Tenants family member being abuse

propertyrental

Options are

* do nothing. provided rent paid and no damage, it's a private matter

* S21 to evict the tenant and all guests, subtenants, licencees - make sure S21 will be valid before serving

* report to police. If there's a conviction you could use S8 G7. If anti social behavior S8 G14

* suggest to tenant (mother) that she evict her son (her licencee)

* arrange to do an inspection with the Tenant (mother). If mother is present and permits you to enter, the son cannot deny access as he's not the tenant.

_Penny_Dreadful

s_m_2 said:

I am writing in need of advice on how to proceed further.

I have privately rented a 3-bedroom house to a family consisting of an elderly couple on housing rent, along with their 2 adult sons and a daughter. The rental agreement is in the wife's name. The issue at hand is that one of their sons has antisocial behavior issues; he never grants access to myself for repair work and often shouts at me. Additionally, he abuses and threatens his siblings and parents. It's worth noting that he receives housing benefit. Despite numerous complaints from the siblings about his behavior, the parents, who are the main tenants, have always assured me that they would handle the matter internally. However, I suspect that he pressures them into saying so, and I also doubt that he contributes towards the bills or groceries. Today, the mother (the named tenant) called me in tears to report that he had tampered with the wiring, causing the internet to shut down. As a result, the siblings' work was disrupted, and now he is threatening her with police involvement. The mother reached out to me for help. Could someone guide me on the best course of action moving forward, as I've had enough with him and want him out of the house as soon as possible? Thanks.

You can’t get him out of the house without evicting the whole family. You don’t even have a contract with the son since your only contract is with the person named on the tenancy agreement, the mother. 

I’d do as @gwynlas suggests and report the elder abuse. I’d also get an electrician round there pronto if the son has been tampering with the electrical wiring. If the mother wants the son gone then she needs to boot him out because she’s the tenant and the son is only there on her say so. 

s_m_2

Updated: I've had an engineer come to fix the light, and it's now working. However, he reported that the damage was deliberate vandalism; the switch was left disconnected, live parts exposed, and some lights were left non-functional. Can you please guide me on how to write a letter of warning? I want to prevent further damage to my property and avoid ongoing expenses.

_Penny_Dreadful

s_m_2 said:

Updated: I've had an engineer come to fix the light, and it's now working. However, he reported that the damage was deliberate vandalism; the switch was left disconnected, live parts exposed, and some lights were left non-functional. Can you please guide me on how to write a letter of warning? I want to prevent further damage to my property and avoid ongoing expenses.

The only way to prevent further damage is to get the son out. The only recourse you have to do that is to issue a Section 21 or 8 to the tenant. Just because you issue a notice doesn’t mean you have to act upon it so perhaps serving notice could be the warning shot you need. Any other letter is going to be pointless if the tenant will not evict her son. 

Jude57

s_m_2 said:

Updated: I've had an engineer come to fix the light, and it's now working. However, he reported that the damage was deliberate vandalism; the switch was left disconnected, live parts exposed, and some lights were left non-functional. Can you please guide me on how to write a letter of warning? I want to prevent further damage to my property and avoid ongoing expenses.

You need to also consider that, now you are aware that this man has deliberately caused damage to the electrical installation of the house, your insurance will be invalidated if you don't immediately take all reasonable steps to ensure that the installation is safe (hopefully your electrician has done so) and that there's no repetition. The only way to be certain is eviction. I'd suggest you get proper, paid for legal advice. The cost of that will be insignificant compared to the costs you could face for not doing so.

sheramber

Is  it an option to advise the mother that unless the son leaves you will have  to evict them?

Alderbank

Jude57 said:

s_m_2 said:

Updated: I've had an engineer come to fix the light, and it's now working. However, he reported that the damage was deliberate vandalism; the switch was left disconnected, live parts exposed, and some lights were left non-functional. Can you please guide me on how to write a letter of warning? I want to prevent further damage to my property and avoid ongoing expenses.

You need to also consider that, now you are aware that this man has deliberately caused damage to the electrical installation of the house, your insurance will be invalidated if you don't immediately take all reasonable steps to ensure that the installation is safe (hopefully your electrician has done so) and that there's no repetition.

Why do you say that?

I'm sure the OP has considered exactly that and as a prudent landlord he has landlord insurance for exactly that eventuality.
As an example, DirectLine landlord insurance says

...you can include damage carried out by the tenants on purpose by taking out Malicious Damage by Tenants cover. This will cover you up to the sum insured of the Buildings and Contents cover you've chosen.

For instance, some landlords are unlucky enough to have tenants who vandalise the property. This can happen at any time, but can be more likely to happen at the end of a tenancy if things end badly, perhaps in eviction. Tenants might punch holes in doors and walls, rip out kitchen units, or vandalise the walls or furniture.

At the worst extreme, a tenant might set up a cannabis farm that could cause thousands of pounds of structural damage that would be costly and time-consuming to put right.

propertyrental

You could charge the tenant (mother) for the electrician's bill as it was deliberate damage by a guest of the tenant.

But as others have said, you need to get son out by

* S21 to end tenancy and evict everyone

* S8 (if applicable) to end tenancy and evict everyone

* persuade tenant (mother) to evict licencee (son)

If mother receives bill, and understands she'll be charged for future damage too, and also understands she might be evicted, that might encourage her to kick son out.

macman

I think you need to decide if you are their LL or their social worker. The two roles are not really compatible. 
As above, definitely bill the tenant for the wilful damage: she is liable for damage caused by her guests.

FlyMeSomewhere79

For me I don't think you are creepy either, I think they are drawing in and you are a person that obviously cares plus you have vested interest in making sure your property isn't compromised.

What you want to do is really go down the health and safety aspect of it and tell the tenant that their son must leave or they'll all have to evicted because you cannot as a landlord allow wiring to be tampered with and left in a dangerous state because there are laws and duties of care you have to abide by. Vandalism and then making your access to repair it difficult makes it a legally non compliant situation - what if he mucks about with something that causes a house fire! It's not just your property but what other properties is he risking that may be attached to yours. He's a health and safety risk. 

You can use The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005 to throw at them in a warning letter as safeguarding and maintenance is part of that legislation. If you had to have a fire risk assessment done for your property, that guy immediately takes it into the realms of unacceptably high risk.