Hi, first time here, I have two flats, one up one down in the same building. The neighbour from the 2 storey house next door has complained a number of times about noise from my tenant in the upper flat, so has my tenant in the lower flat.
The flat is a no smoking flat but cigarette ends are constantly thrown into the neighbours yard from the upper flat.
The upper tenant has been friendly and passive when I have asked her to be quiet in the past but in my last communication with her, I said it would be the last before I ask her to leave if there are further complaints.
I have the standard openrent tenanccy ast agreement.
Do I actually have grounds to ask her to leave?
Assuming that this person is a tenant, it is not really the landlords place to get involved in neighbour disputes unless they escalate very severely. You should have reminded the neighbours that this person is an adult and can be approached directly. You have now rather backed yourself into a corner. I suggest you have a proper discussion with your other tenant and the neighbour and tell them to keep logs of any noise and other nuisance and report her to the Council. There is an anti-social behaviour ground for eviction, but the threshold is quite high. You could serve her that notice, (section 8 ground 14), but she may not leave and from what you’ve said, I doubt a court would evict her.
The council only deal with noise complaints directly, not via a third party eg Landlord.
They will give you the neighbours a sound recording device and a log book for them to fill.
Two neighbours complaining makes for a strong case and as such the council are more proactive.
Ask the neighbours to speak to the council directly and stay out of it until the council ask you to evict her.
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SOUND advice from above !!!
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Mmm, the neighbour(s) were very good with me while I was renovating the properties, I went to school with some of them, I feel responsible for giving the tenancy to someone that has turned out to be a problem.
I have sold on all of my previous projects and avoided such issues.
As a Landlord you have no legal gravitas to deal with this. It can only be dealt with if the neighbours complain to the LA. I am not asking you to offload your problems on them.
This is the formal route of dealing with it.
Once the council are involved either the tenant stops or they are mandated to leave by the LA.
Once the LA mandate an eviction I offer the tenant the choice of leaving of their own volition or being evicted. In my experience the tenant leaves of their own volition. If your tenant does require evicting formally you will have a no fail route of eviction as the LA mandated it because of ASB ( it even goes to the top of the queue at the moment)
the neighbour(s) were very good with me while I was renovating the properties, I went to school with some of them, I feel responsible for giving the tenancy to someone that has turned out to be a problem
In that case I think that this property is not going to work for you as a landlord. The reality is that you can’t guarantee anything about the people who live there and you will be unable to treat this as the business that it needs to be. I suggest you sell the property and buy somewhere else where you don’t feel a debt of gratitude to the neighbours that you can’t fulfil.
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Update, both neighbours are still complaining and I have copied them with your replies, the tenant has been erratic with rent and so far, I have had just £140 of the £500 rent due at the end of last month. I’ve told the neighbours that I will support them as this would seem to be the best way to get her out?
Finding another tenant in the location will be very easy.
Make sure the neighbours contact the council.
You can start the process yourself by filling in a police form online ( as it is ASBO behaviour) or calling environmental health. Then they can contact the neighbours for the rest.
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They also have to keep a log of incidents with dates and times.
What do I need to do to get this tenant out?
Just ask her to leave?
I’m living abroad at the moment & she’s not answering calls or messages.
Can I approach the guarantors for the rent?
I appreciate that she’s not that overdue with rent but I just want her out.
Yes you can ask them for rent. That’s what they are there for. Depending on how your contract is written you can also speak to them about her behaviour and ask them to intervene.
If not section 21 when AST expires
you can serve a section 8 with reasons ref behaviour or rent arrears ( but she has paid some rent so don’t know how effective that would be. I would advise you to seek legal advice.
Anthony Gold and JMW are reputable.
Do you have agents managing?
No agents, just openrent
Gary, I’m sorry to say that I think its irresponsible to let a property when you have little knowledge of the law, no managing agent and are not even in the same country. Landlord and Tenant legislation makes the industry unsafe for well meaning amateurs. You could lose thousands of pounds or even your liberty with a simple mistake. I suggest you get some professional help with this.