Case study: how we helped two landlords recover their properties

It’s not uncommon for a landlord to want to take back possession of a property which they’re renting out. Some are content to wait for a natural break, e.g. when the current tenants move on of their own accord, but for others who need to get their property back urgently, this isn’t always an option.

There are plenty of reasons why this might be the case. For example, significant rent arrears or the need to sell the property on. We know from our experience acting for landlords in possession proceedings that no two cases are ever the same.

Below are a couple of examples of landlords in different circumstances who our property ligation solicitors have helped to reclaim possession of their property.

Case study: tenants not paying rent

Our client was a landlord living in the UK but who spent a lot of his time abroad. Tenants in his buy-to-let property had a poor track record of not paying rent – as a result they’d accrued substantial arrears.

On several occasions when the landlord raised the issue of the unpaid rent with them, the tenants would begin to repay some arrears and provide a number of personal reasons why they had been unable to pay, to which the landlord was sympathetic.

For this reason he approached us and we helped him and his tenants enter into an agreed repayment plan for the arrears, which were over £35,000. Unfortunately, the tenants did not make the repayments as agreed, so we ultimately advised the landlord to seek possession of the property.

Our solicitors issued possession proceedings based on the unpaid rent and obtained a possession order from the court, as well as a judgement for us to collect the rent arrears.

We then arranged for the possession order to be enforced and for the court bailiffs to proceed with eviction. Finally, we referred the £35,000 in rent arrears to our debt recovery department for this to be dealt with on the landlord’s behalf.

Case study: buy-to-let rental

Our clients were the owners of a buy-to-let property which they let out for rental income. They decided to sell the property, however, there were still tenants living in it who had been there for ten years.

The fixed term tenancy agreement between the landlords and the tenants had run out, but the tenancy had nevertheless continued after the expiry date of the agreement.

We served the tenants with a notice letting them know that the landlords intended to take the property back, then issued possession proceedings on the landlords’ behalf.

Our property litigation solicitors also obtained a possession order from the court, however there was no need to enforce the order as the tenants voluntarily left – after they received the possession order they were able to present it as evidence to the local council who then rehoused them successfully.

Contact our landlord and tenant solicitors

To speak to a solicitor specialising in tenancies and possession proceedings in Bristol, call us on 0117 325 2929 or complete our online enquiry form.