UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi there,

I'm a first time landlord (unintended I may add, I moved out of my own flat in order to move back with my parents to help care for them). This flat is fully managed by an agent.

Unfortunately I'm in a sticky situation with my tenant and N5b has been submitted to court. Tenant got until 2nd Jan to submit a defence.

I may be jumping ahead a bit, but if/when the bailiffs come (and I think it will get to this point as it seems the tenant is hoping to get local authority housing who has advised them to stay until bailiffs arrive) do I (as landlord/owner) have to be there? I have never met or seen this tenant, but must admit I am anxious incase the situation turns aggressive or worse. Does the bailiff physically remove them?

Any guidance is much appreciated.

You (or someone else) need to be there, so the bailiffs can hand the property over to someone. You'll also want to change the locks.

You are way ahead of yourself, though, the process will take months even if it all goes well.

Most bailiff evictions happen at empty properties, even if the tenant is told to wait until the bailiffs come, most local authorities try and act before the tenant is actually evicted (which is stressful and humiliating as well as having a lot of practical issues -  so they wait until the bailiffs have been confirmed instead. The bailiffs have to write to the tenant at least a fortnight ahead of attending to confirm the date and time.

You can wait round a corner until the tenants have gone. Arrange a locksmith to attend (its something they do all the time) and change all the locks.

Yes the bailiffs will remove them if they are actually there. But, as above, they're normally not.

Many thanks for your response.

It's reassuring to know that most of the time they are not there - this is something that's not mentioned by agents, solicitors or .gov sites! Of course, I know that may not be the case for me as I don't know for sure whether they are trying to get social housing, I just want them gone!

When the time comes I'll ask for the agent to be there (they really need to do some work for the money they take out from the rent!).

It's ridiculous that landlords have to go through this just to claim their property back. And if rental changes are coming then it'll get worse.

You're not just "claim[ing] your property back", you're removing someone from their home.

That might be appropriate in your case, but it isn't something that society wants to make simple or open to abuse. It's meant to be difficult to and have lots of checks to make sure it's the right outcome.

For every landlord removing a tenant who needs to move out, there's dozens of tenants who just want a place to live.

Your tenant has virtually no chance of getting social housing (unless they have young children or some kind of priority) and what social housing stock is available is pretty much universally awful. They're about to make a huge move down.

There's multiple ways to view it, but it was my own home that I lived in and decorated before I moved out. What if I'm needing a place to live in myself?

The people there are not the ones who I let it out to in the first place, they were 'trespassers' (in quote marks because it was never litigated). It's a bit of a long story but I was legally advised (I suspect I was poorly advised) to grant the tenancy as going through the s21 and eviction route would most likely result in me regaining possession of my flat.

I hear a lot of 'landlords are bad/greedy' or 'laws screw tenants over'......but what I'm experiencing is the total opposite.

Ultimately good landlords need protection from bad tenants and vice versa, and I don't think there are much.

What I suspect will happen is that many landlords will sell up, making fewer rental properties available and what remains will be more expensive.

I don't doubt your final conclusion, by the way!

My point was that, whatever the rights and wrongs of your particular case, the law has to protect people who need protection, making it difficult for someone whose situation is black and white and where they're clearly in the right.

If your tenants are determined to stay as long as they can, they can make your life extremely difficult and lengthen the possession process by a remarkable amount. From the sounds of things, the start of the tenancy was a little chaotic, and that's never helpful. And the court time scales are bloody awful at the moment in lots of places.