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 stress of fighting an eviction could accelerate the demise of the Elderly tenant. It's very cruel

Farming communities have long memories...

Yes he worked for a pittance, around the equivalent of £60 a week. Moral void is about right. I don’t know anything about the legalities, I’m concerned with how dishonourable the whole thing is. The farmhand has lived there his whole life, my friend does think of him as a squatter.

Your 'friend' is a wanker.

He has a home, he has the option of moving into the 'Grand House', only an absolute arsehole would try to evict the elderly 'Farmhand'. That's his HOME, supposedly for life!

& no, he should NOT even be pressured into a 'house swap' it's his HOME.

All of this.

You need to express this to your friend, OP.

Highly doubt he'd be able to evict him anyway. Tenancies that long are protected.
Not to mention the legal implications of the elderly man essentially being kept as a slave for a decades. I assume your friend was aware of the arrangement?
Drop the friend and contact shelter or something on behalf of the poor old man.

But the legalities probably have a significant bearing. Maybe the tenancy has expired. Maybe the rent has been unpaid since 1998. Maybe the property is no longer habitable. Maybe the state support has ended. Maybe the tenancy only applied while the guy was actively working. Maybe local ordnances have changed, meaning the tenancy is no longer valid. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Unless you know, you don't know.

Also, the reason the guy was living there in the first place was because of a contract. Not benevolence; a legal document. It's quite difficult to put someone in that position through legal means but then argue that it should be maintained through moral/ethical ones.

I see your point, and I agree up to a point, but ultimately whether you and your friend are in the UK or US (you still haven't said) we simply don't live in a world in which housing is distributed via moral fortitude.

What a cunt.
Realistically he won’t have to wait decades will he.
prick. Utter prick.

Greedy, amoral piece of shit. Wow. I couldn’t spend one more minute in the company of someone like this and would try to investigate the tenant’s rights.

If he’s illiterate where would he even begin fighting it or even applying for a new home from the council.

Can you contact the NFU? They are a charity that support farmers. They might have a phone line that can advise him on his rights or you could start a discussion on there. Cant see legally how he can do it after so many years. The advice would be more relevant? Horrible of your friend total moral void.

How old is this man? I think I’d too want to investigate this legally if I had inherited an estate with a sitting tenant.

Is he giving the old man different accommodation? I agree that this is not cricket.

He's a monster, the farmhand has paid for the rent up front with a lifetime of underpaid labour. I would not only stop being friends with him but see if I could assist the farmhand.

I can't imagine the stress this poor man will be subject to. If you can try and stop your friend carrying out this cruel plan PLEASE try to do it first so this poor elderly widow is none the wiser of potentially becoming homeless.

Christ its like on animal farm when the pigs send Boxer to the knackers yard instead of letting him retire in peace.

This.

I’d say to the friend that it’s immoral to make a 70yr old widower homeless.

Also if he worked practically for free, on the understanding that he had a lifetime interest in the house, then your ‘friend’ is on very dodgy ground, legally. But it doesn’t sound like the old man will be able to afford a lawyer 😢

You don’t need a friend like him - he’s an utter cunt. Please please help the elderly man.

Sounds like something out of a Thomas Hardy novel. They make grim reading in terms of how ordinary, working, people are treated

I’ve recently gone through this moral dilemma.
Do we choose our friends because of shared interests or shared morals? If it’s shared interests then we don’t care about their morals, which says a lot about us to others and we become as bad as them by association. If it’s shared morals then we shouldn’t care when they do something that we don’t agree with.

I think OP, you are very much not being unreasonable.

I would highlight to the new laird or whatever he wishes to think of himself, that in taking on the estate, he also took on the patronage of people who gave their working life to said estate. It may not be documented, but it’s there for the local community to see and something the family has been well regarded for.

If he reneges on this, make it clear that it would be distasteful at the least and that it would likely require the community to step in to see if they can assist. ie. It will become very widely known what has occurred and reputationally, he may never recover from the damage.

In addition, if the retired labourer may well have a case for proceeding with squatters application or some other form of redress if their ‘retirement agreement’ albeit verbal is being breached. And may well need support for this if you can manage it. Potentially the two issues could be linked - fund raising to protect the retiree from the new laird.

Hope you can talk some sense into the landowner.

Very immoral in my opinion

Oh that seems really cruel. I know landlords aren’t charities and can do whatever they want within the law but it does not sit well with me

What a cunt. When our elderly relative died and her loyal cleaner's job inevitably came to an end (very part time and casual, not live in, and she was at retirement age) we gave her a five-figure sum in gratitude for all she'd done.

Agricultural tenancies are complicated and have different rules; it would be worth looking into them. Hopefully they will protect him more than your average tenant, but your "friend" may be hoping that he can tell a vulnerable and illiterate man to go, and he will just go quietly without knowing his rights.

What an absolute, ducking cubt! I would solicit advice on the farm worker's behalf and I would also, as a PP suggested, try and befriend him to help him. If the farm worker has been there a lifetime are there people in the community who's ear you could have? I'd be telling as many (sympathetic to old man) people, quietly, as possible in the hope that it will cause such outrage and distaste that your wanker friend will be backed into an uncomfortable corner. Arsehole.

Agree with the posters who suggested assisting the elderly man and contacting the NFU for advice. You can do that without your friend knowing initially. The man deserves to be given warning so he can prepare either legally or with the council and appropriate welfare departments.
Ultimately your friend has very questionable morals and I would be rethinking that relationship in light of this, no matter what happened in the past. If he goes ahead it will change how you see him as a person.

Wow-What an utter bastard. I’d consciously try to befriend the old man, help to create a Go Fund Me to raise funds for legal bills so he can seek legal advice/fight this (if he’s agreeable to a fundraising effort) and would (with no hesitation at all) ‘oust’ the SOB landlord in the local media (anonymous source if you prefer). Ask for NFU support potentially (as someone else already suggested), local vicar re: provision of a social responsibility lecture to the bastard landlord and I’d offer to support the old man with reading and writing for any paperwork that might need to be completed to fight the potential eviction.

Honestly, I’d also front up to this ‘friend’ big-time. Let’s hope karma bites him in his ugly ass.

How do you know all this?

you and your friend just have discussed this in very substantial detail and he really has told you very personal detail about his tenant…. Which was wrong of him