Can I terminate my tenant's tenancy early for having an unauthorised pet?

walwyn1978

higgledypiggledy_pop wrote: »

It was not entirely satisfactory, partly my fault as I perhaps did not make it clear enough that I wanted to make a formal inspection. The tenants were extremely, almost overly welcoming from the get-go and insisted that I join them for dinner and wine. They were very keen to engage me in conversation as if it were a social visit.

After all this it would have seemed impolite to conduct a proper "inspection", and it was rather difficult to judge the state of the carpets for example without moving things around, as they - for some reason - have a lot of their own furniture in the property and it has a very cluttered appearance. Certain items were in strange positions, such as a heavy marble-topped coffee table (not mine) upside down between two armchairs in the reception room, and I did notice a strong smell of air freshener.

The inner vestibule door had also been wedged open using a heavy cast iron umbrella stand, this is something I was keen to see after reports that it may have been taking damage from the dog's claws - I was able to get my head into the gap but it was too dark to see due to the entrance hall bulbs having blown.

Needless to say, the animal was not on the premises.

In short I am somewhat relieved to have met the tenants and found them very personable, but in retrospect I feel as though I may have been deliberately sidetracked and will remain anxious until the tenancy has come to an end.

Okay. There's lots in there but I'll settle for one piece of advice - tenants are allowed to have their own furniture, whether let as furnished or not.

moneyistooshorttomention

higgledypiggledy_pop wrote: »

It was not entirely satisfactory, partly my fault as I perhaps did not make it clear enough that I wanted to make a formal inspection. The tenants were extremely, almost overly welcoming from the get-go and insisted that I join them for dinner and wine. They were very keen to engage me in conversation as if it were a social visit.

After all this it would have seemed impolite to conduct a proper "inspection", and it was rather difficult to judge the state of the carpets for example without moving things around, as they - for some reason - have a lot of their own furniture in the property and it has a very cluttered appearance. Certain items were in strange positions, such as a heavy marble-topped coffee table (not mine) upside down between two armchairs in the reception room, and I did notice a strong smell of air freshener.

The inner vestibule door had also been wedged open using a heavy cast iron umbrella stand, this is something I was keen to see after reports that it may have been taking damage from the dog's claws - I was able to get my head into the gap but it was too dark to see due to the entrance hall bulbs having blown.

Needless to say, the animal was not on the premises.

In short I am somewhat relieved to have met the tenants and found them very personable, but in retrospect I feel as though I may have been deliberately sidetracked and will remain anxious until the tenancy has come to an end.

You've been "sweet talked" by the sound of it.

You played those cards all wrong. You should have stated/kept stating you were there on business (ie that formal inspection visit). As for accepting dinner (and wine) off them - what were you thinking of?

They saw you coming a mile off and you fell for that sweet talk/smarming and them hiding all sorts.

You've got two choices now:
- either "firm up" and get more determined and confident and do things a sight more professionally from here on in

OR

- give up being a landlady.

You've had the equivalent of what someone I used to know did to a workman one time - she deliberately flirted outrageously with him and I wonder if the guy concerned has yet clicked she did it deliberately in order to pay him only National Minimum Wage for his time (if that - by the time you take into account the petrol in his vehicle to get to her place).

ViolaLass

All that travel and worry and you let your tenants play you.

00ec25

ViolaLass wrote: »

All that travel and worry and you let your tenants play you.

free meal and wine in personable company is suitable recompense surely?

moneyistooshorttomention

00ec25 wrote: »

free meal and wine in personable company is suitable recompense surely?

Seriously???!

The phrase "no such thing as a free lunch" is the phrase coming to mind here.:cool:

Think there was turkey for lunch and OP was it....

hunters

You do realise the whole thread is a wind up??

elsien

Yep, dinner and wine is stretching it even further than the dire wolves and ancestral pad. Sorry OP, must try harder.

Pyxis

elsien wrote: »

Yep, dinner and wine is stretching it even further than the dire wolves and ancestral pad. Sorry OP, must try harder.

Not to mention suspicious upturned marble-topped tables and propped-opened doors hiding :eek: who knows what, in darkened hallways.

Ooh! Perhaps the air freshener was to disguise the smell of the rotting corpses in the secret room behind the wall-panelling?

I think the OP had a very lucky escape there. :eek:

Red-Squirrel_2

elsien wrote: »

Yep, dinner and wine is stretching it even further than the dire wolves and ancestral pad. Sorry OP, must try harder.

I'm surprised the OP didn't drift off drowsy from the wine and wake up tied up in some sort of dungeon/50 shades style red room.

Missed storytelling opportunity there!

seven-day-weekend

higgledypiggledy_pop wrote: »

I'm sorry, I don't understand - why would I need to evict them after their tenancy agreement is up, can't I just not renew the tenancy? And I don't want to sell the flat....

No....if you do nothing the tenancy will go on as a 'rolling' month-by-month periodic tenancy. You need to evict them so that their tenancy expires on or after the original tenancy end date.

https://www.pims.co.uk/periodic-tenancies/