Police have forced entry.

mumps

martindow wrote: »

An agent may well not give you an unbiassed opinion.

Getting a new tenant allows them to charge both of you fees. The last thing they will suggest is letting the tenancy go on to a rolling contract so they miss out on making money from a new tenancy agreement.

Good point.

seven-day-weekend

martindow wrote: »

An agent may well not give you an unbiassed opinion.

Getting a new tenant allows them to charge both of you fees. The last thing they will suggest is letting the tenancy go on to a rolling contract so they miss out on making money from a new tenancy agreement.

Agent suggested rolling contract

Guest101

kinger101 wrote: »

Tenancy agreements usually have a clause regarding illegal activity. Read yours. Contract (civil) law is relevant, not crimimal law, so the tenant doesn't need to have been charged or convicted to be in breach of their contract. If the tenant claimed they were wrongfully evicted and it came to court, it would be a balance of probabilities. So you'd need some reliable evidence of breach of contract.

At the very least, I'd be asking the tenant and police for an explanation as to what has happened. Not sure if the police will be able to comment though.

Wow, so much wrong information....


Tenancies are governed by law. Whatever the agreement says cannot override the basic protections of the law.


The LL cant evict the tenant without going to court.

mumps

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

You do not have forced entry and get arrested (the policeman told us he would be on bail) for nothing. £85k investment that I have to look after and I am not a social housing provider.

You can look at this from several points of view:

1. You don't want your rent to be paid by illegal activity - understandable but nothing has been proved yet so legally, and morally I think, he is innocent until proved guilty.

2. You are running a business, he has been a good tenant a known quantity if you get rid of him because he might have done something wrong you could get a dodgy tenant and your business would suffer.

3. He is totally innocent, malicious allegations or mistaken identity or whatever. Seems unfair for him to lose him home if he has done nothing wrong and again you could get someone who is a bad tenant.

I'm afraid people do get accused of things they haven't done, they even get convicted of things they haven't done. The police raid premises and find nothing. Twenty years experience in a large police force has shown me this is true. Is your local force West Mids? Didn't they get six men locked up for years for pub bombings they didn't do? The police are fallible.

I think from a business and moral point of view you are right, let it go to a rolling tenancy and see what happens. He might be a thoroughly bad lot but on the other hand he might be a decent young man just like your son.

Hopefully your agent did proper checks, got references from employer and previous landlords. If they didn't you might need to look for another agent.

Re the door I think your tenant is responsible for the repair, if there has been some mistake he should be looking for the police to foot the bill.

This is all part of the joys of being a landlord, welcome to the reality of "easy money" and high returns. Sometimes it is no money and damaged property, the risk we take.

seven-day-weekend

mumps wrote: »

You can look at this from several points of view:

1. You don't want your rent to be paid by illegal activity - understandable but nothing has been proved yet so legally, and morally I think, he is innocent until proved guilty.

2. You are running a business, he has been a good tenant a known quantity if you get rid of him because he might have done something wrong you could get a dodgy tenant and your business would suffer.

3. He is totally innocent, malicious allegations or mistaken identity or whatever. Seems unfair for him to lose him home if he has done nothing wrong and again you could get someone who is a bad tenant.

I'm afraid people do get accused of things they haven't done, they even get convicted of things they haven't done. The police raid premises and find nothing. Twenty years experience in a large police force has shown me this is true. Is your local force West Mids? Didn't they get six men locked up for years for pub bombings they didn't do? The police are fallible.

I think from a business and moral point of view you are right, let it go to a rolling tenancy and see what happens. He might be a thoroughly bad lot but on the other hand he might be a decent young man just like your son.

Hopefully your agent did proper checks, got references from employer and previous landlords. If they didn't you might need to look for another agent.

Re the door I think your tenant is responsible for the repair, if there has been some mistake he should be looking for the police to foot the bill.

This is all part of the joys of being a landlord, welcome to the reality of "easy money" and high returns. Sometimes it is no money and damaged property, the risk we take.

Thanks mumps and I agree with what you said, we don't want to treat him unfairly (while at the same time we wish to protect our asset), but also have to be aware that he might actually be guilty. We think the rolling tenancy caters for this because we can give him two month's notice at any time. We can always give him a year's contract later.

And yes, we were aware of the risks when we bought the flat...but I think we had envisaged a ,no rent, situation rather than the door being broken down! He has always paid his rent and the flat is fine inside.

Our agent has been in the rental business for at least twenty years, so I assume he did all the usual checks, (I know for a fact a credit check was done) I don't think he'd have been in the business this long if he wasn't doing it correctly.

Guest101

Just to spin this (and it's not quite the same)


Some friends of mine (or technically my partners) moved in to a property. A week later their police burst through the door, scared the bejesus out of the couple and their 3 children.


Absolute shambles, until about 3 minutes in, when they actually checked who lived there. Tails between legs, many apologies and a complaint followed.


it's not the same, clearly they were looking for your tenant. Just thought I'd share.

[Deleted User]

Credit checks and last LL reference actually don't give much of an idea who you are trusting your property to through. Credit checks only show if any bankruptcies and CCJ's, not if they pay their bills on time. Quite easily COULD be running a drug den (not saying the tenant is), and not paid rent for 6 months and LL gives reasonable reference just to get rid of their tenant. I don't really know why LL trust their properties to someone on such basic tests.

Have you looked at the tenants social media? If its publicly available, nothing prohibits you from looking.

mumps

Guest101 wrote: »

Just to spin this (and it's not quite the same)


Some friends of mine (or technically my partners) moved in to a property. A week later their police burst through the door, scared the bejesus out of the couple and their 3 children.


Absolute shambles, until about 3 minutes in, when they actually checked who lived there. Tails between legs, many apologies and a complaint followed.


it's not the same, clearly they were looking for your tenant. Just thought I'd share.

Yes it does happen and not at all pleasant for an innocent householder. If its any comfort the officers involved will almost certainly have got a good telling off and maybe more but much worse will be the mickey taking back at the station.

mumps

deannatrois wrote: »

Credit checks and last LL reference actually don't give much of an idea who you are trusting your property to through. Credit checks only show if any bankruptcies and CCJ's, not if they pay their bills on time. Quite easily COULD be running a drug den (not saying the tenant is), and not paid rent for 6 months and LL gives reasonable reference just to get rid of their tenant. I don't really know why LL trust their properties to someone on such basic tests.

Have you looked at the tenants social media? If its publicly available, nothing prohibits you from looking.

I find an employers reference useful, if they are in a decent job with no issues it is a good indicator.

mumps

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Thanks mumps and I agree with what you said, we don't want to treat him unfairly (while at the same time we wish to protect our asset), but also have to be aware that he might actually be guilty. We think the rolling tenancy caters for this because we can give him two month's notice at any time. We can always give him a year's contract later.

And yes, we were aware of the risks when we bought the flat...but I think we had envisaged a ,no rent, situation rather than the door being broken down! He has always paid his rent and the flat is fine inside.

Our agent has been in the rental business for at least twenty years, so I assume he did all the usual checks, (I know for a fact a credit check was done) I don't think he'd have been in the business this long if he wasn't doing it correctly.

We had some tenants who had a teenage son. It seems he liked his air gun as the pellets were in almost every wall in the house. They paid the rent and weren't any trouble while they were there but it was a nightmare sorting out the walls when they moved out. Sometimes it is hard to imagine what other people will think is OK.