My tenant owes £15,000 in rent, but I can't get them out of the property

My tenant owes £15,000 in rent, but I can't get them out of the property5 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleTarah Welsh,Housing correspondent,Larissa Tairo,Naresh Puri,andandAlastair ReidBBCRongmala says the financial problems resulting from her lost rental income are causing her depressionRongmala became an "accidental" landlord when her disabilities meant she could no longer live alone.She moved in with her children and rented out her south London maisonette.But last year, her tenant stopped paying rent.Rongmala, 57, eventually sent an eviction notice and began court proceedings, but several months later the tenant is around £15,000 in rent arrears and refusing to leave.Court delays are holding up the removal of the tenant, leaving Rongmala feeling "broken".Some landlords are worried delays like this could become worse under the government's new Renters' Rights Act, which comes into force on 1 May in England.'Helpless' The new law - which is the biggest overhaul of the private rented sector in a generation - aims to give renters more security and includes a ban on "no fault evictions" and limits to rent increases.Rongmala says financial problems resulting from her lost rental income are causing her depression. "My children are helping me for everything, but I don't want that," she says.Since her tenant stopped paying rent, she has had to pay £2,500 for boiler repairs as well as service charges on the estate and a mortgage on the property.Although a judge awarded a court order for Rongmala to take possession of the property, only court-appointed bailiffs can remove a tenant. The family has been told this could take up to 11 months.Rongmala's son, Marouf, says the toll it is taking on his mum is "heartbreaking" and adds that she's "helpless" navigating a clogged-up court system.But dozens of renters have told the BBC about significant difficulties they face, too.Rosie and her friends - young professionals who were at a protest in London earlier this month - said they had had to move "dozens of times" and that some people were paying "70% of their salaries" in rent.Fran Brown, 58, told BBC Your Voice that she had had to move properties five times since 2017 and said she is now facing another rent increase. She said she felt she was "at the mercy of the landlord changing their mind".Another renter, James, said he had received a "terrifying" eviction notice at the end of February, and that he was struggling to find a home for himself, his wife and two children.He said it was "really tough to face the reality of needing to pack up our entire lives that we've spent 10 years building and put it somewhere else on such short notice on demand".Rosie, 28, (far right) and her friends are all renters. They said they had had to move "dozens of times"Currently, under a so-called Section 21 notice, a landlord can evict a tenant without giving a reason - and with just eight weeks' notice. The new legislation will restrict landlords to a handful of legal reasons for evictions, including wanting to move back in, anti-social behaviour by tenants or persistent rent arrears.The interim director of The Renters Reform Coalition, Clara Collingwood, said she was thrilled and that the change would make a "huge difference".But landlords say they fear the system will make it harder to remove problematic tenants.According to figures from the Ministry of Justice, private landlords currently wait 26 weeks - a median figure - between bringing a claim and…

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