Evicting tenants who have breached contract

[bdot86]

Sorry if this is on the wrong Topic.
Our attached neighbours are overseas student tenants (most now working rather than studying) and they’ve been nothing but trouble since moving in. They’re loud all day and night, smoke weed inside with the windows open next to our DCs bedroom, and drug dealers regularly come to the house. Several neighbours (this is usually a very safe road full of kids and families) have witnessed the deals and been stared at or glared at threateningly afterwards. It’s made the whole street really uneasy… most of us have now filed police reports and complained to the landlord.

We’ve messaged them politely about the noise but nothing’s changed. The letting agent has already emailed them warning they’re breaking tenancy rules with the drugs, and nothing has changed.

The landlord wants them out and says he never wants to rent to students again (what a relief that would be) . But his letting agent / a student rental agency with a bad local reputation, keeps saying drugs are “no big deal” and that it’s pointless to evict. He’s even said he’s ready to leave this agency altogether.

The tenancy runs until (I assume) early summer, so we’re worried we might be stuck with this until then. Realistically, what can he do? Can they actually be evicted for this, or does he have to wait it out. Google tells me he can issue section 8 but as I’m not experienced in this, it would be great to understand how this might pan out realistically.

You’re stuck with them until the summer. Eviction can easily take 9 months if not contested…if they fight it (which they can with a section 8) it will take longer.

Ok that’s not good! If their tenancy ends in August surely that at least is a hard deadline? I didn’t realise they could stay even longer than that. I just want this nightmare to end really.

So they’re on visas?

Are you prepared to liaise with university about this? There is usually a neighbourhood housing mediator / community tutor.

And has the landlord even initiated proceedings yet?

Drug use may be ‘ok’ to some but drug dealing, intimidation and noise nuisance is not. There are other avenues too - neighbourhood policing, council (housing standards and environmental health), local councillors, MP, and UK border control.

My neighbourhood went through this once. Many residents complained repeatedly.

If they’re working more than 20 hours a week in term time they’re in breach if their visa so you could report them for that,

There are three postgraduates and one undergraduate from India who graduated this year. I assume the postgraduates are on Graduate Route visas, giving them a two-year period to stay in the UK. I understand they were starting tech jobs, but they rarely leave the house and are often up late at night, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. They seemed so lovely when they first moved in, but unfortunately, their behaviour has been awful since the second week. Noise is relentless we even had soundproofing put in and hasn’t worked. The drugs and smoking inside worry me most, while neighbours are mostly concerned with the dealers showing up on the road.

One neighbour on the street is a university lecturer and is willing to get involved, but it’s difficult as most of them are postgraduates.

Several of us have filed police reports, but I think it’s a good idea to liaise directly with our local police officer as well and councillor as suggested. I plan to email her today, and others have done the same.

I don’t think landlord has started anything yet and is just gathering evidence but has said he wants to evict them asap. Just saw some builders go into their house. No idea what’s happening!

We had full time students last year, undergrads, they were so respectful. Apparnatly nothing like this has happened in over 20 years of him letting the house out.

I'm assuming by drugs you mean weed as you mention smoking. Unless they're growing/selling it from the property, it's unlikely the police will be particularly bothered about a few people getting stoned at home. Respectfully, they have better things to do than issuing slaps on the wrist (which unless your neighbors have bin bags full of the stuff, is realistically the only outcome here) for personal use.

If they were to act, the first offence is a warning and confiscation, then fines. They can arrest repeat offenders, but it's incredibly rare without aggravating factors.

It may also be the case that they have a medical marijuana prescription, which are now very easy to get.

I'm not sure why you're particularly worried about them smoking in the house... obviously the smell isn't ideal if it's getting into your property but they're hardly causing trouble while indoors.

Noise is a council issue, you should record it and note the date/time as often as possible.

You mention drug deals, it's likely that your reports will be added to the intelligence on the dealers in the area. Again though, in terms of acting on your reports, 1 - it's unlikely they contain actual evidence of drug deals and 2- they're not going to launch an operation to arrest a single dealer dropping off a personal use amount to a house. If they're parking up and selling out of a car in front of the house (I doubt this is the case), that's different but again, unlikely to be a priority without aggravating factors. Unfortunately glaring at you doesn't cut it. If they're threatening or assaulting people, breaching the peace etc, that's the kind of thing where action would be taken.

It'll likely be of little reassurance to your neighbors, but a dealer dropping off to a house (especially a regular customer) is extremely unlikely to be doing anything else nefarious in the area that would draw attention to them at the time, glares aside!

