How to get tenant to leave

And even before 6 months, before part 4 kicks in, in our case 4 months (3 months non payment at that stage), we still couldn't remove the tenant for over a year. The part 4 kicked in after 6 months even though we had rtb notified of non payment, he had all his rights with bells on. Doing it all legally and above board gives diddly all protection to the LL.

Agree.

Edited my previous post to add that I know someone who paid a tenant to leave recently. He agreed to it when he gave notice and it worked for him to get his property back quickly. It suited the tenant too as they had a bit of money to help with moving costs.

That would prevent a lot of the messing ok but our legislators think its only landlords who break the rules and tenants are faultless.

Do you know any tough looking dudes? I'd pay them to go into the house with a couple of baseball bats and get the scummy tenants out, and never mind all that paperwork rubbish

So you think it'll be cheap and quick going the legal route? It's already been 3 months since they were to leave

It would be a scummy move to overhold. The op said the tenants were given 5 other property options.

Splitting hairs. The tenants said no and gave excuses. Different story if they had said "yes, as long as LL of other property accepts".

Your doubts and suspicions are irrelevant. We can only go from what the op said. With the EA in the friends pocket however, it's more reasonable to lend weight to the assumption that the tenants would have been able to have their choice of the 5 properties suggested given the influence the EA has in the rental of the properties. The fact remains according to the op that the tenants pointedly refused these properties in favour of their preference to illegally overhold.

And in fairness I'd be worried about the heavies smashing the property up if they didn't decide to stay in it themselves.......I wouldn't be advocating that just as much as I wouldn't be advocating paying people off with "relocation" money as a reward for breaking an agreement ....even if it would be the lesser of two evils.....if bullshit like that starts to take hold it will be expected.

If I was a landlord who had tenants not paying rent for let’s say 3 months. I then decide to take the law in to my own hands. Enter the property illegally, remove front and back doors, windows and anything that would make the place unliveable forcing the tenants to leave. What would be the likely punishment to me as a landlord? Would I be financially worse off then dealing with non paying tenants for c.3yrs?

The next person to even hint at illegal actions is getting two points, not one.

It should be noted however that the tenants in the OP are still paying rent.

Feel sorry for your relative, sounds like they’re rightly screwed unfortunately.

And people wonder why small LL’s are leaving the market and / or opting out of renting out their property at all.

The law is stacked in favour of the tenant. They can draw this thing out as long as they like with no repercussions at all.

Only course of action I can see, would be to go through the very long process by the book.

Your relative is learning a hard lesson, it’s safer to leave their home idle than gamble on renting it out.

You’ve very little chance of being able to get your property back when you need it, without a long, drawn out fight.