AIBU to think this is a really shitty way to behave?

[ballinacup]

An acquaintance was talking very proudly today about how she has evicted her tenants. She's done it completely illegally by sneaking in whilst they were out and changing the locks.

Yes, they were shitty tenants, but I still think making someone homeless without notice is a bit off. However, it gets worse.

She will not give the tenants their possessions. She finds it hilarious that the couple have called her on several occasions in tears, begging for their five month old's clothes/bottles/cot. Acquaintance's sister is expecting so she's given all of their stuff to her.

She stormed into the office fuming today as the tenants are taking legal action against her. Aibu to hope she gets into serious trouble for, essentially, stealing from a baby?

Sounds like they owe her rent.

But sometimes people don't have any other choice than to do this. Not everyone goes into this as an investment opportunity.

I presume you're talking about people with negative equity, and I can see that some people might feel like being an 'accidental landlord' is an ideal way out, but if you're struggling financially being a landlord really isn't any kind of solution as it can make things dramatically worse. It's also no good for tenants to have a skint landlord who can't afford repairs and doesn't know their legal obligations.

Personally I'd like to see the American model of allowing people to walk away from the house if it's in negative equity, to discourage banks from lending silly amounts to buy houses that aren't worth the money safe in the knowledge they'll get the money back either way. It would also give people a way out in this sort of situation without resorting to half-arsed landlording.

"It wouldn't surprise me if the woman ends up on the SS radar to be honest if this goes to court. What sort of environment is that to raise children."

Hang on, OP hasn't actually said what the problem with the tenants actually was, has she? Being "shitty tenants" could cover all manner of things, and yet we're into child protection concerns already?

I am amazed she would give random tennants baby stuff to her sister, some people have a real problem with second hand stuff let alone from dodgy tennants

anyway whatever they have done what has the baby done to her...its the baby who has no cot and so on.

however I would never have sat there and listened to this without saying, give the baby her cot back and clothes and bottles.

how could anyone take the babies stuff, I would be on freecyle immediately to try and raise some things for them...

I agree etoo but unfortunately we are forced into renting out properties at the moment. The system doesn't help either in that the benefits agency will only start to investigate non payment of rent after 8 weeks. By the time anything practical gets done you're 6 months down the line and in so much debt. My ex tenant walked away from my house owing thousands in rent. She was immediately awarded housing benefit at her new accommodation and didn't have to give me one penny in back payment. Her new landlord contacted me 6 months later, he was having the same problem with her. Some people just go through life getting away with this time and time again.

It doesn't really matter what the tenants have done, ultimately as a landlord you are in the business of "supplying" (for want of a better word) homes and shelter to people, an essential human need. If your business transaction goes bad, it is not on to simply snatch away peoples home and shelter in retaliation. This isn't like a customer who refuses to pay for a new gearbox on a car. If you're dealing with an essential human need to have a higher level of responsibility to the well-being of your clients, regardless of whether you like them or not. Again - if you don't like this obligation, don't rent out your property.

ps that was in response to the people who've put things like "but you don't know what the tenants have put her through".

But food is an essential human need: supermarkets don't give it away!

I'm not justifying what this LL has done, as such, but acknowledgement of the fact that the tenants weren't helpless passive victims in all this is important. I really struggled to pay my own rent because I still had to pay my mortgage when I had tenants in. And the repairs - ouch!

I don't think the majority of LLs are remotely interested in the well being of their clients. As you said, it's a business motivated by money not a charity. If people don't pay up then a LL will take steps (hopefully legal) to get them out and the next paying punter in.

Supermarkets don't give food away but they don't take away all the food in your house if you owe them money. Water companies are banned from disconnecting water supplies for non-payment because water is an essential human need. Shelter surely is a comparable commodity.

What a deeply stupid woman. The courts come down quite hard on this sort of thing because it's got echoes of Rachmanism. So she's going to have to pay hefty damages to the tenants and she's dragged her unfortunate sister into it as well. She may well also be prosecuted for harassment. I bet she doesn't think it's such a laughing matter now.

I think the woman has been extremely naive because no matter the reason why you end up renting out a property you make sure you dot the tees etc and make sure everything is legal and above board. Yes, the tenant has responsibility within the contract but so does the LL. As others have said renting is a risk but then why go and leave yourself vulnerable to legal action too. So stupid.

she is a grown woman making a baby suffer, not matter what has gone on between her and the parents, a baby will suffer as a direct consequence of her actions.

vile.

