Unwanted guest.

[melissa2929291936]

My work sent me abroad for six months.I arranged to rent our home out to a "friend".She only paid two months rent but I let it slide until we returned.When we did come home,she refused to leave the house.The police said there was nothing they could do so myself,husband and two small children had to camp out at my mothers thirty miles away.After six weeks of this,and having tried every legal avenue,I went to our home after "friend"had left for work.I still had my keys so I entered and turned the water off at the stopcock.The stopcock is in a weird place,not where you'd expect,so I was pretty sure she didn't know its location.I then cancelled the broadband for the address.That night she had the nerve to phone me complaining.She said she had an infant,a toddler and no water.I informed her she could go to her own mother (who lived in the same street.)but the rental time in our written contract had passed and she hadn't even paid me for most of it.Cue tears,threats etc but,because I knew she had somewhere to go,I held my ground.Went round next day and she'd gone,although the place was trashed.I had the locks changed,cleared up and moved back in.Now she's bad mouthing me all over,saying I threw out a mother with young children.Her main gripe though seems to be the lack of broadband rather than water! I genuinely don't think i was in the wrong "throwing her out"_I knew she wouldn't be on the street.

As far as I can see, your friend staying in your flat agreed to pay rent for 6 months but only paid 2. She then ignored all your requests. Doesn’t sound very fair of her in my view.

I let my flat out when I moved into my partners house. Well never again. I was charging half the rent I could have charged, it was a really lovely flat, and everything was legal and above board but the tenant, who I had known previously, behaved abominably.

I would NEVER let out a flat again!

sounds like you didn't try the legal routes? a section 21 or a section 8.
She was in the wrong, but you have to abide by the law as a landlord.

No, I'm talking about the OP, the shitty , law breaking nasty landlord.

Renting out your home is a minefield for the uninitiated. For someone in your position, I'd recommend considering the rent a room scheme - have a lodger, find out on spareroom.Com what kind of value your room might have, the first £7500 income is tax free. You have to pay the bills out of that, but you or your family/ friends are free to pop in to stay whenever your wish. Lodgers have fewer rights and can't lock you out. My house would be worth loads more to rent out properly, but I have enough experience renting properties as a landlord to know how things can turn out. Safer option, too late for your situation I'm afraid, but worth considering for you in the future and for others.
Make sure you photograph the state of your home, deducting from the deposit can be an issue.

The op couldn't have done that. For a lodger agreement to be legal, the landlord would have to live there with the lodger.

Morally the tenant is in the wrong for not paying the rent after the first 2 months but legally the landlord is wrong for the illegal eviction.
What the op should have done is serve a section 8 as soon as the tenant was 2 months arrears with rent.

As tempting as it is under these circumstances, you cannot take the law into your own hands. The illegal eviction laws are there for a very good reason to stop bad landlords throwing tenants out onto the streets on a whim.

Its for the courts to decide on evictions, not a landlord. If you don't like the landlord/tenant laws in this country, don't rent out property.

Did you take photos of the state of the place when she left? Share them so that it’s clear what happened. Post a copy of the rent payments too so it’s clear she owes you money plus the clear up and repairs bill.

A family member could designate the property as main residence... Many people spend more time at their boyfriend's place and the lodger has a very good deal, practically the place to themselves. Important to strike a balance if people want nice accommodation to be available - and so much more personal when it's your home.

This and other typical MN posters, let's defend the CF's and dickheads of this world.

OP may have acted unlawfully but the "friend" deserves not a shred of sympathy. Hopefully any solicitor she consulted would decline the case. Doubtless he would not get paid either.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll That's exactly what happened to us. Let out our house for a fixed term, they refused to move out at the end of that and left us homeless. Seven months it took us to get them out, and then another month to make our previously immaculate home habitable again.

Still, I should count myself lucky we're not like Spain. At least here one is generally not liable for the tenants utility bills.
Whereas in Spain squatters can move into your house, and you're the one who will be charged with a crime if you don't keep paying their electricity and water, and it will take you years to evict them.

😆😆😆 I can't imagine actually having your mindset. How fucking AWFUL of op and other landlords or service providers to want due payment for services used.
Do you go out for a meal, eat the entire thing then refuse to pay saying it was awful?...

I did this, it ended up that I had to take them to court, they owed £5k, found out they had done this before. The judge ordered them to get out, the night before they trashed the house and put dog mess everywhere, I had to completely gut and redo the place which cost me £10k plus.

