Friend evicting elderly tenant

[AppalachianWoman]

Would it change the way you felt about your friend if he evicted an elderly (70+) tenant so he could move into the house instead? The rent was paid upfront through a lifetime of agricultural labor from late childhood but the friend who recently inherited the estate feels they are owed cash payments and the property. The tenant cannot read or write and was widowed a year or two ago, has no children of his own but some step children from his marriage. The friend currently occupies another, smaller, property on the estate and was expected to move into the largest house which is very grand indeed but requires extensive renovation. He is daunted by the work and expense and has instead become fixated on the property the elderly farmhand lives in.

It feels emotionally immature of me to drop a friend over a difference in values but I am shocked that he would even consider this course of action. I don’t want to be friends with someone who acts this way, how can I exit gracefully or should I try to support him as he has supported me emotionally through decades of friendship?

The estate runs at a loss and has done for many years before my friend inherited it from his uncle. It’s a huge burden. Contractors farm the land but everything else is falling into ruin.

So, OP, if this is true, then can your friend even afford to carry the property and losses? If not, then he might not have a choice but to change things. But the least he could do is try to help this man with finding alternative help and/or accommodation. I'd probably have no choice but to sell if I inherited such a property.

Gosh this has made me so sad to read. Tenant may have acquired a beneficial interest in the property given the length of time he has lived there. I don’t imagine he would want to hire lawyers to battle this out though. I’ve just settled my own case on beneficial ownership. It cost £££££ and was mentally torturous. Your friend is an utter cunt.

Someone may have mentioned this, but the tenant quite possibly has a lifetime interest in the property ie an inalienable right to live there until he dies (or needs care, or decides to leave). I'd try and contact his step-kids to get them to help with asserting this.

100% agree!

OP - would you be willing to contact pro-bono law centers to get free legal advice?

I would end the friendship immediately. I would also reach out to the farmhand and explain your stance - then help in any way I could if 'friend' goes ahead with the plan, ie help him with any paperwork/phonecalls etc that he will need to do if he's homeless. Being illiterate he will need a massive amount of support for this. Fair enough he may be too proud to accept but I would have to offer.
What a nasty piece of work your pal is.

The ‘problem’ I suppose is that this generation are living longer. People usually only had a few years of retiring before they died. Although these old farmer types retire much later, there’s still lots of years in them. So economically it’s a problem for landowners attracting younger workers in on a low wage , made attractive by living in one of their tied cottages, as they don’t have the properties to give them. Landowners can be land rich cash poor.
So I can see the problem from both sides. But on an individual basis, this man has ‘paid’ for his time in that house by all the years of graft he put in beforehand.

What a surprise you're wrong again.

Your comment at 14:34 yesterday

'I think we can do away with the medieval references to peasants and feudalism'.

My first comment on this thread was after this when you mocked me for my spelling. My time frame was post-war Britain not the Middle Ages. For someone so heavily invested in this thread you have a poor recollection of events.

I didn’t mock you for your spelling! I didn’t even notice it!

This is an awful thing to do and you should definitely tell him. At the very least could he not swap properties with the elderly gentleman???

This would totally change my opinion of this friend. It is terrible behaviour. I sympathise with you, because it shakes you up a bit when a friend turns out not to be who you thought. I’m grappling with a similar situation- friend of long standing is behaving in a way that is very wrong, also over a house. Money and property show people in their true colours.

I have elderly tenants who are far from vulnerable but are quite short on cash, so I evict them? No I take less rent because everyone needs somewhere to live and they have nowhere. I don’t make money off their full rent either because not all landlords are complete ar*eholes

Tell your not so lovely friend that even with a lack of tenancy agreement or paperwork he is still covered by law and has every right to pursue for wrongful eviction.
www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/tenants-without-a-written-contract/
I'd say YANBU to drop him but if I were anywhere decent I'd tell the tenant of their rights and ensure they got the support they needed in fighting it. It could actually turn out that if he has looked after and maintained all these years then the friend may have no legal claim whether it was inherited or not because of possesionary title

Is there a rural support group in the area? They would know the right contacts to help the elderly chap in a variety of scenarios such as legal advice, companionship and general help.

the new owner sounds like a complete arse and he won’t settle for long in the local area if he goes about things in this manner…

If I'm being honest your friend sounds like a spoilt child! This is not the way you treat people...this man probably thought he had a home for life and because the lord of the manor wants a place to live whilst his large house is renovated he wants to turf him out. Does the farmhand have a contract? If that was my friend I'd be honest and tell him what a self absorbed AH he's being. People with so much can be so short sighted!

It really is grotesque.

Pretty sure they vote Tory.

I wouldn’t want a friend like that he’s cruel and insensitive . He should be ashamed stuck up prig by the way he’s behaving shame on him

@AppalachianWoman most owners of large estates are morally void! I rent a cottage from such a man, who owns 200 properties and my driveway is not fit for purpose and my car keeps getting stuck. I ask repeatedly for them to fix it but they plead poverty (whilst he lived in his huge estate house, which is rented by a school and sits on an embassy in Mayfair)!

If advise the elderly tenant not to move. The landlord will have to take him to court. Could take years.

This might be something the local press would latch onto. Name and shame! And this person is not worthy of your friendship.

Very difficult situation … but this is not a nice thing to do to an elderly person. Awful
I have a friend who had teen ants who delayed payment this time last year and because they had a child my friend didn’t have the heart to give them notice for Christmas but in the end they decided to leave anyway and she sold the house
I hope your friend thinks again about doing this

I could never ever be friends with someone who did this. What an utter bastard he is.

I read the title and thought to myself "doesn't matter what age they are, if they need to be evicted then they should be treated the same as anyone else, regardless of age"
Then I read your post and my heart sank. It's heartbreaking. I would have to tell him my opinion, and if he chose to still go ahead then I couldn't look at him the same way again.

Oh my gosh. They are all tarred with the same brush.
Absolutely despicable disgusting behaviour.
I hope it comes out that he can’t simply evict this poor old man.
On the other hand it may be in his best interests if he went into sheltered accommodation but only if he’s willing and not forced.

There are a few people like that living on the farms around here, I couldn’t imagine either of the land owners doing that in fact I know they wouldn’t. You friend is an absolute wank&@ you need to tell him and get rid.

There is such as thing as a "lifetime lease" which is usually written as a restriction on the title of the property. From my understanding, they can't be ended without the agreement of the tenant they refer to.

And yes, I'd find this appalling and would tell my friend so, then we would no longer be friends.