Property rental advice please

jadelois

Hi all,

We currently rent a couple of flats out and have had a fairly smooth experience with this so far however we have had a bit of a nightmare tenant in of late and was wondering if anyone can offer an advice on what our rights (or lack of) as landlords are.
The flats have a shared entrance into a small hallway and then separate entrances at the top of the stairs. Tenant 1 had allowed a friend into the property and then left (taking his keys), Tenant 2 in the other flat had gone out sometime later locking both his own flat and the shared entrance doors. Friend of Tenant 1 then wanted to leave and could lock (Yale lock) the flat door but couldn't get out of the shared entrance, apparently couldn't get hold of his friend and so bust the lock to get out. No offer of replacement to the broken lock which was now a security issue and had to be patched up until a replacement was bought.
Tenant 2 phoned to inform us that last night Tenant 1 left the flat ( in the middle of the night taking loads of his stuff ), been trying ever since to contact the tenant to no avail. He is 3 weeks behind on his rent.
It sounds as though potentially he has done a runner (has had a couple of police run ins since arriving) however where do we stand with the flat. Obviously its very unlikely he will pay what he owes but are we allowed to enter the property, how long do we have to wait to see of he's coming back etc etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

AdrianC

Assuming that tenant 1 and 2 are joint tenants of the entirety of this one property, on the same tenancy, and tenant 2 is still resident?

The rent is the responsibility of both tenants jointly and severally, so T2 is three weeks behind just as much as T1 is.

T2 can obviously let you in, but you certainly can't view the tenancy has been surrendered.
You could give T1 & T2 two months s21 notice, assuming everything is in a row so as not to invalidate the notice.
T2 could give you one month's notice.
Whether you then wanted to give T2 a solo tenancy is, of course, up to you...

If T1s tenancy is separate from T2s, and is just for the room, then you may be able to view it as surrendered, but certainly not just on a day's word-of-mouth.

ViolaLass

The OP talks about letting 'flats' so it sounds like they are separate properties.

AdrianC

Ah, yes. Just noticed the mention of "other flat" in the OP.

Owain_Moneysaver

jadelois wrote: »

Tenant 2 in the other flat had gone out sometime later locking both his own flat and the shared entrance doors. Friend of Tenant 1 then wanted to leave and could lock (Yale lock) the flat door but couldn't get out of the shared entrance, apparently couldn't get hold of his friend and so bust the lock to get out.

You shouldn't have locks on exit doors which can be locked with people in the building. If there had been a fire that person could have been killed. All exit doors should have thumbturn or pushbar latches on the inside to exit.

As landlord with responsibility for the communal stair that should have been dealt with by your fire risk assessment which you did to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

Unless you know that Tenant 1 has surrendered his tenancy he is still a tenant and has all tenant's rights - even if he's behind on his rent. You must follow the correct procedures for eviction and repossession. If you do not the tenant can claim against you for harrassment of a tenant, which is also a criminal offence.

anselld

Serve formal notice for inspection in accordance with tenancy agreement and then proceed as abandonment depending what evidence you find.

00ec25

as anselld says, this appears to be a case of "abandonment" and therefore you need to read this and follow its guidance...

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/content/abandonment

jadelois

Thanks everyone for the advice.
The door was never mentioned in the fire checks as all flats have a key to the front door however i see your point and will certainly look into it.
I'll have a read through the abandonment info to see how best to go forward.