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?

The babys parents made her homeless the day they stopped paying the rent. No one else.

Refusing to return the baby's stuff is scummy.

It's clearly more personal than that and those who talk of 'fragile tenants rights' are implying the same.

I really don't think I was, it is a business relationship where the landlord has a high degree of responsibility to the tenants welfare because they are dealing in a basic human need. There could be nothing worse than a society where landlords lord it over their tenants by having a deeply unequal 'personal' relationship where the tenant is obviously unable to rock the boat in case they upset the landlord and get booted out.

LessMissAbs

"Although harassment is not specifically defined it can include repeated attempts to impose unwanted communications and contacts upon a victim in a manner that could be expected to cause distress or fear in any reasonable person." www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/stalking_and_harassment/#a02a

Threatening someone with eviction twice a day for a fortnight is unnecessary and would be expected to cause a family with young children distress. He could have written a letter, like any other business.

There could be nothing worse than a society where landlords lord it over their tenants by having a deeply unequal 'personal' relationship where the tenant is obviously unable to rock the boat in case they upset the landlord and get booted out thats mostly what happens now in lots of cases.

I had this done to me becausr my landlord had to come back from abroad unexpectedly and had no where to live. Changed the locks whilst i was at work.
Police said as i had paid the rent, the i could enter the house anyway possible as long as i left it safe.

I smashed the biggest front window ( the bay ) took mine an my ds things, an duck taped ( 9 rolls!) the window.
Wasn't like he would've given my deposit back anyway. ( pre new deposit scheme. )

Duck tape!? Duct of course!

Threatening someone with eviction twice a day for a fortnight is unnecessary and would be expected to cause a family with young children distress. He could have written a letter, like any other business.

Well you didn't pay any rent until you moved out. Presumably you kept the hb that was paid to you for your rent then. And thinking about it, the landlord wouldn't have got away with swapping the contract anyway, as the council would have had a copy of your longer contract as part of your claim

An surely regarding the babies things, she could be reported for theft?

We had a tenant who said she wouldn't be paying her rent one Christmas a few years ago. Couldn't afford it apparently.

You should have seen her face when dp stuck the brand new 32 inch flatscreen in the box under his arm and said this will do instead. You clearly afforded it today.

By hell the rent was never not paid after that.

Was your dp a bailiff, if not that sounds illegal

holiday brilliant

You should have seen her face when dp stuck the brand new 32 inch flatscreen in the box under his arm and said this will do instead. You clearly afforded it today.

So that's how it works then, tenant doesn't pay rent, rob their house to make up for it. I'm sure BrianTheTroll will approve.

No actually I wouldn't Etoo. I'm quite a fair person really. Unlike some. And btw I'm not a troll, so please don't insinuate I am by changing my name. If you think I'm a troll then report it, as the guidelines say.

That is a shitty thing to do, I would have given them say notice, Than if they were still there,changed the locks etc, but give back possessions, especially children's ones.

Unfortunately piglet it's not as easy as giving notice and changing locks. If only it was.

Sometimes life is not agreeable, but you don't have to behave like this, to your fellow human being in distress, you really don't.

Well in fairness, its not really ok to spend the rent money on a new tv instead is it. I wouldn't have taken it, but they don't sound like fellow human beings in distress. A tv is a nice thing to have, but not a necessity. Do you really think its ok that they spent the rent money on that instead? Really?

Unfortunately piglet it's not as easy as giving notice and changing locks. If only it was.

No it really isn't.

That is a shitty thing to do, I would have given them say notice, Than if they were still there,changed the locks etc, but give back possessions, especially children's ones.

I don't know if you are a landlord or not, but in the UK you cannot just give the tenant some notice and then change the locks if they are still there. There is a legal process that must be followed and only a court can issue a legally binding eviction notice (obviously the landlord usually issues a notice of some sort first, then they proceed to court if the tenant does not move out).

People would be outraged if banks just turned up and changed the locks if mortgage payments were late, why are tenants somehow viewed as subhuman and entitled to less security of the roof over their head than homeowners?

Tom "there is a nasty tone of glee in some of these stories too."

I agree. What an unpleasant thread filled with hate, spite and divisiveness.

I am not but if they are shit I guess you try anything like op friend.

My ex tenant was clearly in distress when she announced that she wouldn't be paying rent this month because she'd 'been out on a bender' with my money.

If they were paying persistently late then I read that as they were still paying rent.

Surely in this case the tenant still had rights to the property (and obviously their own possessions) regardless of the changed locks. Could they call another locksmith and the police?

My ex tenant was clearly in distress when she announced that she wouldn't be paying rent this month because she'd 'been out on a bender' with my money.

Whats your issue with that Randy? Thats ok isn't it? Your poor fragile tenant.