Here is a question to the blog clinic from Ross who is a landlord:
I am a landlord and have found myself in a very awkward situation. I let my property to a family on a 12 month lease, only a month into the tenancy I started receiving complaints from a neighbour and soon the police and the council were involved.
The problem has escalated into full blown feud and the council are putting me under enormous pressure to evict my tenants,
My predicament is that the tenancy has several months to run and the tenants have said they will not leave without a fight (perhaps literally) unless I pay for their moving costs.
What are the council’s powers regarding evicting private tenants and what are the implications if I do nothing at all?
The Council can do nothing to you, not officially anyway. As a landlord you cannot be held personally liable for the acts of your tenants.
If the tenancy has some ten months to run, it would not be easy for you to evict unless your tenants fell into arrears of rent (which presumably is not the case).
A claim for possession under one of the discretionary ‘bad tenant’ grounds could prove long winded and expensive if they defend the cases and you may not actually be able to get possession – for example if the Judge exercises his discretion to allow them to stay.
You could point out to the Council that if this were a Council property and you were the aggrieved neighbour, you would not be able to force the Council to evict – and there have been many cases where Councils have failed to evict in these circumstances.
You could also say that the tenants have agreed to move if their moving costs are paid and suggest the Council and/or the neighbours pay for this.
Finally – this case is another illustration of why it is not really in landlords interests to give longer fixed terms.
Speaking as a council worker I suspect that this is the anti Social Behaviour team, or a version of it. Trying to bring pressure to bear to solve a problem for them – probably because the neighbour has written to their MP who has in turn written to the council who have to be seen to be doing something to keep the MP happy/quiet.
Tessa you analogy with reversing the position and ordering the council to evict a bad tenant is spot on
“The Council can do nothing to you, not officially anyway. As a landlord you cannot be held personally liable for the acts of your tenants.
That depends whereabouts you are in the country and what kind of property have.
In Salford, Oxford, Thanet, Newham, Burnley, HMO’s, Scotland, Wales (soon) etc landlords are responsible for a tenants behaviour.
Allegedly, in Scotland for example,
if a tenant is suspected of whistling after curfew the penalty for the landlord is public flogging followed by execution. Along with any offspring up to and including the third generation. All property, livestock and chattels goes to The State. Guilt is determined by the council ASB officer using the trusty ‘trial by clipboard and ducking stool’ method.
Here is Shelter’s more boring but no less draconian version;
http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/advice_topics/neighbourhood_issues/antisocial_behaviour/private_landlords_and_antisocial_behaviour/how_private_landlords_should_deal_with_antisocial_behaviour
I had forgotten about that ;) Maybe they are thinking of bringing back ordeals by fire and water? http://www.historyoflaw.co.uk/oaths-ordeals/
That link you give is for Scotland. I’m not sure what they get up to, up there (its another legal system) but I am pretty sure that down here, one person cannot be held legally responsible for the actions of another (save perhaps for your children sometimes).
If anyone thinks otherwise I would be interested to know their legal authority for this.
These tenants sound like a nightmare. If they’re causing such problems for the neighbours, it’s quite likely they are not looking after the property well? I’d issue a section 21 and make clear to all parties that although it’ll take a few months, they will be leaving, and as soon as the notice expires make an application to the court. If the landlord has started the eviction process, then the neighbours know there’s an end in sight, the council can see the landlord has acted. But it does depend a bit on the length of the fixed term remaining – if it’s anywhere near ten months I might consider having a stab at a section 8 possession. In my view people who behave as these tenants do should rightly find it hard to keep their home, being subjected to bad neighbours is a form of torture.
Last time I was involved in an ASB case with a private landlord the poor chap had racked up £5k in his own fees before giving up without an order. I’m not saying that’s fair, but it’s the danger of bringing a claim for anything outside a vanilla S21 or S8(gnds 8/10/11) claim.
ASB is awful – for the neighbours, the landlord of the property, and very often for at least some of the other people living in the property.
If I were this poor landlord I would be contacting the Homelessness team at the local authority and make sure that the manager there is aware of the situation, and aware that their colleagues in the neighborhood teams are pushing for possession proceedings. You have no way of knowing whether this tenant has a history.
The local authority should have a published policy on tackling Anti-social behavior. It would be worth getting a copy and being ready to challenge the authority if they are not following it. Eviction is usually touted as being the “last resort” – it generally just has the effect of moving the problem to another neighborhood. There may be other options that the authority should/could be following.
Not sure what action anyone could take against a private landlord though. Sadly for the landlord, ASB problems are usually accompanied by damage to property.
I agree.
This is why landlords need to be SO careful in choosing tenants and should NOT give a fixed term of more than six months to an untested tenant.
In some local authority areas there are selective licensing schemes that require landlords to be registered and approved under the 2004 Housing Act in order for them to lawfully let property.
If that applies in this case then the landlord should ensure that they maintain accurate and comprehensive records of tenancy management to ensure that they can show that they are a responsible landlord. Therefore in some areas an LA may be able to take some action against a landlord if they do not do anything in relation to the complaints. A licensing policy is likely only to require the landlord to undertake what is reasonable and not necessarily obtain possession order. Some other LAs may however suggest that they can take action against a landlord even if they do not actually have the power to do so.
If the tenant has a history of ASB it may be the case that they were directed to this tenancy by the Homeless Team or as a result of eviction from social housing. Homeless teams often seek to maintain a tenant in their home with support systems to control behaviour which is somewhat ironic if they have been evicted from council housing and then expect a private landlord to manage the family.
There can be a conflict between ASB and Homeless teams. If the landlord is a member of the National Landlords assoc or Residential Landlords assoc they may be able to provide more specific advice about the tenancy and the particular LA. The main point to remember is to maintain good tenancy records and perhaps also issue a S21 to expire at the end of the tenancy just in case you wish to pursue possession.
Ollie C has a good point, Tenants like this are becoming a more often herd story which is a shame and yes this is a tremendous amount of pressure for a landlord, but at the same time, in the tenancy agreement, this should potentially be specified, e.g. any actions resolving in Policed involvement may occur in eviction. that way you cover yourself. but that’s just from a personal point of view.
Jerry