Fraudulent tenancy - how can I get possession of my property?

[ItsRainingTacos79]

If anyone can please advise...

I rented out my flat through a well known property agent who ran all the necessary checks (reference checks, passports, bank statements and credit checks) and all was well until no further rent payments were made after the initial deposit and first month's payment. It now turns out the person named on the the tenancy agreement is a victim of identity theft and fraudsters have used her information to acquire my flat and then sub let it (short holiday lets). How do I go about getting my flat back? Who do I serve an eviction notice to given that the person on the contract doesn't exist? The lettings company is washing its hands, saying they ran all the checks and nothing was flagged up. I want to enter the property and change the locks but I'm told I can land myself in a lot of trouble. I spoke to the current occupiers and explained the situation but they are not cooperating or giving me details of who they rent it from as they are on holiday and don't want to be stuck with no accommodation.

Any advice on what I can do at this point without getting arrested? It's such a ridiculous situation.

Please don't take this as legal advice as I'm not a lawyer. But couldn't you just go in once the people leasing it on holiday are gone and change the locks? As who would actually take legal proceedings against you? The person who has fraudulently taken out the lease? Surely they wouldn't as they'd have to present themselves as the person who they are pretending to be, landing themselves in a whole load of trouble. Surely they'd just skulk off?

I'm not totally convinced though that it is fraudulent. There would have to be strong evidence that the person named had nothing to do with the tenancy; they might well be subletting though, which is why I suggested actually serving a s8 notice.

I’ve said this in context of the lettings agency refusing to help. They are the ones with a contract with NT, not OP. It’s a fraudulent contract that wasn’t signed by her, so she has the ability to support OP in a case against the lettings agent, surely. I just think OP needs to be open to the idea that she could also be part of the ring running the scam.

What a terrible situation. Have you got landlord insurance? Although I've no idea if it would help in this circumstance.

I've had something a bit similar. I let a house to a couple for almost 2 years with no issues at all. They passed all vetting with EA. They spoke very little English They paid rent on time and allowed all gas checks etc to be completed. Then out of the blue they left the country and instead of just giving me notice they gave keys to a colleague of theirs who was looking for accommodation. This colleague allowed 2 more people to move in all without my knowledge. I noticed rent was not paid but just text original tenants to pay it asap. Next month no rent again. I wrote a letter stating they were now 2 months in arrears, and please contact me to discuss a managable catch up plan. I got no reply. 5 days later and 5 days before Xmas I went to the back door of the house to find 3 people I had never seen before and a sea of takeaway cartons strewn in the kitchen. There were lots of cigarette butts on the floor too. I asked to speak with the original tenants but was told they have left the UK and are not coming back. I had their deposit in TDS and I had not been contacted by tenants trying to get this deposit back. I told them they couldn't stay there and I wanted them to move out immediately. They refused. I phoned the police and said they were trespassers on my property but the police not interested. I rang a solicitor online and this is advice I was given.

My tenancy agreement was with original tenants not these squatters. I was told I didn't need a court order to go in and change locks as I had not had any tenancy agreement with these random people. These people told us they worked where the original tenants worked and offered us money to let them stay. They didn't seem to realise they were doing anything wrong. DH waited until New Year and they went back to work and he sat outside the house in his car and when they all left for work on January 4th he went in and changed the locks. We left a note on the door stating to ring us to come and collect their stuff. 1 of them rang and came and packed up his stuff and left swearing at us all the time and the other 2 did not contact us. We left another note on the door and texted the one who had collected his stuff to come and get it by the end of January or wed get a skip and bin stuff. They did not contact us and we got a skip early February. It cost us £350 plus DH and DS 2 mornings over a weekend to get all stuff in skip then I had to pay £280 for a deep clean.

OP needs to instruct a housing solicitor, find one here; solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk

Current solicitor is not quite right.

Think about this logically. The person named on the tenancy is Nancy Smith. Nancy Smith is therefore the one protected by law from you going in and changing the locks/evicting her with no notice.

If Nancy Smith has had her identity stolen by Peter James and he has been renting it out on air b&b or whatever then he technically doesn't have any rights on the property. The person who would be taking you to court and prosecuting you is Nancy, if Peter was going to try to do that he'd have to explain to the court and/or police that he stole an identity and fraudulently took out a lease...a bigger crime with higher sentencing!

Go and change the locks. If the identity thief calls the police you show them the tenancy with "Nancy" on it, act confused and say she has moved out and you have no idea who this person who called them is.

I'm in the US and I'm not sure this is legal: but can you find out where they are letting your property out for the short-term rentals. If you can can you get a short-term rental on your property, move in and refuse to vacate?

I’d say you’ve got dodgy porters. Just a thought…

This makes perfect sense

Its alright everyone here saying just go take back your flat, they aren't the ones getting potentially fined 10s of thousands of £s for illegally evicting someone. It doesn't matter that they've done something wrong, the law doesn't see it as tit for tat. Of course the scammers aren't likely to take the OP to court, but they aren't particularly proving themselves to be intelligent, kind people so far are they? So the risk is there.

OP, landlordzone forum might be a better place to ask, they might be able to point you in the right direction.

