It’s my property, I don’t need a court order

With mortgage rates, the cost of living and the energy crisis having a huge detrimental effect on both landlords and tenants in the private rented sector, many landlords are finding themselves directly effected either by lost of equity, the property no longer making ends meet or change in circumstances which are not of a direct effect of any tenant action.

In these situations many landlords are in desperate need to move back into their rental properties as their own home, leaving tenants facing the prospect of eviction through no fault of their own.

Surprisingly to me, there is a common presumption among inexperienced landlords on Social media platforms that they do not need to serve their tenants with formal notice in order to move back into their properties.

It is unclear where this misconception has come from, but it is a worryingly increasing trend, so to clarify the situation to those who are unsure please read on.

When you rent your property to a tenant on an assured shorthold tenancy agreement you are in the eyes of the law transferring possession of your property to the tenant.

This provides the tenant with 'Exclusive possession' this means the tenants has every legal right to exclude anyone from their home including the landlord and their agents.

There are only two legal ways in which a landlord can regain possession of their property.

1. By the tenant serving Notice to Quit or signing a Deed of surrender and vacating the property voluntarily 
2. By the landlord serving notice seeking possession, proceeding through the court system and having a bailiff exercise an eviction warrant  

If the rental property was previously the landlords home directly before the tenant moved in then the landlord can serve a Section 8 notice using ground 1  which states Landlord wants property to be own home or the property was previously their own home, this is a 2 months notice 

However, The landlord can't use this ground to get the property back in order to sell it, and most importantly, before the tenant moved into the property, the landlord would need to serve on the tenant a notice ( a letter is fine or clause in the AST) stating that this situation may arise, without this pre-ground 1 notice ground 1 cannot be used

If the tenant has not breached their tenancy in anyway and the landlord simply wants their property back to move into, then the formal Notice seeking possession will need to be served, this will be a Section 21 notice on form 6a giving 2months notice

If the tenant is in a fixed term AST, you can’t issue the S21 to end the tenancy sooner than it’s natural fixed term end.

The other important thing to remember is that any notice seeking possession that a landlord issues to a tenant, either Section 21 or Section 8 is NOT an eviction notice and the tenant does not have to leave when it expires, the notice is simply that, a note to the tenant advising them of the date after which the landlord can go to court.

So if you wish to move back into your home for any reason the tenant is still legally entitled to full notice and the full court process.