We prepared and furnished one of our properties for our daughter, the assured shorthold tenancy was solely in her name. She was heavily pregnant and along with her boyfriend she moved into the property. She became very ill she suffered mental and physical abuse,and after 12 days returned to parents, he stayed at the property. She contracted sepsis and days later gave birth,her mental health had taken a battering she was sectioned for three months with baby. He stayed at the property and paid three months rent while she was in hospital in a poor mental state and unable to manage her affairs. She eventually came home with baby, whom he snatched on first contact, and took her to court within days. He hasn’t payed rent since then 8-11-2016, our daughter signed a deed of surrender 31/12/2016 thus ending her tenancy on 31/1/2017 end of the AST. Yesterday he said that the council has said because he has paid some rent a tenancy between us and him exist. Our daughter and ourselves have been through every shade of hell with this man and we need to untangle him from our lives, he has took us to the cleaners both emotionally and financially. I have tried to keep this objective in background, The tenancy began 1/08/2016, we really don’t want him in the property another 2 months if possible, but we need as near to a water tight solution, as he is very clued up. Thankyou.
Question
Landlord Wants Tenant to Leave (England)
Evicting a occupier/tenant ?
Answer
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5 Comments
There is a general principle that for a tenancy to exist there must be an intention to create legal relations. For example, if I go on holiday and leave my decorator the keys to the house for decorating and on my return the decorator is living there and refuses to leave, there was no intention to create a legal relationship of landlord and tenant and so no tenancy exists. This principle could possibly be applied here.
However, even a licensee (which they would be if no tenancy) is entitled to reasonable notice which in this case could be in the region of a month.
I think though the fact you accepted rent for his occupation as a home has seriously affected the intention to create a legal relationship argument and therefore he is more likely a tenant than not. In our view, assuming he is a tenant is the safest way to deal with this. You would need to give two months notice (but would have had to give one month if licence anyway) but the actual court order would be relatively straight forward. You could spend several months or even longer arguing about whether he is a tenant or not whereas if you just say he is a tenant there is no more arguing.
I also think the fact you say he hasn’t paid rent further clarifies he must be a tenant. If he wasn’t a tenant, he wouldn’t owe you any rent.
Presumably, there appears to be no reason why you shouldn’t also serve a section 8 notice on the ground of rent arrears. He is clearly arguing he is a tenant so can’t therefore deny he is liable to pay rent (and has paid rent in the past)!
Please see our possession notice wizard and you will see additional suggestions for a verbal tenancy.
Our view is that from the point he started paying rent and was in the house on his own, the old tenancy ended and his verbal assured shorthold tenancy started. That certainly seems to be what he is arguing and we see no reason to go against that.
Thankyou for your response, we have taken on board your advice and navigated your site to download a section 21 form,in view to serve upon this “man” which it appears that we cannot serve this because this man requested a Housing health and safety system regulation 2005 inspection, through the local council on the 15/12/2016 which we were aghast by at the time, this flagged bibs on ceiling pendant requiring affixing? additional smoke alarms required.(2 were fitted when we did it)According to the section 21 itinerary notes we cannot serve a section 21 until just over 6 months after the date of the letter from the council. If this is so we cannot serve a section 21 until the 16/06/2017!!!!! Do we need to then give two months allowing this “man” to stay in our property until 16/08/2017? And secondly because the house was intended for our daughter, her tenancy gave her massively reduced rent as we wanted her to be able to save for a deposit to buy her own property as parents we wanted to help her. We have no desire to extend this favour to this “man” , how do we stand as regards getting the property correctly rentaly asssessed? Both legally and through the council, as he will be wanting to claim housing benefit, which was declined for him in November as they agreed he wasn’t a tenant. If he is a tenant how do we attain rental arrears. Also how do we stand do we need to draw up a written tenancy? Can we apply the correct rental value? This would be at least two hundred pounds a month more than our daughters tenancy. These words are very difficult to write, he is a very nasty piece of work,on many levels, he has caused my daughter and overselves irrevocable damage. And obviously he has been several steps ahead, as he has in depth advice from a source who rents properties. Ideally we need him as far removed from our lives as possible as he toxic.
Answered on phone.
In addition to this, I would suggest your daughter seeks an occupation order: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/relationships/relationship-problems/relationship-breakdown-and-housing/common-issues-relationship-breakdown-and-housing/relationship-breakdown-and-housing-occupation-orders/
As these can be granted, under serious enough circumstances, even when the abuser is the owner or tenant and the victim has no direct interest in the property, as your daughter was the legal tenant and was forced from her home by this individual who had no direct legal interest in the property, surely your daughter is entitled to an occupation order to remove her abuser from her home?
Thankyou I will look in to it