Section 8 & Section 21

[thomuir]

I have a tenant that I need to evict for non payment of rent. He has advised me that he will challenge the eviction and is prepared to go to court. His reason for this is that he believes I am allowing the newest (and “dirtiest / laziest”) tenant in the shared house to set the standards as far as the tidiness / cleanliness of the shared spaces are concerned. There has been a decline in the cleanliness but out of 4 tenants, only 1 has a problem with that.

Does anyone know approximately how long it is taking for these to get to court?

[David122]

If the tenants are on individual room only tenancies, then the cleanliness of the common parts is ultimately the landlords responsibility and the tenant might have a defence.

[Jay24]

Housing Act 2004, Section 234
The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006, regulation 3 and 7

The above regulations put the onus on the landlords/managing agents of HMOs to ensure the property is clean and well maintained.

Whilst this is not a guaranteed defence for your tenant, it would likely play a part if he can prove the fall in cleanliness standards to below satisfactory conditions.

Having said that, that does not give the tenant a right to withhold rent, and you are within your right to seek an eviction. There is a due process to be followed, and by the description of your case, they have not followed it.

It is also worth noting that Deregulation Act 2015 Section 33 protects the tenant from retaliatory action. So I would not be looking at Section 21. Instead, I would look at section 8 for non-payment.

But, there is a risk the tenant may win in part if they truly have a case under the aforementioned acts.

My advice, try and mediate and get them to pay the rent in arrears on the basis you will get a cleaner to come in regularly. They can be inexpensive and save you a-lot of hassle, especially with HMOs.

Alternatively, speak to the other tenants to corroborate the story and evict the nuisance tenant. But only if you can be sure they are a problem and the current tenant is not just trying to find a way not to pay rent for other reasons. I.e. complaining tenant would have to catch-up on unpaid rent.

Any type of eviction can drag out for years. My friend couldn’t get rid of a non-paying tenant for 18 months. The backlog is getting bigger not smaller.

Whatever route, mediation is always easier. In your shoes, I would get a cleaner and offer a 5-15% discount (depending on what you can afford) on the arrears to settle. Only take legal action if you absolutely have to. At the same time, issue notices to all tenants about the cleanliness as that could become a problem longer term, especially for the general state of repair of the property.

This is by no means legal advice and you should seek independent advice if you are unsure on how to proceed.

[David122]

Id have to disagree with your choice of notice. The conditions in which the retaliatory eviction legislation apply are very specific and from what thomuir has said, wouldnt apply here. Tenants can readily defend a s8 notice with a claim of disrepair, which could cause a delay or even rejection by the court. Id stick with s21 if all the pre-conditions have been met.

[Jay24]

I would disagree, also depends on the actions the tenant has taken. See Deregulation Act 2015 Section 33 paragraph 2. We just don’t know the full circumstances.

In any case, legal route is least-likely to be suitable in this scenario.

[David122]

It does depend on the tenant’s actions, but the tenant would have to have written to the landlord to complain about the condition of the property prior to service of the s21 notice and it has to be a category 1 or 2 hazard under HHSRS, capable of requiring an Improvement Notice from the Council. There was no indication of this in the OP, but if it is the case, then I would agree that a s21 notice could be invalidated.