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?

It's his familiar surroundings; his home.

There is more to that than the number of bedrooms.

sounds like something out of downtown abbey

This has made me so sad. That poor man. It doesn’t sound like he will be able to evict him but also it doesn’t sound like the old man will know any better. I hope you or someone can help him so that he doesn’t just leave when told to. I would cut ties with this friend. He sounds deeply unpleasant and his wife must be too!

The US doesn’t have a landed gentry!

This is a very UK problem, an historical one that continues (albeit in a diminished way) to the present.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landed_gentry

Contemptible.
I would have to tell him exactly why I could no longer be friends.

I would think that the majority of the village would join in supporting this man, be it contacting the various organisations outlined in other posts, raising a Go Fund Me for legal costs, etc.
(possibly not any other tenants of this arsehole, because of undoubted repercussions.)
I would also suggest the local MP and the local press, if the tenant agrees, for maximum publicity to shame the landlord.

Your “friend “ sounds like a selfish twat.

Your friend is absolutely disgusting.
I would tell him exactly what I thought of his behaviour then tell him you only want nice people in your life and as he does not fall into that category you will end the friendship.
I really hope somebody steps up and helps the elderly gentleman.

I don't think I've read something so cruel for a long time.

For once I hope the DM pick up this story with a large photo of the inheritor. A headline like "Is this Britain's Cruelest Landlord" would be fitting.

Only if the tenant doesn't yet know about it, it would be awful for it to be in the papers. And I imagine as soon as he finds out, even if he is able to stay put, he'll not feel comfortable in his own home any more.

The "friend" is a cruel, selfish arsehole of the highest order. I'd not be able to socialise with a friend who did that.

So the older man is living in a 4 bedroom house for free on his own, yet your friend's family (who own the house) are in a smaller house?
Obviously they're going to want to move into the bigger one, why on earth should they not do that?

Yes, I know @ZeldaWillTellYourFortune and I suspect the OP's friend won't be able to evict this man anyway. If he's literally lived in that house all his life, he has rights and I expect the friend will discover he can't just kick him out if he's getting legal advice.

Tell your friend he will be ostracised locally (hopefully)

That’s an absurd reason, isn’t it?! It sounds as if the estate was given by a more distant relative rather than a parent. How awfully greedy. The person, who left the property to your ‘friend’ must be turning in their grave. I’m glad you’re going to help the man.

He's not living in it for free. He worked for decades for a pittance, think of it like a pension owed to him by the landowner. He has been hugely exploited.

This is a disgusting way to treat people. I know a few people who’ve had tied housing on farms or lived in grounds (as National Trust tenants etc). I agree with PPs, most of the older type lords/lairs tended to treat their retainers better than some of the younger breed.

One of my elderly aunts actually lives and works part time on a Manor House estate and is treated like a second daughter by the lady owner of the estate.

Years ago my aunt and uncle bought a mansion in Kent or Sussex but they soon found it cost far too much to heat up and live in the mansion so had to move into the smaller stable buildings (I think?) which were converted. They put an attraction in the grounds (won’t name it as it’s outing). As far as I know and my uncle was a piece of shit, if there were any tied tenants remaining on the property they’d left a long time ago or didn’t have tied tenants rights but they did employ locals to help out with the attraction and anything else required and my aunt was pregnant or just had her first baby so presumably needed help.

Horrible actions and based on greed

OP, I agree with you, and would find it very difficult to hold my tongue and not tell my “friend” what I thought of his plan. It strikes me that it is not a case of him not wanting to “swap houses”; he needs the old chap out so he can rent the property out to get money to do the work on the “big house”. I would be interested to know what your friend does for a living, I think you mentioned he didn’t have much spare cash for the renovations. I think you should talk with him to see what his plans are. He has probably rationalised it to himself by thinking if he “made the old man homeless” he’d get a nice new council place or some nonsense.

If you are local, you could also let the word out in the community. Perhaps someone will make your ‘friend’ see sense.

How long has the tenant been there? It’s he’s been there a very long time he may come under the previous rent act which would make him impossible to evict

But this the elderly man’s home, he’s worked and lived there all his life, has worked for a pittance and as the new Lord can’t be bothered to do the extensive renovation to the big house he feels the elderly man is a leech and wants him out! Disgusting way to behave. Imagine if it were your family relative being evicted?

It doesn’t sound like he will be able to evict him but also it doesn’t sound like the old man will know any better.

But that depends on the man knowing his rights and having the ability to stand up for himself in asserting them. The pittance he's been paid - even with included accommodation - sounds probably illegal, but that's nevertheless been his lot for decades.

If the poor old man can't read, OP's 'friend' could wave any old random legal-looking paperwork from the internet under his face and tell him that it's papers from a court who have ruled that he must be evicted, and he would be powerless to dispute it on his own. This is clearly a very vulnerable man.

Land Agent here - It sounds very illegal, the worker has agriculture occupancy rights despite being retired. As he is retired they can ask him to pay rent but it can be set be a rent committee if they can agree.

He can ask him to leave but your friend must supply him with another suitable house and apply through the court to do so. If nothing is available then the council have to rehome but this is exceedingly rare. The tenancy is also hereditary so would pass to his spouse or any family member living with him at the time of death as long as they’d live there for two years.

The land agent will know this, it’s basic stuff you learn in your first year at uni.

So the older man is living in a 4 bedroom house for free on his own
If he was a farmhand he's worked all his live for a pittance and then the house was granted him for the rest of his life. Not that unusual, although old-fashioned. Also, he's alone because his wife died!

yet your friend's family (who own the house) are in a smaller house?
They are but they also own The Big House which it seems they're going to renovate before moving in. His home isn't their forever home, it's temporary. They also don't want him having the smaller house either, because it has a new kitchen.

Obviously they're going to want to move into the bigger one, why on earth should they not do that?
They're going to move into the biggest one eventually. Why should a) the old man be forced to move and b) not even be allowed the smaller place, just because it has a new kitchen?!

They'd be raising glasses if this man died tomorrow.

It’s vile behaviour, but if your friend can’t understand that, he probably won’t understand or care that he will become the local social outcast.

Also, I think I’m right in saying that agricultural land/property doesn’t incur inheritance tax so your friend hit the jackpot there.

Lawyer here. Your friend’s behaviour is morally reprehensible and very likely to be unlawful. Depending on what was agreed, the old man may have a protected tenancy or a right to remain in the property arising by way of proprietary estoppel. Fortunately, legal aid is still available where an individual faces losing their property. I would point the old man in the direction of a local solicitor. And I would make clear to your friend that you consider his behaviour to be unacceptable, and that others in the community will feel the same way.