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.

Nope, she paid rent

As others have said, no matter what the tenant has done, the correct legal route needs to be taken. It's why it exists.

It's a shame it makes it so hard for landlords to evict tenants who don't pay rent and/or trash the property. I'm not condoning what the OP has done (legally, morally I don't have an issue) but it shouldn't be that hard to evict a freeloader.

oops - I was so incensed on your behalf I didn't get to the end. Glad she has gone. Sorry to hear about the mess. You probably won't get anywhere if you report her as the police will consider it a civil matter. You can pursue her through the small claims courts if you want, but I would just be glad to have my house back.

This sums it up! ⬆️⬆️⬆️

I’d shut up and hope it all passes over soon. Don’t rock the boat. If you can swing it that the house was only leant to her, that might be the best bet, but it does seem as if you could get into serious trouble if she learns that it was an illegal eviction.

This is why my job was so stressful. People who don't understand the law encourage others to act illegally. Please just Google, unlawful eviction before you make some of the statements I've seen here. The law can be complicated, but doing anything to force a tenant out may well get the landlord in huge trouble. Please don't encourage anyone to do anything illegal.

Legally, OP is the villain of the story. You can't illegally evict people, even when they haven't paid rent.

OP really fucked this whole thing up and it could find herself in a lot of trouble,.

Have you seen the legal trouble the homeowner could well be in?!

I had no idea. She is lucky if she isn’t prosecuted 😱for an “ Illegal eviction “.

I too was incensed at the “Friend’s” cheekiness- but as it stands, the Law is on the side of the tenant, despite her not paying rent for four months, and damaging the place.

It should be possible to get rid of thieves, ie tenents who refuse to pay their rent, within a very short space of time rather than the law defending the thieves amd letting them contiinue to be thieves for months on end. The thieves in these cases have too much power.

@Hoppinggreen It is academic now anyway as the woman has gone, but she didn't pay rent - she paid for 2 months on a short term tenancy, then ceased, after which she lived there for free while the owner paid for utilities. At that point it is arguable that she became either a squatter or a house-sitter, depending on how you look at it. It sounds like the owner decided to treat her as a house-sitter until she came home. Basically it is a mess. Short fixed-term tenancies of this sort do not have the same level of protection. The house is the owner's only home and the courts would not favour the squatter, nor expect the owner to continue paying for utilities and broadband to facilitate the squatter's quality of life. The issue at hand now is the former squatter defaming the owner. That is an offence. She can pay £200 to get a lawyer to send a threatening letter, but she would probably be wasting her time. No one will care. People move on quickly and anyone who knows the details would favour the owner. She should just tell friends that her former friend was house-sitting for a fixed period and then refused to leave. When she eventually did she deliberately damaged the property and defamed her.

What a vile individual. And how scary that she is in charge of two young children.

It costs the state a lot of money to house homeless people, so it can hardly be a surprise that the state legislates to make it harder to make people homeless (regardless of any moral debate about it).

This was an illegal eviction. The last case I looked at it cost the landlord £21,000 in damages to the tenant. Disgusting behaviour on your part. I sincerely hope you are prosecuted and have to pay damages to your victim.

Emotionally - YANBU
Legally - plausibly YABU and you'll be very fortunate if there's no follow-up blowback.

@oakleaffy I don't think this former tenant is gong to be paying a solicitor to try to re-instate her residency in the OP's home. It is a civil matter. The police won't be interested. A decent lawyer would advise the woman that she would have been evicted by the courts after some months and that the OP could take her to court for the lost rent and the cost of repairing the damage done to the house. She could also report her to the police for causing criminal damage and pursue her for defamation. All in all, it sounds like everyone needs to move on. The woman will run out of steam eventually. Best to block her.

There is no such thing as a squatter in this respect. Non payment of rent is dealt with by serving a S8 notice and obtaining a possession order from the courts after a hearing when both parties are able to give their side of the story. If the tenant feels that she has been illegally evicted then she can contact the local authority for advice. The landlord is not out of the woods, and as I have explained many times, the court takes a very dim view of illegal evictions.

@loislovesstewie not paying the broadband is not an illegal eviction. The OP's so called friend left of her own volition after the broadband was turned off. Only after she left did the OP move back in and change the locks.

She didn't pay rent and she was only supposed to be there for 6 months. Of course you weren't being unreasonable, at all. If she does seek legal advice, don't say she was a renter, just a friend house sitting for 6 months. However she trashed the place, while you where away. She left because there were issues with the water pressure and lack of Internet. If anyone tells you, you're out of order, explain she never paid rent and trashed the house. They'll soon pass it around.

She turned off the water at the stop cock. Turning off essential utilities is considered as harassment. Changing locks on a property without obtaining a court order and without bailiffs first entering the property is not the correct legal way to take possession. That can also constitute an illegal eviction.

She did pay rent, the fact that she stopped is irrelevant. OP clearly says she paid rent
Unfortunately it’s not possible to turf someone out for non payment of rent without following a legal process.
This person was not a squatter (who also can’t be thrown out without process either) but a non paying Tenant. It’s crap but that’s how it is

Well, I’m afraid that I’m with those who say that, although the “friend” behaved appallingly, the OP has probably acted illegally. It’s no good saying what the moral point of view is or what the law should be, we have to live by what the law actually is. If you don’t like the law, there are ways to campaign or lobby for change but don’t just break it. Taken to its natural conclusion, where would that leave us?
However, given that the actions have been take and the OP has her home back, I suggest she just keeps quiet about everything and hopes the ex-friend doesn’t push things further.

@Genevieva you're giving dangerously bad advice. A tenancy was created when the first rent payment was made in exchange for exclusive possession. It doesn't stop being a tenancy and magically morph into a house sitting arrangement just because the tenant stopped paying rent.

Whilst the tenant behaved really badly the OP has broken the law - like it or not.

It should be possible to get rid of thieves, ie tenents who refuse to pay their rent, within a very short space of time rather than the law defending the thieves amd letting them contiinue to be thieves for months on end.

Perhaps you should lobby the government to properly fund the court system then. The law doesn't allow them to stay for months on end; there is a backlog in cases of eviction - this is down to the government. Illegally evicting someone isn't the solution.

I don't think anyone is defending the ex-friend. They are just warning the OP not to take it further and risk the ex-friend making a formal complaint, because kicking her out might feel morally justified, but it was still probably illegal. The penalties if convicted are large fine and/or prison. Sometimes you just have to do things 'properly' to protect yourself, and eviction is definitely one of those things.

OP, given that the process is not on your side and your so-called friend has abused your trust, I think your behaviour was not only understandable, but actually quite a clever way of getting her to quit the property herself. I suspect that she will not be willing to pay lawyers to take you to court and, if she did, there are a number of factors on your side even if it was an irregular arrangement. But there really is no point in getting bogged down in the scaremongering on this thread. If she does decide to take you to court then you will have to get proper legal advice and legal representation, but as your original post was about her being rude to you, not about her trying to sue you, my answer to that is to ignore her provocations, blocker her and move on with your life.