Despite the doom and gloom of many news items, there is a lot to remain positive from the proposed Renters’ Rights Bill and we wanted to focus this week on the reassurance that landlords will still be able to evict tenants after Section 21 is abolished. It is important to remember too that there is still time for amendments and we wont know the final picture until next year.
Suzanne Smith, lawyer turned landlord, agrees it is very rare that landlords evict tenants for “no reason”, and there is a variety of legitimate landlord motivations which surround tenants being served notice. As landlords, you will still have control and be able to seek grounds for possession of your property, it will just be the new look Section 8, requiring reason and proof.
The grounds!
Mandatory Ground 1A – when you need to sell with vacant possession, you can use this ground (just bear in mind it cannot take effect in the first 12 months of a tenancy though, and 4 months’ notice will need to be given of your intention to sell). The judge will need to be satisfied that there is genuine intent to sell
Mandatory Ground 1 – if you want to move your family in (definition is wide…. it can include your spouse/civil partner, parents, grandparents, siblings, children or grandchildren. Also, the landlord’s spouse or partner’s child or grandchild). Again, the judge will need to be fully satisfied, and it is worth bearing in mind the property cannot be re-let as for a minimum of 12 months eg as an Airbnb
Mandatory Ground 8 – This applies to rent arrears and 4 weeks’ notice will need to be given by you where your case is a matter of serious rent arrears of at least 3 months, which is a change from the current 2 months
Discretionary Ground 10 – this will be for any type of rent arrears
Mandatory Ground 7A – for areas around serious anti-social behaviour you must prove that the tenant is guilty of ‘criminal’ behaviour
Discretionary Ground 14 – this discretionary ground is for less serious anti-social behaviour and will allow you to apply to the court for possession for things such as nuisance, illegal or immoral use. You will need to prove that the eviction is warranted so it is thought there will be a lot of evidence required by you to prove such grounds
Mandatory Ground 4A – this is new! It covers students in full time education in HMOs – there is rather too much detail to include in this particular Blog
Discretionary Ground 12 – This is unchanged in the RRB and entitles you to seek possession if your tenant breaches a term of the tenancy other than rent. This may be used more and more but it will need to be proven again, and grounds of evidence will need to be provided
Mandatory Ground 6 – this covers redevelopment grounds although they will need to be considered reasonable, seemingly for major works rather than just a bathroom re-fit for example
So… what is the process? It isn’t particularly different to Section 21, just a bit more paper based.
And what about the backlog we know is in the courts. Is this going to be a cause for concern? This is still an unknown although there doesn’t appear to be any signs that the government will hold up the abolition of S21 to wait for any backlog clearing.
So, what happens in the interim – Suzanne explained that transition arrangements are a bit complicated.
If you served a S21 notice before the commencement date, then the notice will still be valid and the tenancy will remain an AST until then and you will be able to enforce the notice for possession until you are time barred. In terms of the time bar, landlords will need to commence proceedings for an order for possession within 3 months of the commencement date, even earlier if the notice was served more than 2 months before the commencement date, otherwise they could end up being time barred. So, it could be worth erring on the safe side due to the current court backlogs. If the Section 21 notice expires more than 3 months after the commencement date, it wont work unfortunately.
Legal advice is best sought from a reputable solicitor with specialist knowledge in this complicated area if you are unsure on specifics that relate to you and your tenants, and with your discounted ELA membership benefit with Fosters solicitors, this will certainly prove helpful if you need to ensure you aren’t time barred as we get closer to the implementation of the changes.
There is quite a lot of separate information about HMOs which we haven’t covered in this blog but further information can be found on Suzanne's full item in the link below.
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