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.

No good deed goes unpunished.

id happily pay the £5k if i was her, just to get my home back. Regardless of the law, I prob would have done the same. And taken the consequences. It would kill me with rage to have been taken advantage like that by doing a friend a favour.

The absolute idiots on here defending the freeloader, how dare you? So you would be happy if you let your mate rent your house to not only have hardly any rent paid but to then refuse to leave when you need your house back for your own family?? Are you okay? So someone who is paying the mortgage has to continue paying the mortgage but not live in the house because someone has decided to live there rent free?
On what planet do you think that is okay? Are we meant to just pay for other people with our hard earned salary? Is that what you are saying? Are some adults incapable of finding their own roof, espcially this one whos mum lived in the same street and could have gone there?
Do some adults get to opt out of reality with the expectation that others pay for them?
You must be the sort of people who dont feel you need to look after yourself and expect others to pay the bills.
The fact that the squatter trashed the house - what do you think about that? Do you also think that is okay? Prob do. Idiots honestly

You're the idiot. Not one single person said the tenant was ok to do what they did.
We're saying that OP was also very very wrong to do what they did. And OP's actions come with a massive fine and a criminal conviction as well, unlike the tenants.

You may want to read before you rant.

@callmeblondee totally agree with you. Baffling isn't it.

Not to anyone with half a brain, that understands the actual situation, or read any of the posts.

This is a scary story. I'm not letting anyone stay in my home!

She didn't let anyone stay in her home. She became a landlord and rented her house out for money....without following the laws.

This. You’ve committed a serious, imprisonable offence of illegal eviction. If you try and sue for the lost rent, the chances are someone at the court will tell her this and you will find yourself in serious trouble.

If she’s willing to let it go at a bit of badmouthing, you should be grateful.

You don't get to dictate what others post.

please read what we are saying

no one has said the tenant is right - the tenants actions were shocking and wrong however she did no break the law. Lack of rent is a civil dispute and the only way to evict a non paying tenant is to issue a s8 notice and follow the court procedure to evict them. I have had to do this myself with a tenant who did not pay rent for 6 months. The tenant had every legal right to remain in the property until court bailifs turned up to remove them and it cost me thousands to follow the process through - I have every sympathy with the op

HOWEVER!!!

Shutting off their water was a criminal act and if the tenant speaks to anyone who informs her of her rights then this could mean the op is in for a large fine and a prison sentance - one landlord I linked to got 1 year in prison and an 8k fine for doing what the op did.

Those of us who know the law are not on the side of the CF but we are saying that the op acted illegally and if she provokes the tenant the tenant may discover that and put the op in the shit. The op needs to walk away and keep her head down in order to avoid stirring up a hornets nest that could see her put in prison or paying the tenant a large amount of compensation

nearly everyone here feels sympathy for the op (apart from maybe a few anti landlord people) but only one party broke the law and that was the op when she turned off the water supply and forced the tenant to leave.

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

Not at all - OP wasn't violent in any way; nor did she endanger the tenant's life or health. I know people will say that she did, by turning off the water, but considering that, morally speaking, she was squatting in a house where she no longer had any right to be, that should have made no difference to her than if somebody at any other house in the town - where she equally had no moral right to be - decided to turn off their water.

Those of us who know the law are not on the side of the CF but we are saying that the op acted illegally and if she provokes the tenant the tenant may discover that and put the op in the shit.

There's at least one person on this thread who clearly IS on the side of the CF - hurling abuse at the OP and saying they hope she suffers harshly for her desperate actions.

That's not the same as people just sticking to the legal facts and keeping personal opinions and emotions out of it - as plenty have done, granted.

I feel like I am screaming into an echo chamber of people who don't know the law but think they know better so I am out

essentially OP you broke the law so just walk away as going after the tenant could result in you paying a fine or going to prison. Like it or not tenant and landlord law is on the side of the tenant - they can stay in the house not paying rent until the courts evict them and it is perfectly legal, you cannot force them out without going through the legal processes and the consequences are severe if you do.

that is fact and saying it isn't fair doesn't change it - maybe lobby your mp's if you feel the law needs to change

And I am a landlord

I remember reading ages ago about a bizarre legal case in the US, where a burglar had broken into somebody's garage, by cutting a hole in the roof, and then finding himself trapped. If I remember correctly, the family were away on holiday. He managed to find some bottles of pop to keep himself hydrated and alive, but he was in a very bad way when the family returned and discovered him, and he needed to go to hospital - but every bit of it his own choosing and his own fault, of course.

He sued the householders for 'wrongful imprisonment' - and HE WON. At the time, I was thinking how preposterous that was, and "Only in America, eh?!". Reading all this, I take it all back, as I now understand that my own country can be just as ridiculous in turning the concepts of nefarious perpetrator and victim squarely on their heads.

I feel like I am screaming into an echo chamber of people who don't know the law but think they know better so I am out

We understand what the law is. Are we never allowed to criticise the law or call it an outrageous ass, though - even when it flies in the face of what probably a majority of the population would consider in any way fair?

Next time a tenant posts on here who doesn't want to, or can't, vacate on the due date - it will be wonderful to see the support the landlord will get.

Stopcock in “New built” flats is usually in the store room/cupboard.
if you have a water tank is near that if not elsewhere in the cupboard.

Oh FFS, we get it. We get the law. Okay?

But there's two perspectives: the moral one and the legal one.

The legal one covers both scenarios: the Rachman abusive landlord as much as the accidental one like the OP who was letting to a friend, not an unsuspecting member of the public. This is necessary because you have to protect people against the former.

Then there is the moral perspective: in this case I can't see that the OP should feel grateful or relieved that she's been treated like this by a friend.

You might not find any consolation by being validated as to the moral principle, but I would and I suspect the OP would too.

So repeating ad nauseum the legal position is not helpful. The first poster who presented it was sufficient. We get it and they were right. It doesn't mean that the OP can't feel abused by her friend.

Renting a property is a business and should be conducted in a businesslike manner. It is foolish to let to friends. If you need to do this again do it through a reputable letting agency

They’re not defending the OP. Just stating the legal position. Just because you don’t like a particular law doesn’t mean you can choose for it not
to apply to you.

I feel that repeating the legal advice would be helpful... if Op had actually been back to the thread since posting. 😂
Op was being given really awful advice, to pursue the tenant for costs of the clear up, to keep the deposit (if indeed there was one or it was protected properly). The sort of advice that, if the tenant went on the offensive, could mean Op, having poked a legal hornets nest, was heavily fined and even jailed.

That's why people were repeatedly explaining the legal position. Lots of people who clearly have poor comprehension skills were ignoring the warnings about legal penalties and still encouraging Op to do something really, really stupid.
That's all. Explaining the rights of a tenant don't mean anyone doing so doesn't think they are an ungrateful scumbag.

I could suggest that posting to yet again repeat the "moral perspective" is no better than repeating earlier posts about the law.

Or if the legal advice had stopped after, say, the fourth or fifth iteration. Repeating it for the 60th time doesn't make it any more legal or attention-getting.

YABU Because You illegally evicted her.You had a loose tenuous arrangement This is why you need a contract and secured deposit.
Tenancies cannot be managed on the hoof or with a vague agreement between mates
To evict you need a s21 or a s8, you have neither. You’d best hope she doesn’t pursue this

next time don’t be so lackadaisical when managing a tenancy

You clearly don't.

The law is absolute, there is no interpretation. Your morals are your own, they are subjective and personal and have nothing to do with anyone else.

Your moral perspective here is both wrong, compared to mine, and irrelevant.

The OP can feel however she wants to feel, but she is both legally and morally in the shitter.