Section 8 Issued and not acted upon.... do we remind tenant??

[justaboutsane]

I am not sure where to look, I am sure I have seen this answered before but short of going through the 500 responses that came up when I input "notice" into the search function I am at a loss!!

In September we issued a section 8 to a tenant, they agreed a payment plan with us and stuck to it... until December! We now wish to action the section 8 but do we write to the tenant or do we just apply to the court for a hearing?

My thinking is to let the court letter land on their door mat but should we let them know first? We want rid of these people as soon as possible, we gave them a chance and they threw it back in our face. We know they have applied to a housing association but they asked if there were arrears and the tenants had signed a letter saying we could complete the reference so we put yes and the amount owed! We don't think the housing association will touch them now!

Anyways thank you in advance for your replies!

[PaulF]

Don't be silly. Having given your tenants a "chance" just apply to the court; remember they MUST be in arrears by two months now and when you get to court in order for Ground 8 to be effective; you should therefore also add Grounds 10 & 11 to Ground 8, just in case they pay off some arrears and you have to rely on discretionary Grounds.

[justaboutsane]

Thanks Paul, thats what I thought but I wanted to check! .. We usually quote section 10 & 11 anyway but the tenants are in way more than 8 weeks arrears now. And I doubt they can pay.... they are in trouble with the Bank too and they have had their account frozen.

[PaulF]

C'mon, get it right! It's a SECTION 8 NOTICE but the GROUNDS are 8, 10 & 11

[justaboutsane]

Paul, sorry did not make myself clear.... We always use Grounds 8, 10 & 11!! We have always used all three and I have a standard document which I alter with the relevant details for the tenant so I do not miss anything!

The only time we have ever had to action a section 8 was successful! We travelled 140 miles to court and tenant could not be bothered to traval 1 mile so we were given possession in 7 days! However it took another 3 weeks to get the bailiff in who was there for 30 seconds! We also installed an alarm as we had thoughts that the tenant may attempt to break in... He did! We left the house key and the alarm key with a willing neighbour and she has been keeping an eye on the place ever since! Any worries and she calls us!

Thanks for the replies Paul I always value what you have to say.. Thanks for all the replies on here.... (even the not so nice ones )