We serve notice to tenants on behalf of Owners to regain vacant possession of their property in only 11% of tenancies – the rest of our tenancies (89%) are ended by the residents.
Providing you have a correctly structured tenancy and properly communicated all relevant information at the right time to your residents, then the Law currently allows you to serve a Section 21 “no fault” notice to gain possession of your property without providing a reason.
You may also end a tenancy by serving a Section 8 notice for breach of tenancy. This is more complex. For details please see our handling problem resident webpage. In such cases Where landlords have Legal Expenses or Rent Protection insurance, the insurer will normally manage these issues.
Whatever notice is served the fact is some residents understandably do not want to leave the property they consider to be their home. This means they can react badly once they are served notice; previously perfect residents can change totally. This means they may start to be un-cooperative, (e.g. not allowing access for viewings or inspections) or they may withhold rent or fail to leave the property at the end of the tenancy.
Whilst the Law and our tenancy agreements provide protection against all these issues, costly and uncertain court action may be required to enforce compliance.
In our experience things work best when all parties work together, particularly where owners understand the disruption and cost faced by their residents as a result of notice being served. Clearly this is easier to do when there have been no concerns about the tenant or their treatment of the property.
However where residents are difficult this can lead to uncertainty and stress whilst you wait to see what your residents may do. Often you will need to wait until the day the tenancy ends before you know whether they will leave, and there is little you can do before then other than wait. In the meantime, it is essential to diligently follow your obligations under the tenancy to prevent providing residents with justification for any action.
Of the properties managed by us where owners served notice to end the tenancy only 0.8% of residents needed legal action to remove them from the property, and only 1.4% failed to pay the bulk of their rent.
We have a webpage covering what happens when residents fail to leave a property.
There are some risks to serving notice to end the tenancy. Whilst these are usually relatively minor it is important to consider these and allow some contingency when deciding to serve notice to end a tenancy.
A major aid in covering the costs of any issues removing tenants is to have Legal Expenses or Rent Protection insurance, which we strongly recommend to all owners.
Very professional organisation that gives good service to both the tenants as well as the landlord. Highly recommended.
Roger Steel
Landlord
All staff at Maxine Lester Residential Lettings are trained to a high standard and I have always found Lisa Gadsby very efficien
Phil Green
Landlord
Every time we have contacted Maxine Lester everyone has been so helpful. We have always had any issues dealt with promptly and...
Jake Benstead
Tenant
Excellent service all round, keeping us informed regularly on our property, always contactable and willing to help with any query.
Paula Frame
Landlord
All telephone calls recorded for training and quality
© 2026 Maxine Lester. 12 Station Road, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, PE27 5BH
Powered by FL1 Digital & Social Angels
