Tenants Withholding Rent - Section 8 Notice of Possession help!

[xninjanon]

Hi,

I am a new landlord, and I have some queries regarding Section 8 notices of possession.

The story: I have rented out my property to some students on an Assured Shorthold tenancy. They have been late paying consistently since the first payment and they have now sent me an email advising that they are withholding rent payments as they are awaiting repairs on the property. As far as I was aware and as far as all correspondence shows, the repairs had been fully fixed. Apparently the problems reoccurred but the tenants did not advise me of this, prior to withholding the rent.

I sent them an email saying that I would attend to the repairs and that I need to be told when there are issues ongoing, and I added that they needed to pay the rent still. They responded with aggression and a large amount of personal attacks on my character. They are trying to drag up any tiny thing to avoid paying the rent they owe, for example one thing they have said is that they "interpreted the lease to be managed by an agent" despite it being let only (clearly communicated by the agent and shown on the tenancy agreement), and are trying to claim false advertisement, alongside neglect of the property.

I want to evict them under Section 8, and need some guidance on which grounds this would fall under. I believe it would be Grounds 10, 11 and 12, as they are only owing this month (ground 10), but have been consistently late and I have to keep chasing for payment (ground 11), and the first clause of the tenancy states that the tenant is to pay as instructed and they have breached this (ground 12). Would this be correct? Or would I be better off waiting and claiming on ground 8? I really don't want to wait, they have been nothing but trouble since they first moved in.

Thanks in advance.

[echat11]

islandgirl Can you please take a look and advise, many thanks.

[islandgirl]

FIrstly I suggest posting the problem on Landlordzone which is a specialist LL/Tenant site - google it. If you search section 8 you will find hundreds of posts about the process.
Getting your house back under section 8 is not easy. The tenants have to owe 2 months rent before you can even issue proceedings to evict and it is a long, long process.
The tenants are not allowed to withhold rent in this way (a process has to be followed which it seems they have not done) so ignore all that (provided you have evidence you fixed the faults)
Also ignore all the "personal insult" stuff. I have been screamed at to my face by an angry female tenant - I found a wry smile and silence made her even more angry for some reason!
Ignore the agent stuff too. Stick to the money owed and the process. Don't bother with 11 and 12 alone (in my view) - you must wait for ground 8 to even have a chance. When does the AST run to - is it 12 months? Also - have you taken (and protected) a deposit?
This is going to be a long hard journey and not as straightforward as you may think. Good luck.

[xninjanon]

Thanks islandgirl, I'll take a look into Landlordzone.

The AST runs for 11 months, and yes a deposit has been taken and protected.

I have guarantors for all of the tenants, do I need to be contacting them for the rent prior to issuing Section 8?

Additionally, we have just received noise complaints from the next door neighbours, so assuming this is something that can be added onto the Section 8.

Thanks so much for your help

[islandgirl]

I do not believe that the noise has anything to do with section 8. Tell the neighbours to contact the council. Good that the deposit is protected. Assume all the other stuff is as it should be (gas certs, right to rent booklets etc). I do not think there is any reason not to to contact the guarantors and warn them that the tenant is not paying and if they do not do so you will be seeking rent from them. The key point is that the rent must be 2 months overdue before you go down the section 8 route.