UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

Me and my wife purchased a property outside the A406 in London about a year ago. Around about the same time a long term friend of mine who is a builder informed me that he was trying to sell his property and buy one too - however as time has gone on I have found all this to be untrue.

He is currently the tenant that is living at our property where initially he was just using our property as storage space for his belongings with the intention to help along the sale of a property he apparently owned by making that property empty. So verbally we agreed that he could use our property as storage space for his belongings and in return he would carry out some refurbishment work to our home and no financial transactions took place at all. As I considered him to be a trusted long term friend of mine I just wanted to help him as we'd just been through the process and knew how stressful it can be.

He then asked me for a further favour which was to set up a tenancy agreement and put the council tax under his name to enable to assist getting his children into a school . We filled out an assured short term tenancy for unfurnished properties (AST) from WH Smith (I believe it was from a brand by the name of "Lawpack") between me as the landlord and him as the tenant to start from 08/09/15 with a fixed term of 6 months which I believe ended on 08/03/16. This AST clearly states that the rent is Nil and the deposit is Nil.

He has in return gifted to do work which I have not said no to and I have intentionally set up the AST between me and him whereby I verbally explained to him if you wish for your family to visit or stay over from time to time then the property must be safe and not a building site. I must also bring to your attention at about the same time a second AST of similar dates was completed between possibly my wife as the landlord and him as the tenant which showed a rent value which I believe was £1250.00 per month and from what I remember Nil deposit. The only reason why a 2nd AST was completed was in case the 1st one didn't appear believable for the school to accept. I cannot find the 2nd AST and am unsure if he has it still.

No rent has been acquired and I have now clearly told him not to do any further work and to inform me of any health and safety hazards so I can make the necessary arrangements to put them right. There has also been no written agreement for him to carry out any work other than a quotation indicating the work that he has proposed to carry out.

He agreed to handing over the keys to me on 06/03/16 which I have clear evidence of and he agreed that he was going to move out on that day. When I tried to get the keys off of him on 06/03/16 his wife was there and she objected to releasing our home back to us and claimed that she is a part of the tenancy with the kids, that she will not leave, that she has full rights, that she is going to string out staying in the property for at least 7 months, that she will sue us if I remove her or any of the items in our house and finally get social services and and other organizations involved against us by reporting to them that we've been negligent towards her and her kids by giving them a property in disrepair. I however firmly believe property is genuinely not in disrepair.

I explained clearly that I cannot afford to continue paying the mortgage at our home as well as rent and bills for where we are currently staying especially where my wives contract at work is coming to an end this month. We spoke via messaging afterwards and it is documented that he offered to pay our rent and bills for where we are currently staying which he has for this month.

I have approached a few solicitors already which have unfortunately have different takes on this and we are unsure who to trust so I wanted to ask in a forum.

Can anyone clarify if there's strength behind all the threats that my tenants wife has made.

What are their rights and what are our rights?

As the rent is nil and the deposit is nil does this tenancy even fall within the Housing Act?
If so are the rights of the tenants minimal and could I just issue them a letter requesting that they need to vacate by a certain date then change the locks on that date if they dont?

This is our only house and we do not own any other property so does this make a difference?

How do I go about getting our home back and what procedures do I need to follow to gain possession?

How long would this process take in total?

If we end up illegally evicting somehow then what are the consequences?

Respectfully like anyone in my position I just need to get them out as quickly as possible therefore we would appreciate the opinions of people in the know on this matter.

Finally can anyone recommend a good, trustworthy solicitor please?

Sorry for the long post.

Always be wary of advice from a blog especially my own
Do your own research

Been away so missed this one.
I suspect OPW so will be brief...

Wife has rights through Family Law Act 1996 ...her not being on the tenancy agreement doesn't necessarily get you out.
Not sure where the 7 months has come from though and this only matters if the bloke is moving out and she is staying put? Are they divorcing or something? She would have to go and get an Occupation Order from the court (these usually last 6 months) if the named tenant tried to end the tenancy.  Your post is unclear about this particular aspect of the situation.
Her claim of negligence is unlikely to succeed if the house was already in the condition you say it was when she moved in and it was the tenant doing the work/damage.  You cannot claim negligence for defect that already susbsisted.  However it shouldn't have been rented in the first place.  She could complain to the council assuming she has complained in writing to you and waited (reasonable amount time) 14 days for you to respond....

Her rights would be those of the person named on the tenancy agreement
Your rights are those of the landlord as if she were your tenant

Rent is nil so not an AST

Even a Common Law tenancy agreement is subject to the Protection of Eviction Act 1977 you need to serve notice
Don't you dare just go and change the locks on them .. You will be liable for harassment and a nice fine

Doesn't matter if this is your only home. It might  have done if this were an AST and you were moving in and serving a section 8.

Process to recover is to serve a Notice To Quit with appropriate notice (depends on rent period) must include information per (Prescribed Information) Regulations 1988

Process might take up to 6 months - depends on courts in your area

Illegally evicting? Means you are breaking the law...weird question... Harassment = fine + maybe  ASBO + maybe prison.  ....if a child is locked out your negligence will be open to all sorts of damage

To your 'Respectfully' comment I might respectfully suggest all was ok until your second to last question.

I know a good property lawyer took me 15 years to find one but he isn't cheap... He is based in South London but probably could cover your area.
Get in touch if you want his details

Finally the existence of the second AST may well make a lot of the above redundant.
Step 1 is to figure out which agreement you have.

Best of luck