Tent thread redux?

princeofpounds

Well, not quite. No doorstepping GMTV crews, and it sounds (from the other side so you don't know if this is the full story) like this was a nastier tenant. But even so another landlord appealing to the media with a story where a few facts don't add up...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1316756/Mother-spent-50k-squatter-evicted.html

giddypenguin

Half way through that article the woman's name changes from Ms Maurice to Ms Dyson... can't be bothered to get her name right!

cheap_charlie

I don't think you can compare this to the previous case at all.

It would appear she had a genuine tenant in place who illegally sublet the property to another person who then claimed squatter's rights, which made it far more difficult for the owner to evict.

In the tent thread the tenant was just that - a legal tenant - it was the press and the odious landlady who called her a "squatter".

princeofpounds

My intention was not to compare it in all manners, which was why I used the phrase 'not quite'.

An 'illegal' sublet (the correct term is unlawful, as sub-letting is not a crime) is not a squatter by the way, but a tenant. The original ('mesne') tenancy can be cancelled in the normal way, which cancels all tenancies below it.

If it were any other way, all those many home'owners' who actually own leaseholds that technically prohibit subletting but ignore it (with no way for the tenants to actually check the deeds of the leasehold), would not have tenants but squatters.

Of course that doesn't excuse the behaviour of the tenant and subtenant.

neverdespairgirl

It doesn't add up, to me. "After spending £50,000 fighting a 15-month legal battle to get a squatter evicted from her home"

There's a lot more going on than what is written. It simply doesn't take that long. Or cost that much.

dopester

Macclesfield has taken a bit of a beating with house prices crashing, so some of the £80K of value lost from the house over the past 15 months can be put down to that (lol - as if all down to sub-tenant). I drove through Prestbury to Macclesfield hospital a few weeks ago. Can feel the air change. Colder in Macclesfield.

Mrs Maurice also claims the saga has put a black mark against the address and knocked as much as £80,000 off the value of the house, which was originally worth £250,000.

If I had the time (about to DBAN my hard-drive then reinstall O/S) I would track down that house to get a proper idea of market values, now, and 15 months ago. Also, we're wary of even letting any person in to our house. We know the risks with letting out property and it's not for us. If we ever needed to move for a time, we'd either leave the house empty, employ a house-sitter, or if necessary, or sell it and rent closer where we need to be. We're not up for the risks in letting out our home. If you are up for being a landlord to make your home pay, then accept the risks and try to minimise them where you can.

lily_livered

Oops I hit spam by mistake instead of thanks

Then hit not spam Hope that's fixed it.

Now which is my tent

tbs624

As Ms Maurice moved to Dublin, let's hope that she gave an address in England and Wales for the service of notices. If she didn't , then her T wouldn't have needed to pay across any rent until such time as an address was provided.

Looks like there was a very tight budget and no contingency plan - if she was running a beauty salon in Dublin how come she "could not afford to pay her own rent"?

BitterAndTwisted

I think the not being able to pay her own rent part was when she came back from Dublin and was attempting to regain possession.

I'm finding it really hard to have any sympathy for her at all. If she wanted to relocate she should have sold up.

dopester

Okay I'm back with my superfly superfast-booting computer, after wiping it clean with Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN), then a fresh O/S install.

Now first, any info come up on a search of her name; Dy Maurice... ? 192 gives a limited information return on her name, Dy Maurice, but for the moment I've not got good enough reason to paying the £17.65 for 6 searches to get the full address (£9.99 + a required fee of £4.95 + VAT).

Dy Maurice
Macclesfield. SK10 View Address
Other occupants: Mark De Labore, Scott Hanson, Jenny Bennett, Anthony Bainbridge, John Clarke, Martin Avis, Micheal Church, Niall Hatton, Emma J Frobisher, Paul Davidson

I'm not particularly familiar with 192 searches, but that seems like a lot of other occupants who are, or still are even if they've now moved on to other addressses, registered at that address. I wonder why that is?

My powers of observation might be a bit off (tired)... but this is Dy Maurice photographed at the house + result of my search scoping bout, including with Google StreetView.



Also, I want to say, I really don't like the windows on these houses; they look like they are prison bar'd-up.

OK.. well I'm not 100% certain, but it sure seems like a good StreetView match to me (direct link - wait a moment for StreetView acquisition). And in the StreetView we see it's up for let. And very strangely, if it is a match, it's also still up for let on Rightmove at £725pm (I've not got PropertyBee reinstalled yet).

What else? Well it's showing as Number 9 (zoomed in on SV, with no.7 confirmed to its left). Checking houseprices.co.uk.... and this is the only transaction data they have for it (currently).

Sales Date: 27/09/2000. Price: £95,000. Address: 9, Shelbourne Mews, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 3RS

dopester

Oh, and it's also for sale now.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-24920282.html

£169,950.

I'm going to reinstall PropertyBee later... so I don't atm know for how long or if there have been any price changes.

No way that house was ever "worth" £250,000 imo - even at the height of the boom/bubble.

And I'm suspicious about her being an innocent first time landlord, letting it out only in 2007 for her move to Dublin - but can only conjecture about that.