Pictured above: Sarah Canning

Leading Midlands legal firm Franklins Solicitors has launched a step-by-step guide for buy-to-let landlords on how to deal with bad tenants.

The guide, together with a fixed price legal service, has been launched by the firm's Commercial Litigation Department following the huge growth in the buy-to-let market. It's aimed at the large number of new landlords who have entered the market in recent years hoping to capitalise on their investment in property. The advice from Franklins includes the grounds required to take action against a bad tenant and the legal steps a landlord must take in order to ensure a swift and successful resolution of the issue, including eviction.

Said Sarah Canning, Head of Franklins' Commercial Litigation team: "Buy-to-let landlords, many of whom are still paying mortgages on their properties, depend upon reliable and regular income. A bad tenant who fails to pay the rent or to look after a property can become a serious financial problem for landlords if the situation isn't tackled quickly and effectively. We hope the guide and our new fixed price legal service will make things much clearer for landlords."

The new guide outlines the process from the moment a notice is issued informing a tenant to leave a property and asking for rent arrears to be paid within 14 days, right up to the point at which a Warrant of Possession needs to be secured and bailiffs are called in to evict a tenant.

Added Sarah Canning: "Our guide sets out, step-by-step, the measures a landlord needs to take to remove a bad tenant, the timescale for each procedure and the legal costs involved, right up to eviction if that becomes necessary. Each case is different, of course, in terms of the cause and extent of financial loss for a landlord, but every case is the same when it comes to the need to secure possession of the property and make it available for re-letting at the earliest possibly opportunity."