From the landlord's side, warnings/fines would likely be sufficient proof for them to start the eviction process via section 8. Ground 12 (breach of the tenancy agreement, which will almost certainly mention drugs) or Ground 14 (nuisance/illegal use of the property). This can be useful if the tenants are using marijuana legally, as it will likely still be in breach of the tenancy. Copies of your police reports can also help.

I may be mistaken here but I believe reports of smell alone aren't sufficient, but can be acted up on by the council.

Based on what you've said, even if the landlord doesn't evict he will be giving them notice to leave at the end of their current tenancy period, assuming he does still want them out.

If he doesn't want them out, and they don't want to leave at that time, it would likely become a rolling tenancy. If landlord is using it as a student let though, he'll almost certainly want them out to get a new lot in for September.

Also he should ignore what the letting agent said about it not being worth it to evict over drug use. I agree that it's no big deal in and of itself, but that's the LLs decision. The agent just doesn't want the hassle, and the prospect of the house being empty for months and not making them money.

The end of a fixed term tenancy isn't any kind of hard deadline if the tenants don't want to leave unfortunately. They won't get evicted because they are smoking weed. If their landlord wants them out he needs to give notice for the end of the fixed term and evict them if they don't leave at that point.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I honestly can’t believe how hard it is to evict people! I understand the laws are there to protect tenants, but it really shouldn’t apply the same way to those who are genuinely disruptive. The landlord seemed genuinely upset and keen to get them out. He said he went to visit the property (with notice) a few weeks ago and they were threatening. He said he was losing sleep over it, but maybe he’s just talking the talk… I don’t know anymore.

I’d like to think they could be happy to move and find somewhere more suitable for their lifestyle, maybe somewhere more anonymous. We’re quite a close-knit street where everyone speaks to each other and houses are very near each other so we see everything , its not really the best fit. As far as I know, he hasn’t started any eviction process yet.

Report to immigration enforcement. Can’t do any harm and will cause at least additional scrutiny to their inevitable claims to extend their stay. IE won’t be interested in the anti social behaviour but the working over 20 hrs might cause them to look at college attendance.

So they are up late being noisy. I’d get myself some bloody bullet proof earplugs and jack a massive amp up at 7am right next to the party wall.

As a previous landlord I found it a total nightmare to evict tenants, the law is firmly on the side of the tenants unfortunately. But I guess rightly so for decent tenants.

I had to provide them with a notice to leave, the then refused to go so I had to go down the route of legal eviction which involved court then bailiffs to get them out.

it took me almost 16 months to get the house back, this was when I decided to sell the property. This was for rent arrears and I’m still chasing the money owed to me

the best thing I think you can do is report to the police (but as others have said they likely won’t do much) and report the noise to the council. As they are smoking within the property all I could suggest is asking them to smoke elsewhere in the house and keep your windows closed

provide all evidence to the landlord to strengthen their case as lots of times it comes down to the landlords word against the tenant

assuming he’s being honest about wanting them out and not just saying that to placate the neighbours

Councils are meant to deal with unsociable behaviour. My DD had this from the flat below. Loud music all the time. Weed smells - went through the whole building! Why on earth should decent people be told to keep their windows closed? That’s unacceptable.

The LL was concerned and did serve the relevant notice according to DD. There was also a lot of arguing in the flat - in Italian. DD speaks Italian and was concerned for the woman. The residents kept a log of the nuisance. DD called the police a few times due to the shouting and threatened violence and they did turn up.

Not sure what actually worked, but they did move out. Big relief all round. Who on earth would let out a property now?

The LL is likely to be nervous of evicting them because it takes ages these days to get rid of tenants - I live in a houseshare where one tenant has left this week after being given notice eleven months ago! My LL told me it’s cost him £12k in legal fees and lost rent.

Also - do you and your neighbours know that if you try to sell your homes you have to disclose disputes with neighbours?

"The LL is likely to be nervous of evicting them because it takes ages these days to get rid of tenants - I live in a houseshare where one tenant has left this week after being given notice eleven months ago! My LL told me it’s cost him £12k in legal fees and lost rent".

That is about right. A relative had a situation with a small property where the tenants were destroying the house, not paying rent. Absolutely breaching the contract in provable ways. The managing agent said it would take about a year and cost £12K,in legal fees, not including the unpaid rent and probable further damage to the property. The only other option was to sell at auction. The sale was quick and they got just enough to pay off the mortgage, no profit. The company that bought it were probably not the sort of landlord anybody wants, but what choice is there?

You’re right about this. We moved in a year ago and plan to stay for at least another ten years, so it’s hopefully not an issue for us in terms of disclosure when we eventually sell. The landlord plans to sell it by then anyway!

That’s why you need LL insurance.
We had rent and legal fees paid for nearly a year.