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?

Not only morally very wrong, but also deeply stupid regarding his standing in the local community. This could cause your friend some real harm and go well beyond dirty looks in the Post Office queue, to be frank. Agree with other comments that a full and frank discussion is needed before you drop this friendship. Also could you tip off the local vicar/someone that your soon-to-be ex-friend would listen to? They might be able to get some legal advice put in place for the elderly tenant.

What strawberriesarenotsaid as a final resort. Thank goodness you are going to bat for the tenant OP. Your friend is such a lowlife that "he could walk upright under the belly of a snake" as someone once said.

Absolutely morally bankrupt. I would certainly re-evaluate the friendship of anyone who behaved like this. An intrinsic part of being landed gentry or owning an estate is looking after the people who devoted their lives to working for it. It's not something that should even be in question. The friend has a duty of care to his tenant in this case.

In similar situations in my own life the ones at "the top of the tree" consider it an honour and a privilege to look after such people in their retirement. To even suggest stitching up someone like this tenant (unless he was engaging in criminal activities) would be deeply offensive to them.

Your friend is being a massive shit to this poor old man. I hope he’s got lifetime tenancy and is impossible to evict. It’s a disgusting way to treat someone who has given so much to the family/ estate. There may be a caveat in the will stating he’s not to be evicted (fingers crossed).
I couldn’t be friends with somebody who is seriously considering this action.

I would think this is illegal.

I would think he is classed as either a sitting tenant or given his low wages over the years he has a right to the property for the rest of his life even if there was no employment contract.
I would be contacting this man and booking him a free 1/2 hour at a solicitors and maybe a solicitors letter to your friend indicating she cannot just kick someone out as it is against the law.
Is there anyone around who knows him and can guide him or a charity who can help him and read the letters and can advise him of his rights.

I think the only way your friend can get rid of him is to buy him out and as your friend sounds out of her depth and not used to having money, has no idea about the business of farming or property laws and instead of admitting they don’t know is acting like a self important arse. I would dump the friend over this behaviour alone.

If the house for life wasn’t to make up for the dreadfully low wage then this guy needs the money he would have earned to be paid to him with interest in one lump sum.

With money and property comes responsibility.
Your friend will be bankrupt in a few years as instead of looking at interiors and kitchens she needs to prioritise learning about farming and business management. (Also your friend might not be able to move into the house as it might be restricted to be only lived in by those who are employed in farming.
Even if she leaves everything up to a manager if she knows nothing then she won’t know if things are being managed correctly.

What is odd that the unanimous response on this is fierce anger at the OP’s friends

and yet in RL, it is ONLY the OP that is upset but the situation and very one else is supportive.

makes me think that there must be more to it

Your friend is a piece of shit.

Not only would I not be friends any longer, I'd go to the tenant and help him get information on his legal rights.

Force anger to the OP’s friend (not plural)

I lived in a farm cottage on an old family run estate for ten years. Next door was housed the elderly game/grounds keeper and cook (married couple) and their accommodation was part of their pay. They had been born on or been with the estate their entire working lives (as had their children) - they were loving, loyal and hardworking as well as being very proud to have been part of the estate for generations.

A very similar situation occurred in that due to an unexpected set of deaths a younger, London living Hooray Henry found out he had inherited by default.

He evicted all the staff on more standard tenancies - (me for example) and was so short sighted to realise that the pay we were on reflected that we were accommodated. He wanted to keep the pay the same but wanted us to still work and was horrified when the estate staff just left.

He found out that he couldn't evict the elderly couple, and a few of the other older staff as they had a protected tenancy. His legal advisor was very very firm that an eviction was not possible. (there was no tenancy agreement by the way, I think it came down to the fact they had lived in the house well over 40 years and paid no rent)

In the end as he couldn't evict them he sold all the houses, with the remaining staff as a sitting tenants, to a neighbouring estate who thankfully understood their obligations.

He moaned to everyone that he had been cheated out of getting a market rate by 'dumb farm hands'

Totally unrelated - he had a major problem with his tires - the whole time he was lounging about the estate or local pub bemoaning how much money he was losing out they kept going flat. odd.

the land agent and other friends are all for it.

I would be interested to find out on what grounds “the other friends are all for it”

Is the man still working or what age did he stop working?

It actually sounds like a case of modern slavery.

According to Shelter he is very unlikely to be able to evict this man unless he provides alternative accommodation (the newly restored smaller home would seem to be ideal). It doesn't look like he can pay the man a lump sum, legally only another home will fit the bill.

You're not right - the farmer has the right to ask for payment of rent - this is off the government web site

"If the worker loses their job or retires, they can stay in the accommodation. The farmer can ask them to start paying rent - or a higher rent than before. If the farmer and worker cannot agree on a rent, they can go to a rent assessment committee."

Just because someone's made poor lifestyle choices doesn't mean they should cause someone else hardship (or live in anther person's property for free).

Your friend probably can't afford to do up the big house.

If if comes to it, go to the press. Its absolutely disgusting behaviour from your friend and unimaginable in this day and age.

Coming up to Christmas in the hardest winter we've had for decades, huge economic crisis...the press could have a field day and might bring the poor man's plight to the attention of someone who can help.

I think I'd first of all try to tell the friend, as non-confrontationally as possible, that his conduct is immoral, and suggest that really he has nothing to lose by waiting or offering the tenant a swap with the property he is living in. If that didn't work, I think I would be very tempted to crowd-fund the best possible lawyer for the tenant.

@underneaththeash yiu think it was a poor lifestyle
choice to be illiterate and exploited as a labourer for £60 per week?

that’s quite the view to take of the exploitation of labour from people vulnerable due to structural oppression

It's not uncommon to have an arrangement like that on farms, as a legacy of past practice. We had a much smaller family farm, with an 'uncle' who had been an orphan and was brought in as a farmhand in his childhood/teens. He lived with the family his entire life and no one would ever have dreamed of telling him to move out. I don't know how much he got paid, but he did have some of his own money so it wasn't nothing, but it was probably very little. I only found out he wasn't a blood relative at his funeral, when he had a different surname from us. I had always thought he was my grandfather's brother. I still think of him as my great-uncle. As it happens, he predeceased both of my grandparents, but I am 100% certain that had he outlived them he would have stayed in the house until he died (or needed a care home, but we cared for all three of them at home until death as there's another two family homes on the same farm so help is always close by).

Please contact NFU on this elderly gentleman's behalf and help him out.

Your friend is abhorrent!

Well, you could help by letting the elderly person live in your house - for free?

I haven’t read the whole thread, apologies if this has already been said. This gentleman may well have the law on his side, there are tenancy rules that apply specifically to agricultural workers. If you google “lifetime agricultural tenancies” you’ll see a link to gov.uk on this subject. If this persists, the local press may be of assistance. I hope there is a happy conclusion.

Your random quote makes no sense. Post the link.

Fuck you and your 'Poor lifestyle choice' comment.

These were hardworking people who gave their working lives in exchange for being taken care of in days when pensions were not a thing. They paid for this consideration in continual service to the estate.

The quote to used is for modern farming tenancies and does not apply in this situation.

But he can let him move into the smaller cottage which he's also refusing to do