We act for many of our Landlord clients in taking action against non paying or problem tenants.But here’s an interesting story…

We served a Tenant with a Section 8 Notice a few wekes ago. This notice asked the Tenant to pay the arrears or leave. The Tenant didn’t do this so we applied to the Local Court for a possession order, which is basically a date which the court states the Tenant must vacate by (today). The Tenant then packed up and moved and freely gave the keys back to our client. Later in the day I then had a call from the Council demanding in a very aggressive manner that our client returns the keys to the Tenant and allow the tenant to move back in !! Thay said the Tenant was entitled to them until the Bailiffs went around to the Property and physically evicted the Tenant.

I gave the council short shrift and told them neither us nor our client had any sympathy for a tenant who had not communicated nor paid rent for 8 months. I also told them that the key point was that the Tenant had voluntarily surrendered the keys which brought the tenancy to an end. Therefore, there was absolutely no way back for the Tenant !!!

The only tip i had for our client was if they ever have a problem tenant again let us know before the arrears get so big!!