AIBU to refuse a tenant's vulnerable guest staying in my HMO?

Social services have a duty to assess her in law if she's vulnerable and especially if she's presenting with mental/physical health issues regardless of the cause. If she has just moved into the council area or has no ties to the area the local authority do not have to give her accomodation and she should return to the last area she lived in for at least six months. If that's not the last place she stayed for six months and she has been moving around, Social Services may be able to place her in charity accommodation. If she has severe mental health issues, Social Services will liaise with Health (or should) to see if a temporary hold for assessment is appropriate. If none of this applies, there will probably be homeless shelters or independent services in the area that can assist but first a referral mus be made to Social Services to start the ball rolling. Your tenant knows her so would be best placed to do this or an advocate working on his behalf if he isn't capable of doing it himself. Take no notice of the police as they just want the matter closed and aren't really interested in anything other than that. Advise your tennant to contact them if there any threats or coersion. They are duty bound to look into it. Best of luck.

Your sons teenage friend staying in your family home where you have all made that decision is extremely different to OPs situation.

She would be putting herself at legal and financial risk. If she chose to take that risk, that would be her decision. However there are other paying tenants that do not want this troubled woman in their house. These are the people OP has responsibility for, not a random woman who wants to stay for free and increasing the bills for the others.

If the friend was the only tenant, that is also a different situation. Rules are there to protect the tenants with a legal contract in place

The social worker both insisted she was vulnerable and shouldn’t be homeless and also that she did not meet their criteria for help.

Christ, I would hate that job. Having to abandon people to be abused / exploited / abducted / raped / robbed. I understand the need for limits, but it must be so hard to do.

She's not abusing our hospitality! No recourse to public funds means she's explicitly denied our 'hospitality' - as PPs have explained, it's the case for the majority of arrivals to the UK.

She's abusing OP's tenant's personal hospitality, no-one else's.

Give us your address and we’ll Send some over to Kip on your couch.

You might not "give a shit" about the law or the legal system and be very adaptable to breaking the law but other people are not. It's not you who has to deal with the police, the other tenants, the council, the one who let her in and the woman herself. Maybe you could offer some help or solutions rather than trying to make OP feel guilty with your throw away comments.

I wouldn't - she sounds like she would be a problem tennant

If you have multiple HMO’s could you not find a room in another one?

Well that would be nice for the other tenants who don't want her and who are paying for the privilege of living where they do. When would you stop housing all these vulnerable women? We pay taxes and it's down to councils to do their jobs and find homes for people. And there are shelters as well for vulnerable women who eg have run away from an abusive partner.

As for landlords, I have no problem with landlords who provide a home. I have major problems with people who own second homes and holiday homes, or have an empty property going to waste. We could probably bring a million homes plus back into residential use if people weren't so damn greedy.

Ah I was going off this in a previous post

The woman basically told a pack of lies. She has claimed that she thought she had a joint tenancy with the actual tenant. That’s easy to disprove

If she's told people she's got a tenancy she'd be told that a LL has to follow formal eviction processes. It would be very odd for anyone to tell her she'd have to wait to be evicted if she had told them she was sofa surfing or visiting.

Then why don’t you care about the other humans, the tenants who are paying rent and having to deal with her shennanigans????? HOw many homeless people have you picked up from the streets and taken home with you ? How dare you have a comfy bed when others are sleeping rough??

@ThreadGuardDog why are you so keen to find fault with the council? The council gave her the correct advice for the situation she told them. That she told them a pack of lies isn't the fault of the council. The LL clarified the situation when they were contacted about it, and confirmed she didn't have, and never had, a tenancy with the LL.

It’s also not up to the council to give bad advice - OP doesn’t need a court order to evict this woman because she’s not a tenant, she’s trespassing.

The council gave the correct information based on what the woman told them, which was that she had a tenancy agreement for the property. The LL later clarified to them that she didn't.

Where do you think eg students should live? Why do you want to deny them the benefits and cost savings of community living? I know a lot of students who have been very keen to share properties with their friends rather than be isolated in little studios. I also know some young professionals who think the same.

And without them councils wouldn’t be able to cope - as evidenced by the totally incorrect advice this poor woman was given.

And when the other tenants get arsy and report you to the council, who then come looking for you ? What then ? OP is running a business not a charity. The council clearly don’t know their own rules if they’re the ones telling this poor woman OP would have to get a court order to evict.

Really?

And how many street people do you have in your house then? They're not hard to find, you have both the proximity and the power.
Let me guess ... none?

And when they piss or vomit on the sofa (because they're drunk) and bring illegal substances into your home, you'd be ok with that would you?

As someone said above, kind of you to be so generous with other people's stuff 🙄

Landlords who own HMOs, especially 'several HMOs', are parasites as far as I am concerned.

Piling people on into one property and profiteering from the fact that their tenants are on low income and/or vulnerable.

What about the humans paying rent to live there that don't want her there - do they not count
There are people to help without OP needing to pay a fortune and all the tennants being unhappy

Problem solved @Poster555! She can move to @VointofPiews house.

All part of a welfare visit.

Exactly this.
You did the right thing OP.
Even if only for one night, you were at risk of being prosecuted - the police or the council would both have needed to have given you confirmation or clearance it was necessary, required by them and therefore not a breach. Neither would have done so at 3am.