Residential Landlord Services

If you are a landlord, we can help you with a wide range of legal services, necessary to ensure the successful running of your rental properties. Our fees are very competitive and are fixed and in all cases you will have a specialist landlord legal advisor with years of experience and expertise as your dedicated point of contact.

We know that issues such as unpaid rent or property recovery are big concerns. We will find the quickest and most efficient way to deal with the problem, get you the result that you want and also make it stress free.

We can help you with all of the following:

• Setting up your tenancy agreements.

• Ensuring you are aware of all rules and regulations and providing you with advice on how to comply.

• Ensuring the correct processes are in place to ensure the property is properly vacated at the end of the tenancy.

• Drafting and serving notices required at the formation of the tenancy agreement.

• Drafting and serving notices at the conclusion of the tenancy.

• Preparation of court documents including a witness statement. The witness statement ensures you have the opportunity to make any necessary points beyond the scope of the rigid court documents and we do not charge extra for this.

• Issuing proceedings online – online is both quicker and cheaper.

• Attending the hearing (if more than one hearing becomes necessary there may be an additional fee).

• Arranging for enforcement when necessary.

I need to send a notice.  So, what notice do I need?

Knowing that a notice needs to be sent to your tenant is only the first step. There are two different types of notices and even different versions of those notices depending on when your tenancy began.
A straightforward way of approaching it is to consider why you wish to evict the tenant: is it a “no fault eviction” because the tenancy fixed term has come to an end and you wish to have the property back or a “fault eviction” e.g. rent arrears, inappropriate use of the property?

No Fault Eviction – Section 21

If you have an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (most tenancy agreements starting after 27 February 1997) and the tenancy is at, or coming to, the end of its fixed term you can serve a notice informing your tenant that you wish for the property to be returned to you.

If rent is payable monthly you must give the tenant 2 months’ notice. If the rent is payable over a different period please contact us for more information.

Fault Eviction – Section 8

This method of eviction can be used on any residential tenancy agreement, whether it is an Assured Shorthold Tenancy or an Assured Tenancy.

There are a huge number of reasons you may wish to evict a tenant but by far the most common is failure to make rent payments regularly or at all. Although unpaid rent is the most common reason for sending a section 8 notice, we are able to advise on any breaches or situations that result in you wishing to evict a tenant.

The period of notice that has to be given to the tenant depends on the reason for the eviction. If you are evicting the tenant due to rent arrears then 14 days’ notice is required. If it is not for rent arrears please inform us of the reason for the eviction and we can then provide you with information on the relevant time scales.

What if it is the End of the Tenancy AND they are in Rent Arrears?

Evictions of a tenant often arise for a number of reasons and it may be that the tenancy is coming to an end and they have failed to make some rental payments. So what do you do then?

There are a number of options available which will depend on your aims and the issues that are most important to you. When one of our specialists speaks with you they will discuss the options and assess what course of action will best meet your needs.

Usually, it would be advisable to send both a section 21 notice and a section 8 notice in this situation and we offer a discount for serving them simultaneously. This leaves your options open if the tenant fails to vacate and court proceedings become necessary.

Avoiding the Pitfalls

The notices are formal documents and if they do not meet the requirements set out in legislation you could get all the way to a court hearing and be told that the notice is invalid and your claim is struck out. If that happens the whole process will have to be started again causing long delays and extra costs and fees.  This is why we strongly recommend that you seek formal advice from legal specialists from the beginning to ensure the process runs smoothly and is as quick and efficient as possible.

For our tenant eviction services, please contact us. Our fixed fee prices are very competitive and are based on getting you the right result as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Tenant Eviction Solicitors

There are up to 3 stages involved in getting a tenant evicted:

• The first stage is service of the Section 8 and / or Section 21 notices.  Section 8 is for a  breach of the tenancy agreement, including rent arrears, and Section 21 is for a no fault eviction after the expiry of the fixed term. 

• The second stage is issuing court proceedings.  There are 2 routes for issuing a claim for possession and we will assist in identifying the right course of action for your situation.

• The third stage is is the Enforcement stage.

Get in touch

Please contact us to discuss our full range of landlord legal services and see how we can help.

We have offices in Coventry, Warwick, Balsall Common and Southam and our solicitors work across the whole of the Coventry and Warwickshire region including Stratford upon Avon, Rugby, Nuneaton, Leamington Spa, Kenilworth and Atherstone as well as further afield.