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.

You need to consult a solicitor and sue her. What she did was criminal.

The only way the landlord would be in a lodging arrangement would be if she kept rooms available for herself and came back at regular intervals to live in those rooms. I think you are conflating 2 entirely separate circumstances, which is why people need to take legal advice prior to starting arrangements.

You can really see the posters who would have had front row gallows and guillotine seats with their excitement about op being prosecuted!

A solicitor would say: you have a case against her for damage to your home if you can prove she did it and the value - but she is a single mother of two kids, you won't get your money so it's not worth it. Even if you get a CCJ against her, she doesn't have a property you can secure it against and if she has a job you'd be getting something like £20 a year probably.

And she could counterclaim quite a lot for the myriad breaches of landlord and tenant law. Which could be secured against OP's property/job.

Then the solicitor would probably tell OP to leave it and notch it up to experience.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a post deleted before 🤣

And btw not enough people in this country know the fundamental difference between criminal and civil law

Criminal = a crime investigated by police, taken to court, penalties could be fines/prison/community service etc

Civil = one person harms another person's body or property and causes them financial loss, a claim can be brought to recover losses

Police would be very unlikely to want to get tangled up in this, there would be potential for criminal damage charge but that wouldn't get OP any money as it would be criminal not civil

In civil terms, she won't get any money out of former tenant because she doesn't have any, and any claim would probably be outbalanced by a counterclaim/taken a dim view of as OP did sod-all as a landlord other than handing over keys.

Very restrained OP. Well done indeed.

Crikey. Well, legally you're both in the wrong. I'd just be glad she's gone and ignore her slagging you off.

Yes, you made a right mess out of that. You should have just moved back in as soon as you got back, regardless of whether she'd vacated or not. She would have packed up and gone very rapidly with you and your family all over her. Instead you decided to make yourself homeless and sofa surf for 6 weeks while she no doubt deliberately trashed the place.

No. What the op did was criminal

Non payment of rent is a civil matter
Illegal eviction is a criminal matter

Sue her at your peril

You cannot do this. If she is paying rent (or not paying it) and has a tenancy, she has EXCLUSIVE use of the property until you legally end the tenancy.

Entering the property with her consent is illegal, moving in is illegal, turning off the water is illegal.

The friend is in the wrong, but the OP has seriously compounded this.

You can only create a licence to occupy - which would give the OP the right to throw her out with no notice and no court action - if you remain resident in the property yourself.

Sorry that should say WITHOUT her consent. Of course you can access with the tenant's consent. Letting yourself in with your key does not count.

Morally you were right but legally you were dead wrong and performed an illegal eviction. God only knows why you didn't take her to court when she stopped paying but that's what you should have done.

Not at all

Just countering the people saying that she should try and get her money back by suing the tenant and pointing out that the op's actions were illegal so don't ffs don't stick her head above the parapet here or she will likely get shot

So OP was a dodgy landlord, performed an illegal eviction, and posters are saying, "Well done." Let's hope they aren't landlords or become victims themselves.

Proper landlord would also have insurance against non payments..

who cares if she is bad mouthing you, most people that she is telling with have had experience of her and her ways - so will understand that she is a liar.

You've got your house back after allowing her to stay as a guest for a few months and learn form the experience

You performed an illegal eviction. I can see why it seemed appropriate because she was being a CF but the law was on her side which is why the police couldn't do anything. Your unreasonable action was renting the place to her in the first place - I expect your employers were paying your rent overseas so you didn't need to rent the place out, but you saw an opportunity to make a few thousand extra on the side, and didn't think about the potential consequences - the fact that your "friend" turned out to be a CF and not actually a friend is just one such, with an informal arrangement like this there's all sorts of things to do with safety certificates or insurance that could have gone wrong. If the only conseqence is that she is bad-mouthing you, consider yourself lucky. As PP said if she twigs that she actually had the right to stay until a court-ordered eviction notice was issued, you could be in much worse trouble. Other bullets you may have dodged might include coming home to a burned-out shell that turns out to be uninsured if your insurance company twigged that you were renting it out whilst insuring it as owner-occupied, or the mortgage company calling in the debt on your mortgage as their Ts&Cs would have been for owner-occupier status only.

to get money back from damages you would have to be able to prove that the ex friend/tenant did it. eg have photos and any damage documented of the property when she moved in, with her signature and date. Since the process/documents have been so lax for this arrangement i very much doubt this is in place.

She wasn't a guest, she was a tenant.

She wasn't a guest, she was a tenant. don't tenants pay rent?

I'm going to say it again. A tenancy is created by a landlord requesting rent and giving exclusive use of the property. That is the definition of a tenancy. Not paying rent does not cause cessation of the tenancy. The landlord issues a S8 notice in those circumstances. And then obtains a PO.

She paid rent for the first 2 months then stopped. A de facto tenancy agreement was generated when she started paying rent. She was a tenant.

YWNBU imo op. She deserves everythign she gets.

And herein is why landlords are selling up in droves. Authorities will actively encourage people to do what she did, I've heard of council's paying peoples legal bills to fight their landlords against eviction.

When there are no landlords left, and no properties to rent, then you'll all reap what you sowed. And deservedly so.

Disgusting behaviour? Are you for real?