Dad living in my house - is he a tenant?

cuffey

Already had an email from dad accusing me of letting someone else use my phone because this is not like me. He has demanded I do not text, or have conversations in the hearing of other people. . . .he's clearly very rattled and says that if I can't remember what happened (because I've asked for the evidence) then how can Mother expect to. I think that's very clear that there is not, and never has been any documentary evidence that the flat is anything to do with her.

Anyway, he's now reported me to his telephone company (I'm sure they'll be fascinated) and that I am harassing her. If I wasn't in the middle of this, it would be funny.

RAS

I am not sure how he construes two texts as harassment?

Save everything.

I think you parents are in danger of getting themselves in deep doo doo if they are not careful. Apart from the little issue of mum divesting herself of capital to claim HB, there is the fact that they seem to live in each other's pockets. Under SS rules two people do not need to live together to be considered a couple for benefit purposes and they appear to be claiming to live separately.

propertyman

Collect the paperwork- send a courier if you have to . Take it to the solicitor. Only if the solicitor is connected to your father or mother, as in having acted for them, there is no conflict of interest.

As to the signature it can be sighed by any two officers of the company ie 2 directors; the Secretary need not sign it.

A Co secretary can be anyone, it is extremely rare for articles to make any condition or requirement.

Well done for all you have done so far.

BigAunty

Looks like finding how to get rid of your father as the company secretary is the first step while learning how to be thick skinned about the abuse now they realise that you are onto the extent of their deceit and sabotage. I doubt he'll counter-sign anything.

To me, I wonder whether he enjoyed all the leaseholders being as beholden to him as you've been to him, extending his playing of games into the whole of the building.

If it's any consolation, the guilt trips, blame and abuse that is being heaped on you is actually a positive sign - it shows they know the number is up and they are struggling against you asserting some long overdue control.

Yorkie1

What a horrible situation to be put in by your parents and good luck in maintaining a clear head as you take this forward.

I would advise now against any forms of email or text communication with your parents. These are not best evidence should you need it; stick to formal writing.

Repeat your request to your mother in writing, for the audit trail. Get a certificate of posting each time you write a letter, and keep a copy of the letter. This is as much about setting yourself up into the best position for you to fight this through, as it is about anything else.

It sounds as though the Director of the company is happy to assist - perhaps he can provide you with full documents as well as copies of all correspondence which he has sent to your Dad.

I think you can assume that your Dad isn't going to co-operate in handing over documents; anything you do get is a bonus.

As it seems that he may well be a tenant, I would advise against going round there or sending a courier to collect anything unless he has agreed to that course of action in advance. There are separate laws about not harassing tenants, and you need to be mindful of these whilst trying to sort out the wider leasehold etc issues.

BigAunty

Yorkie1 has made a good point about you acting very professionally as a landlord, honouring all your obligations and respecting your father's rights, including his right to quiet enjoyment of the property.

So, too, the other posters who recommend that you limit communication with your parents on the subject of the property.

This could become a big issue so you have to start managing the risks now, particularly given that simple requests for ownership/leasehold documents have been falsely construed as harassment by your parents.

Harassment by a landlord is a criminal offence and I expect that it won't be too long before your father reports you for landlord related behaviour to the Police or local council.

This is some information about harassment from both a landlord and tenants perspective. Remember that as you are a novice or accidental landlord, you might make mistakes in your dealings with the tenancy so do mug up.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/harassment.htm

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/harassment_and_illegal_eviction_by_landlord/what_counts_as_harassment

Looks like you've got to perhaps limit your communication to your parents, going through the intermediary of the solicitor for the eviction and leasehold processes.

This is only going to get much worse when you serve notice to quit to your father and he finds out that he has no special security of tenure, plus the pressure from your mother when she works out a scheme to get hold of the equity from the sale without alerting the DWP.

property.advert

Put the property up for sale. Give your mother her £75k minus every mortgage payment. She may get nothing !

Sorry but you have the most disgusting parents I have heard about for quite some time.

If it were me, I'd give them nothing and see where that took them. To jail perhaps ?

burnoutbabe

I cant see that you have been strictly "conned" here, as you were gifted 75k for the house? and paying a very small 25k mortgage ever since of which your dad pays £100 towards. the mortgage would only be £200 or so and for that you got a freehold extention, which increased the value of the flat.

Get the management committe to SACK your dad as a company secretary, any 2 directors can do that.

paddyz

When the mother signed the 75k stake to the son i would have thought she would have had him sign some sort of agreement at that time to protect her investment?

cuffey

Thank you all for your great support. I was asked by the solicitor to ask my mother for any documents - I did this in what I thought was a straightforward and polite manner. Now that she has declined to provide this I will only contact her via the solicitor.

Now I am in contact with the Director he has offered to provide another copy of the 999 year lease, and I think I will take him up on that, and get advice from the solicitor about it on Friday. He has kindly forwarded copies of all the letters he has sent to me at the flat, none of which I have seen, or have been forwarded. If he can countersign the lease then we will go down that route and take my Father out of the equation. I will not be contacting my Father any further if there is a risk of being accused of harassment.

The Director has offered to meet me next weekend, so I am going to do that (and take the GF with me!)

If asking a simple question is going to bring accusations of harassment, then trying to get him out is going to be a nightmare. One step at a time though.

Burnoutbabe - not really a question of whether I've been 'conned', more that I have let this go on without dealing with it properly because of my own nervousness about taking them on. I appear to have been conned into believing that I couldn't sell the flat without my mother's consent though. I haven't got the extension to the lease yet because my Father has declined to admit he's had the paperwork so long.

As far as whether they're tied up with each other, their relationship is odd. I am pretty sure he gives her money (but that's nothing to do with me) but she also has a boyfriend of sorts so I don't think they would consider themselves a couple. She is dependent on him for transport because he drives for instance. He seems to feel he owns the mobile phone I texted her on - and has banned me from using that number to contact her. . . . it's very, very strange, which is why the only way to do this is to remove it one step and get the solicitor to do it.

I feel very anxious about the whole thing - including the initial problem about whether I should own up to the building society. I will ask advice on that too.

By the way - I can't go into my flat and disturb his enjoyment of it, because I don't even have a key to it!! that says it all. Laughs!!