You are likely to go through the eviction process more quickly that 6 months, as long as there's no backlog at the courts (I don't think there is near us, but I could be wrong). It sounds like they have done several acts that would warrant a section 8 eviction notice, some of which have a 2 week time frame before you can escalate to the court and go for accelerated possession. But you do need a lawyer to tell you whether you can simply address the eviction notice to the name that you have for the tenant, and post it recorded delivery to the property, whether that would be enough to show that you have issued the eviction notice.

Please let us know the outcome, I hope it's a quick turnaround for you.

Who would be sueing the OP though?

Rent the flat yourself? Then don't move out?

Get decent legal advice from someone who actually knows the law!

It's all a balance of risk. Are fraudsters going to sue you for alleged unlawful eviction? If not you might want to take back possession now.

risk adverse -
No assured tenancy if the tenant isn't occuping as only or main home.
Notice to Quit served on named tenant and 'to the occupiers" at the premises.

Then decide if Protection from Eviction Act bites (it probably doesn't as no one is occupying properly) and whether you need a court order Before taking possession.

As I said, see a lawyer who knows the actual law

The advice I had for evicting my tenant is that breach of contract (in this case using it as a drug den and causing issues with the neighbours) was a 24 hour section 8 notice (plus then time to go to court to get possession order)…more important was that sending the paperwork to the address even though I KNoW the tenant is out of the country is absolutely fine! Service to the last known address is all that is necessary..but check with your lawyer first!!!

Btw this was throughly the national
landlords association helpline.

Hang on, how is there a tenancy in existence when the named tenant didn't sign it? The only person that could enforce the tenancy is the named tenant as they have the contractual right - except the named tenant didn't sign it, so how can a legal relationship exist? You could write a tenancy for your home right now and sign it as Donald Trump, that doesn't mean that you are now bound by a contract with Donald Trump?

I would wait for the occupants to leave and then change the locks and set up some kind of CCTV. The person that scammed you can't rely on the tenancy as they aren't named in it. Any sub-tenants can't rely on their agreements as it was never in the scammers gift to sub-let it in the first place. The named tenant can't rely on it (not that they'd want to!) because they didn't sign it.

I think the letting agency is in breach of contract too

Thank you to everyone responding. I really appreciate all the advice and kind messages.

The stolen identity victim is genuine and has police already involved for other fraud committed using her name, address and passport number. She is advised against signing anything. She also does not match in appearance or voice with the scammer who came to the lettings office. The scammer used a fake passport with her own photo (something I'm going to take up with the lettings agency - fake passport would have been flagged up had the necessary checks been made, I think they just ran a simple credit check).

Unfortunately it's not as simple as booking into the flat myself or kicking current occupants out. The occupants gave me a phone number today for the person they rented it through and this person claims to have a 12 month tenancy agreement in place with the fraudsters 🙄. He is refusing to return the property and is adamant he has a legitimate contract, saying I'd have to get a court order and proceed in that way. I imagine he will ensure the property is now never vacant between guests and will try to change the locks.

In the meantime, DH managed to do some digging online using the photo from the lettings agency of the woman impersonating the identity fraud victim and the bank accounts where the deposit and first rent payments were made from (strange, nondescript company bank accounts). A picture is slowly emerging of two individuals who, whilst keeping a very low profile online, seem to be linked. The police have so far been uninterested in what has been happening but I will try to compile evidence, names, addresses, photos and cctv footage and approach the police again.

The sheer absurdity of it all made me turn to mumsnet, just to check I'm not the only one in disbelief at what is happening. The posters who successfully managed to evict in shorter timeframes, the law was on your side due to the cannabis farming/ public nuisance angle. Glad you managed to successfully evict.

Sue your property company then inform the person who's ID has been stolen, and inform the Police.

Can you anonymously report the person with the 12 month contract to HMRC for tax fraud. I always see this being advised for absent father's hiding assets. I'm wondering if you turned the heat on via HMRC, you might get somewhere. Totally thinking out of the box here, it might not work but it might just do the trick.

I would try this angle. If the woman, whose identity has been fraudulently used signs that she never entered into a contract, no such contract exists. If she were to agree to this, I would ask your solicitor why you would need to section 8 and wait for a court order as any occupiers would be illegal squatters.

@Iwishicouldflyhigh
Either the people who provided the fraudulent information could sue (the fact that they provided wrong information does not make it any less illegal for the landlord to take back the flat,, and does not mean that they will be prosecuted. That is a seperate matter for the police, and would be dealt with by the courts as two separate events) or the new subletting tenant who also has a fixed term AST in place, whether the OP is the one that issued it or not. It's no good saying that you would just take it back, if you don't have the risk of prosecution there on you.

@ItsRainingTacos79 you do.have legal grounds for eviction on your side- firstly providing false information on the application, secondly if you have no subletting on your contract as a clause (most standard ones do), thirdly for rent arrears. The question is whether it would be valid if you served it to the information they provided, i.e. is it valid if you serve it to Jane doe named on the contract, at the address she is renting from you, even if you know the name is false and she's not there.

This article suggests that you would then have to go through the eviction process again for the new tenant who is subletting, after the first is complete.
https://andrewreeves.co.uk/how-to-deal-with-a-tenant-who-is-illegally-subletting/

Do you hang around on the legal board posting that on every thread? Seems a strange compulsion.

Just go and change the locks! What are the criminals going to do? Sue you?