UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello to all. I have read Admins clearly laid out requests and will do my best to comply. I also understand the annoyance of, one post wonders, however, saying that, often it's better to not comment at all than blurt out rubbish for the sake of it. I will do my best to participate where I feel I can.
I have looked through the archives to see if this has been covered, but while there were similar discussions, none of them answered my specific concern.
As requested, I'll keep it short and sweet.
Fantastic tenants who were on a short tem tenancy which has expired and are now residing on what I believer is called a periodic tenancy. Everything that ever needs to be done is sorted immediately with no questions asked, and at the same time they respect the property and keep it impeccable at all times.
However, I find myself in a situation where I need to move in myself, Apart from there being a genuine necessity, there are a few issues that I'd like to get looked at, example roof and cellar, that really can't be done while there are tenants, well I don't feel it would be appropriate anyway.

So I'm going to see them next month to let them know they need to leave and to give them 6 months to find somewhere else. I haven't looked at the original agreement, but I'm positive it is a regular, straight forward agreement drawn up by the agents who were commissioned to do it and take the bond.

My question is, will my hand written letter explaining the situation suffice, or do I have to serve them with some section paper?

Section 21.

Assuming you took, and protected correctly, a deposit.

Section 21 as griff says, I linked to one and an explanation in the 'inexperienced landlord' thread.

Thank you, everything was done by agents, so I'm assuming (hoping) that they did their part correctly. I'm not worried in the slightest as I know they will vacate, but I still would like to do things properly. So just to summarise, a private letter of thanks from me and a section 21.
I'll now have a read in the inexperienced landlord thread.

Well I've just read the thread, and I hate to admit it, but I don;t understand it. Which one do you suggest I use, taking into account I'm actually going to give 6 months notice. Surely I don;t have to be specific or so precise about the date of vacation. Do I?
TBH I feel a bit of a fool as I thought it was more simple than it appears to be.

6 months is a very long notice, is there any reason for that or is that just when you want to begin occupying the house.

Two reasons actually. Ideally it is when I'd like to begin occupancy, but also I sincerely want to give them as much time as possible. I know they are looking anyway for something bigger, so this S 21 will just give it more urgency. Further down the line, I just might purchase another property with these tenants in mind, as I couldn't wish for more.

When I have had good Tenants who I knew would leave without any trouble and would be fine about it (and they were) I took the Section 21 to them and just sat down with them and said something like - "I have to provide you with this document as a legal obligation, it's part of me being the Landlord, don't worry about the language and the tone of it, because it's nothing that we need to worry about as there'll be no issues when the time comes, it just allows me to start Court proceedings if a Tenant decides to not leave"... as a Section 21 on its own can be a bit harsh-sounding. You must serve that Section 21, though, as you can't predict the future and you don't really want to be in the situation where you relied on goodwill and, can I say, a gentleman's agreement, but really need the stuff to back it up when the time comes.

You don't want to be back here in 6 months saying - "I trusted them to leave, but now they've changed the locks and say they won't go until the Bailiffs arrive and I've not even served a Section 21 yet, where do I stand? Oh, and I've just found out the Agent didn't protect the deposit correctly and the Tenants say they'll be suing me for 3x the value of the deposit - HELP!"

Thank you, this is exactly what I've decided to do. I'm going to go and see them to explain that I'm only following the correct procedures, hand them a copy of the section, and advise them that a recorded delivery copy will also be sent. I've checked with the agents and the bond was deposited as the law requires.
You have been fantastic help and I'll keep you informed. I understand the frustration regarding one post wonders, and I shall try my best not to fall into that category, saying that there's no point in spewing out comments just for the sake of it.
I have found your forum extremely interesting and intend to stick around - a "like" tab would be a useful tool, maybe.

Quote from: mickeyblueyes on March 03, 2015, 08:46:42 AM
I understand the frustration regarding one post wonders, and I shall try my best

You're there, you made it and actually came back!