Evicting a tenant (Updated at post #34)

anselld

If you are not sure of the correct process it would probably be safer and quicker to get a specialist to do for you , e.g.
http://www.landlordaction.co.uk/site.php/tenant/section8-section21

anselld

sean_30 wrote: »

For anyone who thinks this approach is wrong, they are right and I would advise to think carefully.

Its not just wrong, it is a criminal offence. Whats to think about?

sean_30

Of course, criminal offense is also non payment of rent, ruining someone else's property and not caring what effect this has on a person who intrusted you with their property.

fairy_lights

sean_30 wrote: »

Of course, criminal offense is also non payment of rent, ruining someone else's property and not caring what effect this has on a person who intrusted you with their property.

Not paying rent isn't going to land you in prison though...breaking in to someone's house, changing the locks, and stealing all their belongings just might...

sean_30

Obviously it has not landed me in prison, it is a civil matter and police were quite sympathetic as well. They were the ones that advised me to remove the belongings and inform the tenants that I have done so.

theartfullodger

sean_30 wrote: »

Obviously it has not landed me in prison, it is a civil matter and police were quite sympathetic as well. They w.....

Nope: Illegal eviction and also harassment (two separate offences) are both civil AND criminal ,,, and landlords have (and should be..) pursued through both criminal & civil routes..(more than a year inside, £10k's ... etc etc..)

Hopefully anyone committing a crime as sean appears to state he has will hopefully eventually be arrested, charged & sentenced..(be they landlord, tenant, agent, MP..) : If I have misunderstood what sean stated or if his description was incorrect I may need to apologise..

We surely don't want criminals getting away scot free in this sceptred isle...

See
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/harassment_and_illegal_eviction_by_landlord/illegal_eviction
& a landlord recently arrested for harassment (sounds like unfairly, probably,...)
http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?65147-harassment

Whilst the police anecdotally more often than not side with the landlord and state "nah mate, civil innit.." thankfully they do from time to time pursue criminal landlords: A few interesting examples in this rather long thread..
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2715065
including a few landlords put away

Cheers & best wishes to all, including those who disagree with me.

PasturesNew

The Can't Pay programme follows a High Court Sheriff - he evicts people without any warning. The process seems to be: take the people to the usual court, get the usual court to agree and come up with some dates... then, while the tenant is still arguing the toss, or waiting for the next usual court date/supposed eviction date .... head straight for the High Court, get a writ, then the Sheriff turns up and tells them they've got 1-2 hours to pack, locks are changed and they can make an appointment with the LL to come back and get the rest of their stuff once they've sorted something out.

sean_30

I am still glad that I managed to throw out a couple of serious fraudsters who damaged my property, failed to pay rent and who were planing to stay on for free for another 6-9 months. I would do it again if I had to make a same decision. Once they left property it turned out that they had not paid any council tax in 2 years, gas and electric companies are owed £1000's, there were different bailifs coming to the property on regular basis and to top it all off there are additional 5-6 names on the address with variety of bills/credit card statements in their name. They did try to artful dodge me by thinking I would go through courts as did previous landlords. Please save your rights or wrongs for someone else, I ended up being out of pocket and no one is going to reimburse me, it will be the same case with this lady if she lets it drag on.

anselld

sean_30 wrote: »

it will be the same case with this lady if she lets it drag on.

I hope you are not adding "Encouraging or assisting a crime" to your list of criminal offences.

I am sure Doozergirl is sensible enough not to follow your advice though.

mrxry

sean_30 wrote: »

I can understand first hand how stressful this can be and how many sleepless and stressful night/days lie ahead.

Let me tell tell you one thing first that you need to understand, all rights are with the tenant and there is nothing apart from waiting that you can do until they leave or the courts get them out.
There are 2 possible paths that you can take to resolve this. The first is to do everything by the book, follow the legal path and hope that the tennants might not leave the property flooded, stripped, damaged, etc.

The second which I took and found it worked was to change the locks and unlawfully evict tenants, once the police turned up I walked away because I did not want to be arrested. Once they gained access to the property (I heard about)gluing the locks therefore, they have to call out a locksmith again. Finally remove all their belongings into a storage and inform them in writing. Be prepared to deal with Police, Shelter, Council and tenants but if you do not want to be walked over and made a fool out of these are the steps that you need to take to get them out quickly. As you said there is no deposit, no rent, they probably ruined the address by non payment of bills, council tax, etc.

For anyone who thinks this approach is wrong, they are right and I would advise to think carefully. Once my tenants left I was faced with £3000 repair bill and still facing possibilty of prosecution by Council. On the other hand if they stayed at the property I would still incurre the repair bill, 6-9 months without rent and same time in sleepless nights and stressful days.

Rights alone are meaningless since things can be twisted, I learned that from my 15 years renting that most LL's have found the slightest thing to keep deposit such as accuse me of damage, or the usual one is claiming property is filthy and needs a professional clean(despite photographs of it either spotless or close to it bar a few crumbs of dust or something that slipped down side of wardrobe of something) one charged me for new carpets despite being in property 3 years and it was cheap nasty carpet when I moved in and there was holes in wall hidden when I moved in that he blamed me for, I never got my deposit back there.