This is a long one so I'm sorry.
We live a five hour drive from our home which we let out on a non-AST 'holiday let' type of contract (we are temporarily away for work). It is for a short term let which, when discussing with the prospective guest when he responded to my ad, he said that he wanted to split the 6 months' rental into 3 x 2-month contracts. My husband who is the legal owner of the property agreed to this. The guest also added that he had a puppy working dog and would be flying over from Europe with the dog to move in. He expressed a lot of gratitude because, of course, finding a large pet-friendly property to rent here in the UK is difficult.
A few days after he moved in, neighbours began complaining: the smell of the dog, the dog jumping over fences and into a neighbour's garden and, worst of all, the dog had fouled all over the communal garden. We also received odd reports of the neighbour's behaviour (no need to get into it).
We soon found out that the person who we believed had moved in, and whom we vetted to move in, was not actually living there but a sibling of his who is suffering from clinIcal depression and mental illness. I don't have proof, but I strongly believe the individual living there is an asylum seeker because the person who we believed was living there sent us a psychiatric report about his brother which had been requested by an immigration lawyer. We read it and there were lots of comments on how this individual was not able to return to their country, etc.
For the past month, my husband and I have wanted to sell the property which of course has had to involve agents attending the property to provide a valuation. We have so far had two valuations but they have been very difficult because of the depressed person staying there who keeps cancelling on appointments last minute. We just had the third (and last) agent due to attend last Friday and, sure enough, we received a call from the sibling who was supposed to stay in our property, saying that his brother who lives there was unwell and couldn't face an agent being there.
Personally, I am not taking all of this very well and am of the view that we should be able to give notice to these siblings and ask for the one who's unwell to seek professional help (they are very wealthy so money is of no issue, otherwise we would probably allow them to stay another month if it could help the depressed brother in some way). I take the view that leaving this depressed person in our property unable to take care of themselves and the dog is just a recipe for disaster. I think they should be served notice that they have breached several terms of the contract, that we don't have an AST so all the usual legalities of landlord and tenant law do not apply. We should take possession of the property and get it staged and ready to be put on the market.
The siblings are of the opinion that they are still currently within Contract 2 and have paid up until mid-July so they want to stay until then. I think it is crazy. It is summer time and we should do all that we can to put the property on the market.
I'm sorry if all of this makes me sound harsh and unsympathetic to a person who is going through a bad time, but these people gained possession of our property via false pretences. I have been through depression myself so I do understand how it feels and because I have worn the shoe on the other foot, I know just how long it takes to feel okay again. Having him in our property with his dog, while property viewings are going on is just not going to work. I don't think we will receive many offers so we might as well not place the property on the market. I write as though the above is an option, i.e. to allow him to stay because my husband seems to entertain the siblings' suggestions. I personally don't trust them, especially after they lied in order to move into the property and have not been honest or transparent. I mean, what else are they lying about?
Going back to what I wrote above re: the depressed individual possibly being an asylum seeker or staying in the UK under special circumstances also makes me very uneasy in terms of wondering how difficult it might be to ask them to move on.
Above all, what really frightens me is if they refuse to leave? What recourse do I have as I am starting to think that they have it in them to change the locks?
I just wrote all of this out in one go. Sorry if it doesn't read well. I'm just so stressed and need some advice about how to get rid of these disingenuous siblings and how best to achieve it?