Inherited house with "tenants" paying miniscule rent

BitterAndTwisted

It's not complicated: if the part of the property these people are using has no separate entrance, no separate kitchen and no separate bathroom then they are lodgers, not tenants.

They need to be asked to come up with this alleged codicil and if they can't they should be given notice. It might be worth not getting into this until after the probate issues are settled. In the meantime if these cheeky chancers want repairs done they should get them done themselves as they should have plenty of money to do them considering the derisory amount of rent they're paying. If there's no money in the estate it's not reasonable in the short-term to expect the inheritors to pay for repairs out of their own pockets, especially if these chancers won't let anyone into the property to inspect it.

princeofpounds

It's not complicated:

Yes there *is* an important complication. Kunekune picked it out (the comment on estoppel) and I tried to highlight it, but need to be more explicit.

Based on what has ben said, it sounds very much like it is an open and shut case of lodgers. The solicitor who talked about 'thousands' to get them out is probably not a very good solicitor if they are immediately reaching for the eviction methods for old tenancies without questioning if the property is self-contained, another couple of solicitors need to be consulted.

However, the complication is this - someone can claim part-ownership of a house they have just been a guest in IF they have done certain things. Those are things like paying significant amounts of money to improve the house or to reject moving out (or otherwise act to their detriment) because they have been consistently promised a share of the house.

Of course they have to prove such things (on the balance of probabilities), but such a claim is a very possible eventuality even if they do get kicked out as lodgers.

Normally these laws are used to give a fair split from cohabiting partners, and less often within families.

franklee

OP you need a professional who knows the correct areas of law, here is a start:

http://www.painsmith.co.uk/
http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/

kunekune

The thing that makes me worry about estoppel (from OP's perspective) is that they seem to have believed, for quite a while, that the codicil would give them the right to stay. That's a classic proprietary estoppel scenario, and if they weren't merely living there, but looking after the old chap, then that strengthens any case.