Tenants can be Difficult

Selling a property with a problem tenant can be a complex issue. Your first approach might be to attempt to evict the tenant who is causing you problems. This can be quite time consuming and expensive. Often the total time involved is five or six months with court and solicitor costs of about £800. During this time the tenant is unlikely to pay any rent, so your total financial loss could be very high.

The usual way to evict a tenant is to first issue a Section 21 notice. This notice give a minimum of two months to vacate the property. If the tenant refuses to leave, then once the 21 notice has expired, you can apply to the courts for possession. You need to be very careful about getting the expiry date correct, and special rules apply, or the court could reject the notice. The text also needs to be correct. The notice is used as evidence by the court and a surprising number of them are deemed invalid. If this is the case you must re-start the process. Also, it is very common for the tenant to deny that they received the notice, so hand serving is advisable. If an order for possession is granted by a court and the tenant still refuses to leave, it will be necessary to employ the services of a bailiff. It goes without saying that this process can be a complete nightmare, especially for a casual landlord.

Are there any alternatives to eviction? Really there are only two alternatives and these are to persuade the tenant to leave or to sell the property with a sitting tenant.

Persuading the tenant to leave can be dangerous as if it is deemed that you are subjecting them to excessive pressure to leave, you could be charged with a criminal offence. If you decide to try this course of action, then you should keep careful records. Any monetary offer should be made in writing and must not contain any threats, veiled or otherwise.

Selling a property with a sitting tenant is not as difficult as it might seem. There are plenty of organisations quite willing to purchase this type of property. It might be for a knock-down price, but depending on circumstances it could be your best choice.

Online you can find Swift Capital -- with there bespoke take on a the housing market they are here to help you with your problem tenants or your problem properties.