How do you evict a tenant? Maybe they're not paying rent. Maybe you just want to get your house back. How do you actually get rid of them? What is the right notice to serve? I've been a full-time landlord for over 15 years, I've had hundreds of tenants myself, and have had to serve evictions on some of them. So, in a recent video for my YouTube channel, I talked about the different types of eviction notices that you can serve, how it works, and what to do if you serve notice and the tenant still doesn't pay rent.
In this article, I will summarise how to evict a tenant legally. If you want the exact steps, I highly recommend watching the full video (above) until the end. If you find this article helpful, please consider sharing it on social media to help other landlords protect their rights.
1. How Do You Evict A Tenant? No Fault Evictions
There are two main ways to evict a tenant. Number one is Section 21, and the second one is Section 8. Section 21 is a no-fault eviction. This is just when you want your property back. If you've got a tenant in the property on a 12-month agreement, at the end of the 12-months, all you need to do is serve a Section 21 notice.
As long as you serve it properly, and if you gave them their how-to-rent guide and the EPC and gas safety certificates when they moved in, this is actually very straightforward. All you need to give them is two months' notice to move out.
If they don't move out after the two months' notice, you don't even need to go to court. All you need to do is send the court the documents to show that you've served the notice, as well as proof that you gave them their gas safety certificate, EPC, and how-to-rent guide when they moved in. When you send this to the court, the court will look at it, they'll review it, and they will rubber-stamp it. Then you will be able to physically get a certified bailiff and get them out of the property.
2. How Do You Evict A Tenant? Eviction With Grounds
There are many different grounds for a Section 8 eviction. The most common ground is that they're in serious rent arrears. Serious means two months or more. So if the tenant has not paid rent, and they are two months behind, you can serve them with a Section 8 notice. When you serve them with a Section 8, you can give them a minimum notice period of two weeks, and they have to go. If they don't go after the two weeks' notice period, that's when you can start court proceedings.
There are 16 other grounds that you can use when serving a Section 8 notice. One of the other grounds is that you just want to live in the property again. You can't use this reason for giving notice if you bought the house during the tenancy. So if you bought the property while the current occupants were in it as a sitting tenant, you won’t be able to remove them using that justification.
For a full list of all the grounds, and the exact conditions that apply to each of them, please watch the full video at the top of the page.
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