Giving your lodger formal notice to leave

Amicable departures

However, even where there is no dispute, you should still (just for the record) give your lodger a formal (although pleasantly worded) letter asking him to leave and giving a date when you have agreed they will vacate.

You will find a sample letter you can use at the bottom of this page.

Giving ‘difficult lodgers’ formal notice to leave

Giving formal notice is the first stage, legally, in recovering possession of a property.

Where there is a written agreement, note that unless your lodger is in serious breach of his lodger agreement, or the agreement allows for early termination, you will not be entitled to ask him to leave during the fixed term covered by his lodger agreement.  

The standard notice period you need to give (for lodgers)  is ‘not less than 28 days’, ending at the end of a rental period.

So, if their agreement is monthly and runs from the 12th of the month to the 11th, the notice should ask them to leave on the next 11th day in the month after 28 days.

If they have a weekly agreement which runs from Saturday to Friday, the notice period should end on the first Friday after 28 days.

You should be able to tell from your lodger agreement what the relevant days are.

If you are asking your lodger to leave because of relatively minor matters such as personality clashes or because they never clean the bathroom, you should give them the full 28 days so they cannot criticise you.

You should also read your lodger agreement carefully (if you have one) and follow any procedure set out there. For example, it may state that you should give a longer notice period. If your lodger is not seriously in breach of the agreement, you should do this.

However, for more serious problems such as aggressive or violent behaviour, stealing, or if you find your lodger has been using your property for criminal activities such as using or dealing in prohibited drugs (which will put him in breach of his lodger agreement), a shorter notice period may be appropriate.

Note – For very serious incidents, it may also be a good idea to tell the police when incidents occur. This will be helpful if you then need their help later if you have to evict your lodger as there will then be a documented history of (for example) violence, and they will be more likely to co-operate with you.

For cases of rent arrears, if you are using a professionally drafted agreement, this will often say that the lodger’s license to occupy your property will end automatically if he is in arrears of rent for two months or more. However, you will still need to give him a formal letter asking him to vacate.

Paperwork

There is a printed form of ‘Notice to Quit’, which can be used (the wording should have an option for licenses), but generally, a letter saying that you are giving them 28 days (or whatever other period is appropriate) notice to leave, will be sufficient.  Or you can serve both, the formal Notice to Quit with a covering letter.

Your notice to quit letters should just deal with asking them to leave, and perhaps giving your reasons for asking.  If you want to discuss something else, it should go in a separate letter.

Note that the section 21 and section 8 notices used for assured shorthold tenants should *not* be used (for more information about these, and evicting tenants, see the  Landlord Law web-site).

If your lodger refuses to leave

Please read the next article which is about what you need to do next and physical eviction.