New (naive) landlord and OCD tenant- please help!

[Raggitty]

In early July 2018 I let my little 3 bedroom house to a family, as a landlord for the very first time, on a 6 month AST through Open Rent, naively believing as I was honest and 'straight', so would they be. Due to workmen letting me down the EPC and gas certs were not ready for when they moved in as the tenants were pushing for the start of their tenancy. The certificates are now all in place.

Since they've moved in, they have drilled holes in external walls for Sky without permission; they have complained about paint speckles on patio doors and small areas missed in the hall; as well as sending a number of emails and texts complaining. (I even got a ranting email that had nothing to do with me (was for their previous landlord!)).

My question is if I attempt to give them 2 months notice in November, can they claim a technicality as I didn't give them the certificates when I handed it over? If yes, when will this reset so that I can be back in the driving seat and in control of the tenancy?

Thanks in advance.

[Karen74]

I am new here, does this forum have an option to send a private message?

I can help you but you may prefer I do not post here

[MIKE770]

all posting are in the open here but minus personal identifying deta

Amethyst should be able to answer more fully

[Crazy council]

Hi

As long as the Certs are in place now,
and you have a good reason why they wanst done on time ( contractor problems is reasonable ),
and yo uhavent done them just before you start the eviction action ( although not always a problem )
you should bd ok

be vary carfull being asked by people to contact them off line, its very unusual on here, if the site owners or solsitors that post on here answer you they will do it online initialy ,

On the more general advice

Its very hard when you first start leting a home out to break away form treatring it like you home, and expecting others to, its worth speaking to other landlords in your area so you get a good understanding of teathing problems that are common whern you start letting property out. Using an agent is also a good barrior between moody tenants and landlords. Look for Agents thats main income is not property sales....

[Karen74]

I do not want to contact offline, but I do not want to publish all my comments, almost every forum I have been on has a PM facility. This forum is based on vBulletin which has a PM facility so I am guessing that is has been disabled or is part of VIP membership.

[ostell]

PM works but those that keep getting lots of PMs keep the inbox full