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.

It may have been an illegal eviction by OP but definitely not disgusting behaviour. I’m just glad this CF has been turfed out.

someone comes in to your home, pays a couple of months rent then continues to live for free, use your utilities (which you pay for) trashes and destroys your home, and you’re out of order for getting rid of them??!!

Princessofwellies attitude shows everything that’s wrong with our society. Siding with the perpetrator. How can you go to someone’s home, live for free, trash the place and think you’re the victim and have being wrongly treated when you get the boot?

Well put.

Yes I mean clearly it's an illegal eviction but I can't get too bent of of shape about it as the tenant is an utter pisstaker.

The stupidity here is off the charts. No-one has said the tenant is in the right by not paying rent, no-one.
The tenant should pay rent, obviously.

But the laws are there to protect everyone, and almost everyone pays their rent. If you want the law to allow OP to do what she did, that same law would also allow any landlord to do the same thing to any tenant. Any rent paying tenant. And they would.

Luckily, the days are gone when landlords can walk into rented homes and turn off the services, and throw your belongings out on to the street. Luckily landlords can't put children out on the street. We have laws to protect tenants. OP broke those laws, and deserves the consequences.

This is a very odd thread. So many people can't understand the following position:

1. Yes the CF friend- who became a tenant the moment she paid a penny in rent- has acted in a repulsive, unpleasant and deeply dishonest way. No doubt this was always her intention.
2. And the OP has compounded the situation by acting completely illegally and at best been extremely naively, if not downright stupid in letting someone live in her house as a tenant without any understanding of the law, and through her own illegal actions risked serious legal trouble.

This thread really should be a lesson to anyone who, like me, ended up in a situation they never thought they'd be in of being an accidental landlord.

An hour's research on the internet would have prevented so many of the problems the OP is having. And- just to make it clear again- the 'friend' is a total CF and I hope, in the interests of natural justice, she doesn't realise the strength of her legal position regards the landlord.

OP- if you are still reading these posts, don't for the love of god do anything else to make your situation even worse. Ignore all the posts about asking for money to repair damage etc- as soon as the tenant gets any half decent legal advice you could be in serious trouble. (£££££)

Yes, and turning off the water is illegal. It's harassment.
If you wanted her to leave so you could move in, you could have done so easily in law.

Unlawful eviction or a harassment offence can be tried in a Magistrates Court or the Crown Court. The maximum penalty in a Magistrates Court is six months in prison and/or a fine of not more than £5,000. In the Crown Court it is two years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

You should never have left it for six weeks. I would never have agreed to such an arrangement without a formal contract in the first place, if only for protection should the period abroad have been extended.

As she paid you rent the law comes into play.
You should not have thrown her out.
You should not enter the property asking and her agreeing.
You cannot turn off services. Turning off the water particularly is a big no no.
She had rights under an Assured short hold tenancy.

This is despite the fact she didn’t pay all the rent.
You were wrong, legally. If she talks to a solicitor you will go to court and be fined, get a criminal conviction, community service or even prison. Either way you will be found guilty of illegal eviction and have a criminal record.

This has been comprehensively addressed at least 75 times.

yet people still aren't getting it

although makes a nice change from the landlord bashing threads normally on social media

I'd have dragged the CF out by her hair, never mind turned the water off.

😡

Agree
People still aren’t getting it. You only have to look at posts saying ‘ I’d drag her out by he4 hair’. Even though the law has been stated here.

How many! You counted 🤣. Times

If you want the law to allow OP to do what she did, that same law would also allow any landlord to do the same thing to any tenant. Any rent paying tenant. And they would.

I don't get this bit. How could the law not distinguish between those who have been paying regularly (maybe with some built-in leeway for payments that are received late, but which are received within a certain time), those who have opened negotiations or disputes with the landlord and those who have just decided to stop paying for several months with no explanation?

That's like saying that we can't have laws that allow shops to prosecute shoplifters, on the grounds that customers who do pay before leaving with their goods would somehow be caught up and punished by them too.

Well done, OP.

The law is much too kind to cheeky fucker tenants.

The sad fact is, renting informally to friends or family so often ends badly. When we lived overseas and rented out our house via an agent, so many expat friends told us we were mad to be paying a hefty percentage to the agent - they were all renting informally to f/f.

Without exception they all had trouble later - non payment of rent, trashing the place, refusing to leave when the owners needed the house back.

The only trouble we had during several years of renting out our house, was that one of the tenants (we never did find out which of the various French, German and Japanese) nicked a load of dh’s cherished old Dinky Toys out of the loft. Bastards. 😈
But they all took good care of the house.

You CAN evict tenants for non-payment of rent, but there is a legal process.

You CAN evict tenants for non-payment of rent, but there is a legal process.

Yes - and if OP had been an experienced landlord and not driven to such desperate measures, she probably would have done that; but I'm saying that the legal process should be much better designed to take fair account of everybody's circumstances and actions, and not just go from the assumption that all landlords are bad and all tenants are good.

You seem to think I/we care.

Tenants have multiple protections. Even if they don’t pay,
Landlords don’t stand a chance. All they can do is issue a section 21. Then tenant doesn’t leave anyway at the end of the S21 notice ( you’ll see multiple websites advising them to do this ) So LL then has to go to court to get permission to evict them.

Not paying rent seems irrelevant these days
Thats one of the key reasons why landlords are all selling up and there’s a rental crisis.

it is kind of like saying

you can stop a shoplifter by pinning them to the ground and waiting for the authorities - this is legal

you can't beat them to a pulp while waiting as that would be illegal

the landlord can issue a notice to the court and get the cf out using the legal processes. What they can't do is take the law into their own hands and force them out by chucking their belongings and in this case turning off essential services as this crosses the line to illegality.

I’m in a new build and it’s BEHIND the back boards of the cupboard under the sink 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️ Hole you find it!

It is a criminal offence.
But as a LL I am absolutely sick of the outrageous behaviour of tenants and the fact that the Law is nearly always on their side.
Why the hell should someone be able to live rent free in a property, refuse to leave despite this and then trash the place. Yet if the OP stole her purse, she would be arrested.
No bloody wonder LL’s are giving up in their droves.

Abosultely FK her and I would equally be mouthing her about how she somehow expected free rent for months on end and wouldnt move out, the audacity. I would also post pics of the trashed house on every single social media, tagging her name in. So sorry you went through that, a friend as well. Disgusting