I have been in this situ we had to evict a lodger who was beyond hideous and I would have never ever taken bloody baby stuf off her had she had one!

The ll could find herself in prison for performing an illegal eviction. It's actually a criminal offence.

Agree with etoo makes me feel sick that she feels entitled to behave this way. The OP hasn't said what the tenants have done, my LL has threatened to evict me for parking legally on the road outside my house, in a similar way to the other home owning residents of my street. They might have behaved very badly, they may not have done much, but to make someone homeless and steal their things is horrific.

Honestly OP, she won't be gloating in a month or so when it all catches up with her. Take some consolation from that. She is quite clearly an idiot.
If you like, then you can do some gloating of your own in return

good on them!

no matter what the tenants had done, leaving a baby without the stuff he/she needs is fucking disgusting and anyone who thinks they'd be happy to do it is also fucking disgusting.

"Ultimately, housing, feeding and providing a bed for a baby rests with the parents and I don't condone the LLs actions but am also surprised at how quickly the parents have been assumed to be the victims here. They played a part, did not pay rent."

The parents had done all of these things rainydarkskies. The LL evicted them illegally and stole their things. I'm curious to know whether you think that anyone who misses a mortgage payment should come home to the locks being changed and the manager of HSBC driving away with all of their stuff in the back of his estate.

Stealing the baby's things is S C U M M Y. Making a baby homeless is S C U M M Y. This women is a twat. I hope she gets criminally prosecuted for it. The tenant's behavior in this case, and her behavior, are in two different ball parks.

I had landlords a couple of years ago who showed up at the door at Christmas because we were a month behind with the rent. They were a married couple. The husband had been calling us twice a day asking when we were going to pay. We'd ignored the phone for a couple of days because he was driving us round the twist, and he was personally aggrieved at, what he called, our "disrespect". The wife was crying, saying "Why are you doing this to us? The house will be repossessed. What will we have to leave the kids?". The husband was absolutely livid and shaking. I let them in because I felt sorry for the wife, and the husband took the opportunity to steal our original 12 month contract off the kitchen counter and replace it with a six month one so that he could start evicting us immediately.

We were 1 month behind. I'd had ds at 26 weeks 2 months earlier. He was transferred to a hospital miles away, I was in a state (his twin had died) and staying at the hospital with him. dh had to go awol from work to look after our toddler while I was gone, and lost his contract, he was done-over on his final pay, we were skint and waiting for hb to be sorted out. The house was immaculate (those were the days ), we'd paid on time and in full for the last year and a half, and we fixed everything ourselves. We would have made the rent up as soon as we could. As it was I stopped paying anything at all the second I knew they were going to try to kick us out. They had a home. If I'd given the only money we had to them, we wouldn't have had a bond and rent in advance for the next place, and we'd have been homeless with a toddler and a still premature baby.

If you'd asked them, we were the tenants from hell. They really believed that we were terrible feckless people. So, in my opinion, it can't be assumed that because this woman thinks they were terrible tenants, or terrible people, they actually were. Some people are just unsympathetic, self absorbed twats, and considering her glee in this family's misery, your work colleague sounds like one of them.

YADNBU

Agree with everything Randy says although from my experience the law is totally on the side of the tenant! whether they bother to pay any rent or not. It sounds harsh but the tenants must be held to account for their behaviour too. It is THEY who are mostly responsible for their current situation. I have no sympathy for them or the LL.

do you not even have sympathy for the baby mushy?

she doesn't exactly sound as though she's been through anything too harrowing if she's finding the situation 'hilarious'.

She is about to be in a whole world of shit.

She will inevitably finish up paying out a large amount of money, and may well finish up with a criminal conviction over this.

In what way were they shitty tenants?

Can't decide if your colleague is morally in the wrong without knowing that.

Um, quite a lot of standard leases give the landlord a right of lien over the tenant's possessions in the rented property in the case of non-payment of rent - in other words they can retain it until they acquire permission to sell it to make up the defecit.

Its a very unwise thing to do on the part of the landlord because the authorities can crack down and courts award the tenants damages, but perhaps she has wayed up the possible damage to the property and lost rental income in the months it would take to get them legally evicted and decided what she did might mean she still has a property worth renting.

I do find some of the comments complaining about the attitudes of landlords towards the emotional well being of their tenants ironic - can you imagine how stressful it is for a landlord to have a tenant staying indefinitely in your property for free, or who treats paying rent as an option when it suits them and when they can afford it, and having the risk of repossession if you can't pay the mortgage.