Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Idiot bil tenant

7 replies

Reallynoidea · 07/09/2024 10:09

We have a property. BIL is tenant.
Everything fine until a couple of late payments which got worse and it got to over £3500 arrears. We issued a section 21 on advice as he had effectively moved out and was working in a different city.
His dad cleared those arrears but we're back up to over £2500 now.
He'd had an accident at his previous work and had been moved job internally but didn't like it and is waiting for a industrial injury claim.

The house is stuffed to the gills with crap.

He's had an operation on his neck in this city and drove back to the other city within a couple of days. Something that I think will have exacerbated his problem.
He's messed up with universal credit as he's told them he's been evicted and walked out of his job by effectively resigning by text in response to a message from them saying they were letting him go at the end of the pay period as he'd asked them to align with his UC reporting period.
This is his excuse/reason for not paying rent.
He says he can't use his arm so can't clear anything. But is driving about between cities.

His next op and recovery time would leave him 3 months further in arrears. Assuming it doesn't get worse by him being an idiot and driving too soon. Also I think this additional wait will further delay any payout he gets.

We asked UC to pay rent direct but they've said no.

So we have a tenant who isn't paying rent and has promised he'll pay from his industrial payout and then he'll be able to pay someone to clear and store all his shit.
But he has an an IVA so if he gets a payout surely they'll automatically grab any money first. He had an IVA when we took him on as a tenant and didn't take a deposit.

This effectively voids our insurance on the property as it needs to have someone living there. Winter is coming and the property will be at risk of a problem happening and no one being there to notice.
Our household income is affected which is going to bite as other income sources have stopped too.

My BIL is an idiot but I feel completely lost and not in control of the situation. I'm really angry and frustrated. Both with bil and now husband for him listening yesterday at their parents house to this tale of nonsense about not paying the rent and then staying for a couple of hours to chat with him as of nothing was wrong.

If you got through this rambling rant then thank you.

I know legal advice would be sensible but I suspect a divorce would be easier to resolve.

OP posts:
LIZS · 07/09/2024 10:14

You need to take the fact he is bil out of the issue. He is a non paying tenant, you have issued notice. He does not live there full time anyway. He has np guaranteed way of funding arrears,

Trytobekinderifyoucan · 07/09/2024 10:22

Sounds as if the poor guy has some serious problems that are only going to be made worse by starting procedures against him.

Ultimately if he gets evicted from your property( and is the property jointly owned by you and your husband?) , he is going to be put into disarray and who will help him pick up his life?

Why is he an idiot? It just sounds as if he is having a really bad time and there are some serious issues for you to resolve as a family.

Perhaps your husband stayed and chatted to him as he felt completely compromised.

Reallynoidea · 07/09/2024 10:37

@Trytobekinderifyoucan his girlfriend who has effectively subbed his lifestyle even when he was working and healthy. She's picking up the pieces now 60 miles away as he lives with her.

He's not made any attempt to sort UC out because he can sponge off her or his parents might bail him out again. He thinks this payment will solve his problems. His parents have bailed him out multiple times over the years. So perhaps for that he's not an idiot.

If he's ignored medical advice to not drive after a neck operation then he is an idiot. He'd be in with a better chance of not having made it worse. He's described the level of care he needs day to day but is driving a car around the country.

Maybe I'm the idiot for wanting to rent paid on a property and someone to live in it.

OP posts:
TheRoseTurtle · 07/09/2024 10:44

My sympathies are with you. He's a freeloader, and it sounds like his parents and your (D?)H have been enabling that. What you do, other than follow through with the S21, I don't know. In your place I wouldn't have taken him on as a tenant to start with, having an IVA, but easy to say in hindsight ...

Wwyd2025 · 07/09/2024 11:02

Problem is the s21 is probably expired by now and you'll need to issue a new one.

I would I'd get him out he doesn't care about you or your husband.

Reallynoidea · 07/09/2024 11:03

He said he needed more time to clear stuff out.
I went back to the company to start court proceedings and I'd missed the deadline by a day - so that's down to me.
We could start it again, but we would need to agree.

A S8 can be done but stops when someone clears the arrears which would solve half the problem.

I am concerned that because of parents age and health conditions they may need care in a few years and them paying out money to keep his stuff effectively in storage in a house he doesn't live in would count as deprivation of assets.

His mother has a book she's written every penny he's ever had in apparently.

OP posts:
Reallynoidea · 09/09/2024 12:15

Well DH and I had a chat today about what to do.
He thinks we just need to wait until the second operation and post recovery time and for this big payout that's coming. Either the payout will cover the rent or his parents will.

Which leaves me feeling utterly alone. So I asked him to continue with sorting his will out. I am paranoid I'm going to die and my son will get nothing.
So he's left in a mood to go and sort out the inlaws and their latest issue. He shouted something about divorce as he went and tbh that's a crap idea.

The house is held in a ltd company but pays one of us a small salary when we have an income. Pre-Covid we had income to pay us both.
I have considered working on new business ideas but feel like any work I do will benefit someone other than me and at the moment I do not feel like that's something I want to do.
We're not skint but I hate the feeling of not being in control of my life.

This all makes me feel the idiot now.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page