Problem with other tennant in shared house ADVICE NEEDED

ahomemadetouch

posting on behalf of a friend. She is living in a shared house, and is in a contract until the summer. One of the other tennants has been causing problems by

• using other peoples things, food, toiletries etc
• smoking drugs in the house
• being involved in criminal activities
• not paying his share of utilities

he was arrested last night and taken to the police station along with several bags of evidence. He is now back in the property



the land lord has been informed several times about the above activities but claims that he cant be kicked out until he has been there six months, surely this is not the case. Is there anything that can be done, my friend gets on with the other housmates and feels settled and doesnt really want to go through looking for somewhere else to live especially as this will leave her out of pocket.

ihatemyhouse

if he is using the hosue for criminal activity, then the LL can apply to the court to have him evicted

G_M

ihatemyhouse wrote: »

if he is using the hosue for criminal activity, then the LL can apply to the court to have him evicted

To my surprise I have to agree with ihatemyhouse this time.

The LL serves a S8 Notice,using ground

Ground 14

The tenant or a person residing in or visiting the dwelling-house—

(a) has been guilty of conduct causing or likely to cause a nuisance or annoyance to a person residing, visiting or otherwise engaging in a lawful activity in the locality, or

(b)has been convicted of—

(i)using the dwelling-house or allowing it to be used for immoral or illegal purposes, or

(ii) an indictable] offence committed in, or in the locality of, the dwelling-house.]

Note

a) this is a discretionary ground - it is up to the court to decide whether to grant possession to the LL or not, depending on the circumstances

b) I believe the possession order would apply to 'the tenant', not the named individual. If, as I suspect is the case here, 'the tenant' is in fact two people (joint tenants) then BOTH would be evicted. The LL could then choose whether or not to grant a new tenancy to one of those individuals (or one of them plus a new person).

Yorkie1

And, of course, b) only applies after conviction by a court of a charge which is sufficiently serious to be triable at the Crown Court (drugs would meet this criteria). That's not a quick fix.

Edit: just read the actual Act. Both limbs are discretionary grounds for eviction, not just the one labelled (b) in G_M's post.

ahomemadetouch

Yorkie1 wrote: »

And, of course, b) only applies after conviction by a court of a charge which is sufficiently serious to be triable at the Crown Court (drugs would meet this criteria). That's not a quick fix.

so being arrested isnt enough ?

yangptangkipperbang

ahomemadetouch wrote: »

so being arrested isnt enough ?

............the police arrest the first person they see nowadays !

Kynthia

ahomemadetouch wrote: »

so being arrested isnt enough ?

Anyone can be arrested when they haven't done anything wrong. A conviction is probably what is needed, even if that's them accepting a caution. The landlord can't use a S21 'no fault' eviction until the tenant has been there six months, although they could serve it after four months and apply for a court date once it expires in 2 months time.

Is your friend a joint tenant with this person on the same contract, or do they have their own contract for their own room only? If joint, they would be evicted too. Also I'm not sure you can 'make' the landlord evict someone, so perhaps make it sound like it's in their interest like concerns about damage to the property during police raids or druggie friends, the cost of finding replacement tenants as the others will move out, etc.

dimbo61

No Landlord wants problem tenants and the Police smashing down doors at 5am!
The Problem tenant has a Tenancy agreement for 6 months and the LL can serve notice to quit after 4 months but that does not mean he/she will move out!

BigAunty

My understanding is that it can be very difficult for a landlord to evict a tenant on anti social grounds as these are discretionary grounds when the court case reaches court and so it pretty much depends on whether the judge will grant possession (and sometimes they won't). Also, that it can take weeks, if not months, for the formal case to reach court depending on the type of tenancy, type of grounds used, the waiting time for the local court for cases to reach court.

Most tenancies are granted on a six month fixed term basis. It is easier to get a tenant out at the end of the fixed term via the S21 process because it's known as a 'no fault' notice and the landlord doesn't have to provide evidence that the tenant has breached the contract, unlike an S8 notice. If the tenant refuses to cooperate with the notice, the landlord has to take further legal steps to gain possession, and then possibly a further step involving a bailiff, to enforce it. Therefore, it can take months after the expiry of a fixed term contract to evict a tenant that won't leave of their own volition.

So yes, it's quite possible that the landlord views this situation as something that is difficult or near impossible to resolve during the fixed term of the contract. There is no quick or simple way to evict a bad tenant during a fixed term tenancy if that's what the OPs friend is hoping for. Not sure if the S8 process has an accelerated element to it compared to other types of notices/grounds. Hopefully another poster can clarify.

The OP should get his friend to look at the Shelter website to understand the eviction process and how to deal with a breakdown in relations of fellow tenants. That way they get to understand that unless the poor tenant leaves of their own will, both the other tenants and landlord can be stuck with him for quite a while due to the slow nature of the legal process.

BigAunty

Kynthia wrote: »

If joint, they would be evicted too. .

If the bad tenant surrenders the joint tenancy with the permission of the landlord (which does end the tenancy for all tenants) or if the landlord regains possession through the court, then the landlord can always issue to new tenancy to the remaining tenants.

spacey2012

Surely the landlord is responsible for utilities in a shared accommodation ?