Notice to quit

[JoeBoxer]

I rent rooms out in a house share using the lodger agreement form from this forum.

I now wish to sell my house but am unsure as to how to give notice to quit and thought I would give 3 months notice to give tenants a reasonable amount of time to find alternative accommodation.

Is there a form that can be used?

My concern is that one of my tenants, when she heard I was thinking of selling, said that I had better tell any prospective purchase that she was not going to move out and went with the property.

I do not live in the property and would appreciate any help with this.

Many thanks, Joe Boxer

[Snorkerz]

If you do not live in the property, your occupants are not lodgers, they have ASTs and therefore are covered by the 1988 Housing Act.

Did any of the agreements have a fixed duration?

Did any of the occupants pay a deposit? If so, was their last agreement dated after 6/4/2007?

How often is rent due?

[jta]

You can issue S21 forms giving them 2 months notice, if they don't move out then you can start possession proceedings, but only if any deposits taken after 6/04/07 have been protected.

[JoeBoxer]

If you do not live in the property, your occupants are not lodgers, they have ASTs and therefore are covered by the 1988 Housing Act.

Did any of the agreements have a fixed duration?
All say "initial period of 3 months"

Did any of the occupants pay a deposit? If so, was their last agreement dated after 6/4/2007?
Deposits have already been refunded

How often is rent due?

3 people monthly and one weekly

[Snorkerz]

3 people monthly and one weekly

Okay, we can tell you what dates you need to put on the notices, and when they must be served by.

This is the first stage of the process. If they do not leave at the end of the notice (they don't have to) you will have to instigate court proceedings (£150 each) and possibly court bailiffs (£95 each).

So we can give you this information, please advice the commencement date of each agreement. I know you have already said how often rent is due, but can you confirm if that is what it says on the agreement, or just what happens - and also, could you identify in the list of dates, who the weekly tenant is.

[JoeBoxer]

[QUOTE=Snorkerz;236124]Okay, we can tell you what dates you need to put on the notices, and when they must be served by.

This is the first stage of the process. If they do not leave at the end of the notice (they don't have to) you will have to instigate court proceedings (£150 each) and possibly court bailiffs (£95 each).

So we can give you this information, please advice the commencement date of each agreement. I know you have already said how often rent is due, but can you confirm if that is what it says on the agreement, or just what happens

The agreement says " I will pay on entry one month's rent in advance and then monthly by banker's standing order"

and also, could you identify in the list of dates, who the weekly tenant is

The weekly tenant is only weekly because her monthly standing order kept bouncing! I suggested that perhaps she might find it easier to pay weekly, which is now what happens.

Feb 2008
Sept 2009
March 2010 (weekly, from May 2010)
August 2010

Thank you for your help

[Snorkerz]

Okay, from your post, I think we can assume that they are all monthly tenants Can you be more specific with the dates as the statute requires that your tenancies can only end on the last day of a tenancy period. Obviously, August 2010 is going to take slightly longer than the others.

[JoeBoxer]

2nd February 2008
1st September 2009
31st March 2010
14th August 2010

I can't afford for the rooms to be empty, which is why a new house mate moved in this weekend.

Last time the house was on the market for 18 months without selling, and that was when the housing market was good, so it's possible that it may not sell this time round.

Thanks again

[Snorkerz]

Unfortunately, you can't guarantee that your planned evictions will correspond with any sale.

To evict tenants ASAP, you need to...

Serve section 21(4)(a) notices to the tenants as follows:

2nd February 2008. Serve by 2nd Sept 2010 with expiry "after 1st Nov 2010"
1st September 2009. Serve by 1st Sept 2010 with expiry "after 30th October 2010"

These are a different notice - s21(1)(b)

31st March 2010. Serve before 31 August 2010 with expiry "after XXX" where XXX is 2 months after service date
14th August 2010. Serve by 14th September 2010 with expiry "after 13th Nov 2010"

A template for these notices can be found in the 'agreements' section of this site.

You will need proof of service. As this is a HMO, is it licensable? If so, you need a HMO license before you can issue these notices.

You can serve these notices at any time prior to the service date I have shown and you can move all these dates on by a month at a time, with the exception of the s21(1)(b)s where the service date can not be after the end of the 3 month term and the expiry date can not be before the end of the fixed term..

If Ts do not go at the notice date (obviously, you can't prevent them doing so), you can delay possession proceedings as long as you like to maximise revenue - BUT - when promising vacant possession to a buyer remember that the court proces is likely to take iro 6 weeks, the judge will give 2 weeks to leave, and on top of that you may have to organise court bailiffs, which can be 2 - 8 weeks.

Anything other than the above is likely to be illegal eviction - a criminal offence.

[JoeBoxer]

Thank you very much for your help.

I shall follow your instructions to the letter.

Cheers

Joe Boxer

[jeffrey]

Why not just leave them residing and sell subject to their tenancies (as a ready-made BTL)?

[Snorkerz]

31st March 2010. Serve before 31 August 2010 with expiry "after XXX" where XXX is 2 months after service date
14th August 2010. Serve by 14th September 2010 with expiry "after 13th Nov 2010"

If Ts do not go at the notice date (obviously, you can't prevent them doing so), you can delay possession proceedings as long as you like to maximise revenue - BUT - when promising vacant possession to a buyer remember that the court proces is likely to take iro 6 weeks, the judge will give 2 weeks to leave, and on top of that you may have to organise court bailiffs, which can be 2 - 8 weeks.

EDIT...

If Ts do not go at the notice date, the minimum amount of time a judge will give is 2 weeks, however, he will not give a possession date within 6 months of the start of the tenancy - so 14/8/10 will not be ordered out before 14/2/11.