There is a very strict legal procedure to be followed when removing
tenants. If you don’t follow the rules to the letter, then not only will you
fail in your objective, it could end up the tenant suing you for considerable
amounts of money. On the face of it, serving notice to a tenant looks simple.
This notice informing the tenant to leave (Section 8 or Section 21) may have to
be relied upon in court should the tenant decide to stay on after expiry. If
you got this part wrong then there is no point in applying to the court for a
possession order as the judge will dismiss it and you have to start the
procedure from scratch.
Generally requests to serve notice on a tenant leave our office the same day. There is usually no time to waste here, the quicker we serve, the quicker they are out. Upon receiving notice, most tenants realise it is time to go, and simply leave. This can happen within two weeks if there are arrears.
Should the tenant decide to stay after the expiry date on the notice then we can prepare the complete possession order for you to get signed and deliver to the court. The court will then set a hearing date. Depending on where you live in the country this can be anything from 2 – 6 weeks. It is our experience that most cases are not defended and if the notice has been served correctly (we have a 100% success rate) then the judge will rule in your favour. At this point you probably have a CCJ against the tenant and a court order for them to leave, and most of them do.
Those tenants that decide to really over stay their welcome can be physically removed by the court bailiff. We can apply to have a bailiff come to your property and remove the culprit. We would also recommend that you change the locks at the same time.
What are your chances of success?
Each case is unique, so we will look at your papers for the purpose of assessment free of charge. There is no doubt that using our services will lead to the removal of the tenant. We are doing this every day.
How long will it take?
We look at this on a case by case basis. After reviewing your documents we can give you an estimate of how long it will take for each step.
