Tenants and Fraud on my profile

s8nbam

Hi All.
Sitiation
With CORONA, I temporarily relocated from my property in Bradford to my partner's property down south.  Whilst my flat was empty, I emptied it and got it ready for rent.
I had some new tenants move in to my flat mid Sept as they were desperate for accommodation and nothing was available during COVID.  The tenant came with 2 children, and a boyfriend I didn't know about.
The tenants
The tenants paid 1 month's rent upfront and half of the deposit (£250).  They promised to pay the second half (written on the contract) with the next months rent, which they failed to do.  Once the complete deposit had been taken, I planned on securing it with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.
Over the past month, I had numerous hits to my credit account, which I investigated and found the tenants had been applying for credit on my name at the property.  All of my details are registered to my other property in Manchester (my ex-wife lives there, so it's a safe address).

I have tried to contact my tenant, she and her partner are making it extremely difficult for me to access my property as well as not handing over my mail that will have been sent there as a correspondence address.
Actions so far
I have raised an Action Fraud case as well as contacted as many of the 25+ institutions to act on the fraud accounts.
Because of the fraud, and difficulties I need them out of the property asap as I suspect they will cause damage on leaving.
I planned to use the knowledge of the confirmed fraud and their details on all the accounts as a threat to report them to the police if they didn't move out immediately on their own accord.  I have full intention to report the matter to West Yorkshire Police.
Options
My question is legally what are my options to get them out of the property?
I need to stop them from stealing more of my mail, and some belongings that are held in one of the spare rooms (that i did not rent to them).
Thanks in advance.

Yahoo_Mail

s8nbam said:

My question is legally what are my options to get them out of the property?

The same as any other landlord. If you haven't done things properly, you'll need to remedy that first.  There are plenty of guides on how to evict tenants out on the internet.  Currently, you'll need to give them six months notice with an S21.  As said previously, hopefully you've given the tenants all the documentation you're legally required to give them or you won't be able to issue an S21.

s8nbam said:

I need to stop them from stealing more of my mail

Stop having it sent there then, or set up a Royal Mail redirection (why you didn't do this when you rented the flat out I don't know.)

s8nbam said:

and some belongings that are held in one of the spare rooms (that i did not rent to them).

Good luck with that, you're going to need it to from the sounds of things.  It sounds like you've done a half-baked rental and your tenants know this.  Expect them to take the proverbial for a good year at least.  Even if you can issue a proper S21 notice and you get to the 6 month period you're still going to have to wait for the courts to actually evict them and that took months even pre-COVID.

[Deleted User]

s8nbam said:

Hi All.
Sitiation
With CORONA, I temporarily relocated from my property in Bradford to my partner's property down south.  Whilst my flat was empty, I emptied it and got it ready for rent.
I had some new tenants move in to my flat mid Sept as they were desperate for accommodation and nothing was available during COVID.  The tenant came with 2 children, and a boyfriend I didn't know about.
The tenants
The tenants paid 1 month's rent upfront and half of the deposit (£250).  They promised to pay the second half (written on the contract) with the next months rent, which they failed to do.  Once the complete deposit had been taken, I planned on securing it with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.
Over the past month, I had numerous hits to my credit account, which I investigated and found the tenants had been applying for credit on my name at the property.  All of my details are registered to my other property in Manchester (my ex-wife lives there, so it's a safe address).

I have tried to contact my tenant, she and her partner are making it extremely difficult for me to access my property as well as not handing over my mail that will have been sent there as a correspondence address.
Actions so far
I have raised an Action Fraud case as well as contacted as many of the 25+ institutions to act on the fraud accounts.
Because of the fraud, and difficulties I need them out of the property asap as I suspect they will cause damage on leaving.
I planned to use the knowledge of the confirmed fraud and their details on all the accounts as a threat to report them to the police if they didn't move out immediately on their own accord.  I have full intention to report the matter to West Yorkshire Police.
Options
My question is legally what are my options to get them out of the property?
I need to stop them from stealing more of my mail, and some belongings that are held in one of the spare rooms (that i did not rent to them).
Thanks in advance.

You’ve failed to protect the deposit within 30 days of receiving it so the tenants can sue you for up to 3 times the value of the deposit. Lack of deposit protection also invalidates a Section 21 notice. God knows why you allowed them to move in with only a partial deposit anyway. 

Anything else you’ve forgotten to do? Gas safety certificate? Right to rent checks? 

Read: Post 4: Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

Taken from Tenancies in England/Wales which you should also read. 

The long and short of it is that those tenants aren’t going anywhere soon unless they leave of their own volition on to the next sucker. Meanwhile do yourself a favour and get postal redirection set up. 

_TinRibs_

FGS - Did you set up a mail redirection with the Post Office before you rented out?

MEM62

This has to be a wind up.  Renting without collecting or protecting the full the deposit, renting a flat minus one room (never even heard of that one) which I assume is not secured, leaving your possessions in the property and not re-directing your mail.  Seriously, nobody would be that foolish.   

[Deleted User]

MEM62 said:

This has to be a wind up.  Renting without collecting or protecting the full the deposit, renting a flat minus one room (never even heard of that one) which I assume is not secured, leaving your possessions in the property and not re-directing your mail.  Seriously, nobody would be that foolish.   

It was probably a half-baked attempt to make the tenants lodgers.

brianposter

MEM62 said:

renting a flat minus one room (never even heard of that one) .............................., leaving your possessions in the property and not re-directing your mail. 

In the real world, such an arrangement seems perfectly normal.

MalMonroe

brianposter said:

MEM62 said:

renting a flat minus one room (never even heard of that one) .............................., leaving your possessions in the property and not re-directing your mail. 

In the real world, such an arrangement seems perfectly normal.

Sorry, no, not in my real world. Or in the really real world, either. Not doing those basic things is asking for trouble, which this poor OP now has.

MalMonroe

" I have full intention to report the matter to West Yorkshire Police."  What on earth are you waiting for???

Report it NOW!!!

Plus, there's info here : https://www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants

penners324

Any fraud will be ignored unless it's reported to the police...

penners324

Your only hope is an illeagal eviction that could end up with the OP in jail. Ie get the heavies on them.