Poor John. Who cares that you have to deal with immoral people who abuse your good will? The only thing that matters is how you word it, right? It’s our PC culture. You’re judged by what you say rather than by what you do.
Don’t worry about how you worded it. Do what you need to do and get rid of them. Good luck. My earnest advice is to serve them S21 in a month, so that if they don’t leave (which they may not do), you don’t have to wait for two more months to go to court. Eviction process is very long as it is.
To be honest, your reasons sound a bit fishy. Seems there was no problem paying rent. But you seem to have a complex heating system (oil tank?) they tried to fix, maybe because you didn’t? And you don’t like that she doesn’t speak English? I’ve been an expat in Hong Kong 20 years and 90% English wives don’t speak Chinese! Two sides to every story.
My reasons aren’t ‘fishy.’ There was nothing wrong with the heating. They hadn’t enough oil. Switching a fuse from one appliance to another and causing burning is not my fault. 8 years being here and making no attempt to learn English when it’s necessary to get a job is plain stupid and very difficult for me to understand.
I couldn’t give a fig about ex pats in Hong Kong with colonial attitudes no doubt.
Not learning a language when your children can all speak it, sounds lazy or stupid or both. It’s the least of my worries. Causing damage, by breaking bannisters, taking doors off, ruining a bedroom floor, denting appliances, bolting a dishwasher to a cupboard door so the bolts show through and breaking the frames of two PVC doors is all adding up…
Get a S21 issued and get this liberty taking rubbish out of your property. We all learn lessons as we go along . I now have a list of criteria that new tenant applicants have to meet the standard I require or they don’t pass Go.
It can also sound entirely practical when dealing with a landlord that they don’t want to deal with. That’s the advantage of being bilingual: you can choose when and with whom you communicate.
You started this thread on Dec 1st implying the tenancy would go periodic in January. It’s now March and the S21 should have been served some time ago. What’s the update?