I never got a penny from them, so much for the court system, they say landlords can be awful, but these tenants were the worst, nearly broke me in every way.

@LoveCherryTree Its hellish isn't it? I've seldom been through such stress in my life, it's pure mental torture.
It drags on and on and on and finally you get them out then you walk through the door and see how they've left it...

That doesn't mean there shouldn't be laws to protect tenants from rogue landlords either. There should, but as it stands, the pendulum seems to entirely in the tenant's court.

The problem is that we hear about all the rogue landlords, of which there are many; but relatively little about the rogue tenants, which are also myriad.

No right-thinking person wants somebody in genuine difficulties, acting in good faith, to be flung out on the street, hence the laws to protect them; but it's a real shame that the honest, genuine landlords and tenants can't somehow be matched up and then all of the CFs and chancers left to fight it out between themselves.

I know that OP hasn't come back for us to be able to ask - probably frightened of saying anything else in public after the first few responses - but I'm wondering if this was a case of OP acting innocently/naively like a friend in the deal with the tenant knowing exactly what she was doing. I doubt she paid for two months with the full intention to keep on paying but then suddenly couldn't afford any more; I reckon she planned all along to deliberately pay the minimum purely to secure herself with the legal right to be considered a tenant and then get away with murder as we've read about in this thread.

FrostyFifi

Horrific, isn't it? And yet there are still people on here who would hurl insults at 'nasty' you for being put through that ordeal. Glad you eventually managed to get back in and finally put it behind you.

Why an earth would a solicitor decline a case like this? Lots of damages to a legally wronged party. It's bread and butter work.

Crikey I’d love an explanation by the 4% Thant think you were being unreasonable! Wt?!? She paid you no rent for four months. She refused to leave and had you stay with your Mother?!? She was no friend ….

While I understand exactly how you feel, I am uncertain about the legalities of what you did. You had a rental arrangement (with or without written contract). Here in the USA, you would be required, legally, to go through an eviction process through the courts. She would have lost, and been kicked out, but the fact that you had to evict her would be public knowledge. And, it may have been even more satisfying to see authorities show up and put her out.

You did do the right thing, insofar as she was the one who broke the agreement, and stayed on long past the agreed on terms, and did not pay rent.

As for the gossip...if someone asks you about it, tell them the truth...that she only paid two out of six months rent, that she refused to leave at the agreed on time, that you were forced to rent lodgings instead of living in your own home, and that she left your property in horrid condition.

Sorry for your awful experience. What a horrible woman she is.

No right-thinking person wants somebody in genuine difficulties, acting in good faith, to be flung out on the street, hence the laws to protect them;

Actually, on balance, I'd prefer this situation to what we have now. Ideally we'd have a perfect balance of justice and compassion (charity). But I'd rather live in a just world even though it would mean people stick more to the letter of the law instead of going the extra mile. That would be much preferred over an unjust world so long as you 'be kind'.

Justice dictates that a person should have a say over their house, and be able to evict anyone at anytime of they either don't have a contract or are in breach of it. However Compassion would have us try to somewhat curb that power, in order to protect the vulnerable. Yet it leads to unjust and completely morally bankrupt laws like the one OP was subject to.

Mine is under my shower downstairs.
you should also have a small drain cover to front of house that you can turn the mains supply off from.
I would contact your estate agent and ask them. This sort of thing should have been recorded in the survey surely?

What a shame. You’d have been better off leaving it sat empty! No doubt she hasn’t paid any of the bills while she’s been there?! Did you put gas and electric in her name? Otherwise this might be an incredibly expensive mistake!
You've also acted illegally, so better hope no one advises her to seek legal advice.

The law isn’t on the side of the landlord, and then they wonder why there aren’t the properties to rent these days!

It's one of two situations. Either she was renting, there was a contract in place , a protected deposit etc in which case you needed to follow correct procedures. Or she was house sitting and merely covering her own expenses. In which case you haven't done anything wrong except bern generous in allowing her time to arrange alternative accommodation. I'd think carefully about any wording of any communication you have.

When she started paying rent she became a tenant not a house sitter. The law is quite clear on this.

@MaireadMcSweeney I suppose it depends how much she's paying. Ifs it's a nominal amount like £100 a month it could be argued it was to cover broadband/electricity etc. if it's in addition to household expenses or more than the cost of the household expenses then I'd be inclined to agree.

MIL had a similar situation.
The icing on the cake was when The Benefits people found out the ex Tenants had been claiming housing benefit fraudulently and went after MIL for it to be repaid (they had paid her direct).