How easy is it for my mum to kick my brother out?

Andrew_Ryan_89

Hi guys,

My brother is turning 38 and has been a thorn in our side for many many years. He lives with my mum and sister with his girlfriend and two young children. Since he has had the children, he has literally raised them in the front room, despite their being 2 spare rooms which to this day remains unfurnished and full of rubbish.

He fails to consistently pay rent and even when he does on the odd sporadic month, it's no more than £200 (for his girlfriend and children). He also runs up the bills and spends money on cars rentals, numerous Apple products and other nonsense way before he buys a proper bed for his 10 year old son (they push the 2 sofas together and he shares with his mum) or refurbishes the rooms so their 6 year old daughter can stop sleeping in the same cot she was raised In.

Long story short he is a bum. Anyway, my mum is being threatened with an eviction. She had an interest only mortgage and the terms was up ages ago. It's went to court and the bank and permission to foreclose. There is a glimmer of hope as we just received a mortgage in principle from another lender but it is expensive. However, there is no way my mother and sister can start paying for a new mortgage with my brother still being in the house and not contributing. I told her that if the mortgage goes through she has to put her foot down and kick him out even if it means calling the police.

She owns the house and there is no official rent agreement in regards to him living there. Is it as some as him having to leave and if, or more likely when, he refuses to budge she simply calls the police?

Rosemary7391

He sounds like a lodger, so would have very little protection. The shelter website has some information you would find useful:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/downloads_and_tools/tenancy_checker
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/sharing_and_subletting/excluded_occupiers
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/eviction_of_private_tenants/eviction_of_excluded_occupiers

This seems like it would help to solve your mother and sisters' problem (might they then downsize? Or take in lodgers?), but tbh I'd have concerns about your brother's children... I suspect the moral/emotional side will be harder than the practical/legal side here.

Detroit

He has no rights to live in her home and your mother can ask him to leave at any time.

If he refuses to leave she can call the police, but the damage this would do to family relationships, particularly if this happens in front of her young grandchildren could be irreparable.

I assume your brother is on the list for council housing? but presumably hasn't many overcrowding points if there are two unused rooms in the house.

If your mother gives him a letter saying she wants him to leave immediately this should speed up any housing application as the council will have a duty to the family under homelessness legislation.

This may mean they'll end up in a B&B though depending on availability of social housing in your area.

paddy's_mum

I suspect that if your mother has allowed your brother to walk all over her this long, despite the lazy neglect of the welfare of his own children, he isn't going anywhere fast.

Him because he's idle and knows which side his bread is buttered.

Her because she has not yet stood up to him either to protect her home, herself and her daughter nor to force him to play fair over her grandchildren's welfare.

She has enabled it and he has lacked the spine to see that the way the all live isn't right.

Is your Dad anywhere in this scenario?

paddy's_mum

I understand your concerns but do try not to get too involved because you may well end up caught in the crossfire, especially if your brother thinks you are egging your mother on!

Tigsteroonie

To be honest, foreclosure on the mortgage and eviction might be the best way forwards for getting rid of the brother and making him stand on his own two feet. Mum and sister can find a small property to rent that they can afford themselves and in which there simply wouldn't be room for him, so he'd have to find somewhere of his own.

kingfisherblue

Have I read that correctly? The six year old is still in a cot? I sincerely hope that I have misunderstood!

Andrew_Ryan_89

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

He sounds like a lodger, so would have very little protection. The shelter website has some information you would find useful:
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/downloads_and_tools/tenancy_checker
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/sharing_and_subletting/excluded_occupiers
http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/eviction_of_private_tenants/eviction_of_excluded_occupiers.
If he refuses to leave she can call the police, but the damage this would do to family relationships, particularly if this happens in front of her young grandchildren could be irreparable.

I assume your brother is on the list for council housing? but presumably hasn't many overcrowding points if there are two unused rooms in the house.

True, the children are a difficult scenario. However, I think it will be for their own good. My brother won't be homeless. Whether he ends up with his dad (we have different dads) or his girlfriends family, he won't be homeless. The kids are, for a lack of a better word, weird. The son has grown up okay but especially the daughter, they just don't seem right. They have literally grown up in a single room. 4 people living in a single room. You hear about this stuff in poverty stricken countries. They need space.

In regards to the council housing, he has been kicked out of 3 properties (4 including his girlfriend when he ran up her bills) after spending less than a year in them. He recently was given a council property, signed it off and everything. Long story short he never, ever, moved in because of reasons and they eventually took it off him. He now claims to be in the process of applying again but to my knowledge if you already passed one up it's very difficult if not near impossible to get another because you have made yourself "intentionally homeless". So the bull he is currently feeding my mum that the reason he is not paying rent is because he's due to leave is not the case in my opinion.

paddy's_mum wrote: »

I suspect that if your mother has allowed your brother to walk all over her this long, despite the lazy neglect of the welfare of his own children, he isn't going anywhere fast.

Him because he's idle and knows which side his bread is buttered.

Her because she has not yet stood up to him either to protect her home, herself and her daughter nor to force him to play fair over her grandchildren's welfare.

She has enabled it and he has lacked the spine to see that the way the all live isn't right.

Is your Dad anywhere in this scenario?

Thank you. I have told her this and years ago I predicted this very situation with the mortgage, my brother etc. I have told my mum repeatedly that I will have her back. So will my sister. I am not afraid to tell him what he needs to do etc. but I have no authority telling him to move. We have different dads and my dad has never been able to stand him because of his ways.

It's just so sad that when my mum needed him most (regarding getting enough money together to pay off the mortgage) that's when he decides to make a decent effort to move.I have only touched the iceberg in relation to the amount of disrespect he has shown my mum.

Andrew_Ryan_89

kingfisherblue wrote: »

Have I read that correctly? The six year old is still in a cot? I sincerely hope that I have misunderstood!

Yep. 2 large spare bedrooms and she still sleeps in her cot and 6 years old.

Before I got my own place I spent an entire week clearing one of the spare rooms which was literally fall of rubbish. For years people were dumping TV boxes, old computers and literally rubbish in that room to a point the door could not close. I cleared the room, drove to the dump back and forth with masses of bin bags. Paid someone £100 to borrow their truck to remove the other items (doors, beds, cupboards to name a few). Literally had to plead for my brother to help me and he responded "why are you bothering" with me replying so his kids can have a room.

I cleared the room and though the wallpaper needed stripping and the whole place a bit of a clean, it was there for him to give to either one or both of his kids. He never done anything. Bought his son another iPad for his birthday and not a bed for the room. Forward 2 years later, the room is pretty much back filled with rubbish, his son sharing a sofa with his mother, him sleeping on a blow-up bed and the daughter still in the cot.

Rosemary7391

Is there any reason that your brother and his girlfriend don't seem capable of running a home? Or getting their children proper beds? I'm really baffled by this situation

fairy_lights

Andrew_Ryan_89 wrote: »

Forward 2 years later, the room is pretty much back filled with rubbish, his son sharing a sofa with his mother, him sleeping on a blow-up bed and the daughter still in the cot.

Four members of a family sleeping in one room because the parents are too lazy to use a bedroom, even when it's cleared out for them? A ten year old sharing a bed with his mother and a six year old sleeping in A COT?!
Frankly I would call social services, they don't sound fit to be parents.