first but my expirience with council is that if tenant reports anything about property/landlord council looks after it. If it is oposit it is only landlord issue.

Problem with tenant is that he was offered to rent the whole property and acts as he was renting it but never confirmed it verbaly or by txt never signed or showed intrest in signing new agreement, so not sure if he so fool or so clever and makes me fool.

[DoricPixie]

To use a Section 8 Ground 1 two things must have already happened. 1) The tenancy agreement should include a clause referring to ground 1 and that this may be involved. 2) Prior to the start of the tenancy, the tenant must have been served a notice explaining ground 1 and stating that the letting is on the basis that ground 1 may be invoked. If you have done neither of those things you can forget using a Section 8 Ground 1.

There are lots of things that can invalidate a Section 21 in England so I have attached a link to a Section 21 validity checking tool below.

https://markprichard.co.uk/content/d...ecker-tool.pdf

You must have a copy of the tenancy agreement proving he only has exclusive occupation of a bedroom not the whole house so take that with you when you use a locksmith to enter the property.

Like it or not though this tenant currently has every legal right to reside in the property until such time as the tenancy is legally ended by him serving notice, a court or by mutual surrender. It might be inconvenient for you as you would rather have the whole property to yourself but the tenant has every right to be there and continue paying for the room he rents, the only thing he can't do exclude you from the entire property.

[jpkeates]

Unless the tenant can show evidence that he rents the whole property, the police won't be able to do anything even if he does call them.
Assuming they even bother to turn up.

Get a locksmith to access the property and go in - you have every right to do that.
You're being bullied by your tenant and you need to sort that out.

If you want to serve notice, I'd employ a specialist company to do it.
You clearly don't really know what you're doing and are already in a real mess that going to take some time, effort and money to resolve.
If you don't take some professional advice, you will waste a lot of money and time.

[Vic123]

Thanks for your comments.
First of all I try to arrange inspection with tenant giving him 24h notice as he wants what is illigal from his side I think but I do not want escalate this problem and set him fully against me, All I want only what is mine so the house. I know he likes to live there as has been there over 3.5 years. My offer for him to rent the whole house (he could live with wife then) was to help him if whatever he says about his situation with passport is true, now I think is not the best idea as I have a problem already so will have in the future even if he signs new agreement. I met him many times while inspecting property many times and never had any serious issue with him but at the same time never had any big problems like now. mostly he slept and worked or was away on holiday what was quite often so I assume he is normal honest person. I belive my notice to him and after offer made him let say softly unfriendly. I read he is my customer so tried to put his shoes on to see the situaation with his eyes but at the same time he should have done the same, he can not expect having full empty house for himself even if rooms are locked he lives like in 1 bed house and what more I keep paying bills. So can not let it go.


Section 21 can not be served at all based on the validity checking.
Re Section 8 ground 1 it not happened so assume I can not evict him base on it.

We have rolling contract for 2 weeks and if either side serve notive is renewd so I did he says 2 weeks is not enough i can give him 1 month then.
Re deposit he gave me 2 weeks what was supposed to cover 2 weeks rent after notice was given. so not sure if I should have protected it. Other 3 tenants did not get deposit back thet lived last 2 weeks for that.

If it comes to eviction it will be long time wasted the courts still have got backloges cos of COVID. At the same time I do not want to run HMO anymore and first of all I need my house back to live in. The time the 3 other tenany moving out at the same time is good momentum for it.
Our contract finished so I served notice to him to move out so I follow the rules we agreed, it is hie problem with passport not mne and it should have not affected out agreement, but at the same time if it comes to eviction he will dig out for my sins for sure.

Could i do any refurbuishment over the time of eviction process? ssume no problem in the rooms how about common area kitchen/batroom/toilet etc?

[DoricPixie]

It sounds like you are up the proverbial creek without a paddle then if your Section 21 is invalid and will never be valid if you took a deposit and failed to protect it. It’s starting to look like offering the tenant a cash incentive to agree to a mutual surrender might be your only real option.

You can refurbish the communal area and other rooms but you cannot leave the tenant without a working kitchen or bathroom for an extended period of time or you could be facing harassment charges. You could even let the other rooms in the HMO but for goodness sakes make sure you get all the paperwork in order if you do.

[DoricPixie]

I’m curious as what it is the tenant wants that you think is illegal.

Be careful about getting the tenant to sign a new tenancy agreement. If you can’t provide a new landlord with the required documentation to prove he has the Right to Rent then he can’t provide it to you either.

[Vic123]

I meant he wants 24h notice to let me into property I did not mean his room. he does not let me in to the property what I meant was illigal from his side. Awaiting council response and visit property after 24 notice given I will record it what might be a evidence to servre section 8. What about if section 8 fails anything else after it? No point to refurbuish property it will make it to stay in better condition then. So it would be better for me if he stops paying rent then so I can use this grant for section 8?

[DoricPixie]

It isn’t illegal from his side he is just mistaken which isn’t a crime.

What are you waiting on a council response for and on which ground(s) will you be issuing a Section 8? As far as I can tell from your posts the tenant isn’t in arrears at the moment so what makes you think he will stop paying?