We have a property that is rented out with an intermediary rental agency to a social housing family placed by a London local authority. Our years contract with the rental agency ended on 18th March 2022 with an automatic 6 months extension. On 6th Sept we were informed by the agency that the court possession date was 20th Sept. On 23rd Sep that possession was granted after 21 days (11th Oct) – a bailiffs warrant will be requested after that date. As far as we are aware they are still awaiting to hear about the warrant. The tenant has been offered and rejected many alternative properties during the past month. She basically does not want to move. We have not contacted our agency over the weeks up to Christmas as we feel this is not the correct time, but we want to progress things from January onwards. We are not sure where we stand legally.
Our contract (with the 6 month extension) ended mid-Sept and we were hoping to move to a new agency that was offering us several 100 pounds extra per month. So our agency is currently out of contract and we are losing money each month (although the agency are still paying us our old monthly rate). We do not know who we should be pressurising to make progress on the eviction. Should we threaten to take legal action? If so what? Our concern is that it is probably in both the agency’s and local authority’s interest to take as long as possible to resolve this.
Can anyone please help?
You need to read your contract with the agency to understand your options.
You should know that most landlords would avoid such arrangements as you have very little control and can end up with significant costs.
Its not clear from your post whether the agency is your tenant and they sublet. If so, then google rent to rent problems.
I would suggest you consider a more traditional letting agency who places vetted tenants or learn the ropes and manage it yourselves.
Hi David, Thanks for your response. The Agency is sub-letting our property for Social Housing via a local authority. They are waiting for a Bailiffs Warrant date. We wondered if we could put pressure on the agency by saying they are out of contract or approach the local authority directly as we feel they are dragging their heels. Our contract ended with the agency over 3 months ago and we feel we should have had vacant possession by now - or are we being unrealistic?
If they really are waiting for a date from the court bailiffs, then this is out of their control and putting pressure on them will not help.