Landlord fined for dumping father and son’s belongings on street and changing locks

coffeehound

A landlord has been fined after he dumped his tenant’s belongings on the street and changed the locks on the front door.

Antanas Danilevicius returned from work in February last year to find his possessions – and his five-year-old son’s toys – strewn across the pavement outside their home.His landlord, Antanas Klibavicius, 40, had packed up clothes, a television, a vacuum cleaner, bedding and collectable coins and put them outside the property in Basford Place in Sheffield.

He dumped the belongings on the street after his tenant had fallen into rent arrears.

But Sheffield City Council launched proceedings against the landlord over the illegal eviction.

Klibavicius admitted one charge of unlawful deprivation of occupation at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court.

He was fined £416 and ordered to pay £650 in compensation to Mr Danilevicius. He was also ordered to pay £1,183 in court costs.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/landlord-fined-father-son-belongings-street-142803722.html

Thought it was interesting to see an example of this being enforced

hippocrates1

Probably would have cost him more to leave him in the flat to be honest. 

princeofpounds

hippocrates1 said:

Probably would have cost him more to leave him in the flat to be honest. 

Indeed... a penalty at this level is not much of a deterrent.

HampshireH

I saw this yesterday and thought the same. Really week sentence. Any landlord who can afford a few grand over 6 months + rent loss and court fees will not see this as a deterrent.

If anything it could give landlords who are struggling financially the green light to take the risk.

coffeehound

Rent around there seems to be £500pcm for a 2-bed terrace, so about four months' rent;  agreed, not a huge penalty.  I suppose it would need to be at least double that to become a deterrent.  Plus the council will inherit another family that needs emergency rehoming.  Bit of an own goal in both respects

getmore4less

Does not say if the tenant got to go back to the property.
it was this place 
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=50634556&sale=71332266&country=england
Not found any rental  information.

moneysavinghero

Maybe we need a new name for Landlords. Calling them landlords gives them a feeling of superiority that leads to actions like this. Maybe if we called them tenantservants instead they would have more realistic expectations of their roles. 

HampshireH

getmore4less said:

Does not say if the tenant got to go back to the property.
it was this place 
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=50634556&sale=71332266&country=england
Not found any rental  information.

What an awful kitchen. Doesn't even look like you could stand Infront of the oven to open it or the cupboards.

FaceHead

Good to know that you can take possession of a property from a delinquent tenant for a mere £2k. Thanks for the info OP. I expect locksmiths' phones are ringing off the hook around the country as landlords realise they have been missing a trick.

Hasbeen

As tenants are protected, by British law and can get into multi thousands of pounds in debt by not paying their rent to Landlords. The Landlord has to abide to the multiple terms imposed by law in the contract, some tenant's unfortunately can just ignore these.

When eventually after months/years they are legally evicted the Landlord does not get any money back and indeed has to pay for damage to property then this action, in my opinion will give green light to other landlords to do the same. 

This Landlord broke the law and has to now pay £1850 small change LOL, to get rid of non paying tenant.

The vast majority of British landlords fortunately adhere to the law. However certain new Landlords are slum Landlords who ignore British laws and do tend to rent out to certain new tenants.

And do have their own ways of implementing/interpreting the eviction process?  

caprikid1

moneysavinghero said:

Maybe we need a new name for Landlords. Calling them landlords gives them a feeling of superiority that leads to actions like this. Maybe if we called them tenantservants instead they would have more realistic expectations of their roles. 

Maybe we should stop refering to tenants like this as tenants and call them by their real name of squatters.