Notice to Leave Appeal

Hi Guys,
Following on from our distressing landlord email thread. Our Notice to Leave ends on the 15th of April 2022 as the landlord claims they are putting the house up on the open market.
We have found 3 other properties to move to/buy, (Cleaner, no mould, damp, plumbing, or heating or electrical issues, and most importantly, no harassing landlord and his wife), but the best one with the best moving prospects say there is a delay in exchanging. It is currently open ended and no entry date has been made from the sellers.
We were due to exchange today but there has been a last minute delay.
We informed the landlord and his wife a month ago that there was a potential of a delay, and reiterated this a few days ago that we would not be moving out on the 15th due to the delay.
Our landlord and his wife wrote back to say they would now give us till the 7th of May (when our rent runs out) to voluntarily move out otherwise they would seek an eviction.

As we do not trust them, we assume they will apply for eviction anyway.

Any of you guys ever appealed an eviction notice and won?
How much did it cost to appeal?
Any hints you might be able to give, or is this a, go directly to solicitor and do not pass go kind of thing?

We had approached Shelter, CAB, Council, and 5 solicitors.
Shelter said do not go anywhere until a valid eviction notice is served.
CAB said report them to council, and do not go anywhere until a valid eviction notice is served.
x2 Solicitor said there was a conflict of interest. One of them said, it’s not worth reporting them to the tribunal and it’s best to just negotiate as we know we are leaving. x2 solicitors said they would fight on our behalf, but both of them also said do not bother going to the Council tribunal for reparations as it will seem like bad faith.
The Council initially agreed with us that the landlords property was below the repairing standard and in the wrong, but has now changed his mind and does not want to get involved. This is most likely as our landlords wife has worked for the council before.

Many thanks in advance for any advice given.

Have you read this

And this

As a landlord, I wouldn’t normally say this, but (since the landlord is selling and could quite easily be reasonable, and you are buying so wont need a reference) I would stay put until they get a possession notice. Return all the paperwork objecting to try and delay it as much as you can. Keep paying your rent though.

Even if they go the accelerated route, that has to take more than 14 days because you have 14 days to respond. And then the minimum notice from there is 14 days. So that gives you at least 28 more days, and I suspect more because the court us unlikely to turn things around same day.

If they get a possession order before you can complete, then you might have to look at putting everything in storage and getting an Airbnb or something similar for a few weeks. I probably wouldn’t want to wait for the bailiffs if it were me - although you could run it to the wire and move out the day before the bailiffs are due if it comes to that.

I can’t believe the landlord would go to the cost of court etc if they know you are going when your house completes. Which makes me think that perhaps they don’t believe you are buying and looking to leave. So you could provide evidence and suggest that they put the property on the market and you will let an estate agent show people round as long as they do it at your convenience (presumably they won’t want you showing people round since you would probably point out all the flaws!).

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The MoJ website says that the median average time for landlord evictions is now over 59 weeks. Mortgage and landlord possession statistics: April to June 2021 - GOV.UK

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Thank you for the info. That is great. So much appreciated.

I have already suggested they could show people around about a month ago, they chose to ignore this.
They chose to ignore all the things I have pointed out that are an issue in favour of just blaming us or trying to refute our damning surveyors report in order to delay reparations which still have not taking place, 6 months on. They kept trying to claim we were either breaking the contract, or threatening them. Basically any excuse to get rid of us, instead of them owning their responsibility and doing the right thing.

All they have done to date is tick some boxes to make it appear they are doing the right thing or flat out lying. That’s why I do not trust them. We kept giving them the benefit of the doubt but always came away horrified.

I seems to us, they are, and have never had any intention of putting the house up on the market.
It was the easiest excuse on the list of to use for the notice to leave, from what shelter have said.

Hopefully none of this will be necessary but it is helpful to know. Thank you again.