What happens when your parents change the locks? (uk)?

[ws123]

my parents changed the locks on me three years ago... i actually have now settled somewhere else, but i was wondering where i did stand and do stand legally. i went to shelter but they seemed a bit hazey. i don't think there was a tenancy agreement but something was drawn up and signed a couple of years previously because there was some change in the law happening generally and it was just in case they died in a car crash or something so i/we'd be covered. shelter seemed to suggest whether family members were involved made a difference. they also suggested in the eyes of the law i would be considered a lodger because i was paying a regular amount of rent for over a ten year period. also that you have to be given a reasonable notice period and that you have take these things up with the appropriate council office...... (i can add more details)

the window of opportunity has maybe closed now - but i was wondering where i would have legally stood and what i could have done if i'd known more

can you still deal with these things in a court of law years after? i suspect its not worth it because of the cost of lawyers involved (?) - or do they have to be done there and then...

Um. How old are you? I would have thought that if you are an adult, you have absolutely no right of entry to your parents house....

So are you asking whether they can legally just chuck you out if you were to all intents and purposes a paying tenant?

Yes I suppose they can so long as they give you sufficient notice. Or immediately if you did something hideous that broke the terms of your agreement. But if you didn't have a tenancy agreement then I don't suppose you'd have a leg to stand on, and you probably were not paying market rate anyway. You'd have been more of a lodger than a tenant and I think that's probably an informal arrangement with few rights.

And you must have done something pretty awful for your own parents to change the locks on you.

Why? Are you thinking of trying to sue them?

i just wondered how things worked legally and within councils etc - surely similar things have happened before...

i don't think it was a tenancy agreement, but i can't rightly remember. and i don't have the piece of paper myself now anyway though.

Given this is a live in landlord situation as I understood it technically(and practically) they dont have to give you any notice as an owner/occupier of the house shouldnt be expected to live with someone they no longer wish to live with - e.g. they could claim they felt threatened by you etc, ...

thanks that seems the best answer thus far... i had just wondered what the law/s were/was...

who decided what is reasonable notice?

who adjudicated what is reasonable notice? anybody?

was i an excluded occupier: england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/private_tenancies/excluded_occupiers

i'm not sure i was given reasonable notice actually but it suggests here that owners don't have to prove anything (making the necessity of giving 'reasonable notice' irrevelevant perhaps?):

england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/eviction_of_private_tenants/eviction_of_excluded_occupiers

It was 3 years ago! Why are you looking at the legalities of this now?

Why did they change the locks on their own child?

didn't go to law school - so didn't know much of the time - could be useful to advisee other people in the future

It doesn't sound like you want to help others in the future, it sounds like you are still bitter about this and you still want your pound of flesh three years later.

Tell us why they felt the need to throw out their own child and change the locks. I cannot imagine any parent would do that without huge provocation and just cause.

HerMajestyQueenHillyzabethII, i just wanted to know more about how the law works...

HerMajestyQueenHillyzabethII, i 'can' imagine imagine parents who would do that without just cause and 'can imagine' and 'know' parents who've done far worse...

There is no law that governs the situation you describe. Contrary to what most people imagine, there is not a law to govern every aspect of human behaviour: it is only with regards to common areas of conflict between individuals, or individuals and the state, that parliament has stepped in and tried to legislate to provide a guide as to how the dispute should be resolved. The state has always been hesitant to interfere with family and domestic disputes, hence it only being relatively recently that marital rape became a crime, or that the police will attend and make arrests for a 'domestic'. There are a myriad of family behaviours and practices that are not legislated for, for example, there is no law that governs a child's right to receive pocket money.

If you wanted to pay a bunch of lawyers a lot of money, and attempt to bring a claim against your parents for excluding you from their house, a lawyer would probably try to convince a court that you had a implied licence to occupy. This would give you very little protection in terms of a right to live there, as your parents could ask you to leave at only 'reasonable' notice. If your behaviour was so unreasonable that they had to change the locks on you to keep you out, I doubt that a court would find that it was reasonable for them to give you any more notice than the time it took them to fit the new locks.

The council would have had a duty to house you if you were normally resident in their district and you had been made unintentionally homeless.

Im confused - why would you assume you have right of entry to your parents house?
Perhaps they changed the locks deliberately to encourage you not to think their house is yours?

My parents changed the locks on their house (new front door etc) over 5 years ago and I have never had a key since then - no need for one because I dont live there!

Im also confused as to why you are asking if you were an excluded occupier and whether you needed to be giving reasonable notice to leave your parents house - It just seems odd, sorry!

Time to get over it and move on?

Hi, im in a situation at the moment, with my daughter and her boyfriend who live with us and my son, the boyfriend pays me a gift towards rent each month, but my daughter has mental health issues, does not work and does not pay us any money towards her keep, she’s 21 & hes 24, there is no tenancy agreement, and he seems to believe he has squatters rights, he doesn’t i checked with the council and he’s refusing to leave, so so i issued a eviction letter notice on Monday so the atmosphere right now very frosty and we arent talking.

I have a callendar and i write everything on there that me and my husband are doing and have on, tonight i found my daughter looking at it (she never does) and on Friday me and my husband are going away for the weekend, and earlier i hear them whispering about something and im thinking - What would happen if when we come back on Monday to find they have changed our locks on our house?

Leagally what options do i have

Any help id really appreciate it, as im
in knots rights now

@IvanovaG

Hi i used to work in housing law but not a solicitor.

There is no such thing as squatters rights in private homes there is legislation about this.

Your daughter and son are technically living in your home on an excluded licence which means you can tell them to leave, and place their belongings out on the street and lock them out with minimum notice say 24 hours.

As for the boyfriend he is a lodger, his payment to you is not a gift it is “room and board”. He is also on an excluded licence so the same as above applies. You can just tell him to leave and throw him out.

The risk that you are implying here i think is that you may be locked out upon your return from being away.

If you own your home then that is not such a problem as legally you can break back in as i assume that you can prove that you live there.

If you are renting you could have a problem as the boyfriend could argue to the police that you sublet to them (produce a fake tenancy) and state that you don't actually live their in which case the police might say it is a civil matter.

if that happened you would have to go to court to evict him/them, and you would have to find somewhere else to live for probably a year, whilst paying rent for them.

I have no idea why you would allow the boyfriend to continue to live in your home given his attitude, and assertions and it sounds like he is manipulating your vulnerable daughter.

What would i do if i were you?

I would not go anywhere until you have chucked the boyfriend out and ensured that he is excluded from your home in writing and keep a copy.

if your daughter goes with him so be it. You are being emotionally blackmailed.

Thanks thats very interesting on a housing point of view, i will take on bored what you said thanks a lot

Thistledew, does homeless person act apply ie does council have to house a single non disabled person? Don’t think so, unless she was under18 and she has not said that.