Tenant broken boiler, refusing me access to check it
Discussion
MrBig said:
What does that mean in laymans terms? You can now have them removed from the property?
They've got 14 days to get out. If they're still in the property after that, then we can apply to have bailiffs go and turf them out.If the tenants want to be a persistent, then they could be in the property for another couple of month at least (depending on how long it takes to get a warrant of possession).
MrBig said:
Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that. I really hope you manage to get this sorted out with minimal hassle and cost. Just goes to show having a BTL is not the cash cow its often purported to be.
Including outstanding rent, interest and court costs, we're up to £5872, but it's pointless chasing them for it once they're out as we'll not see a penny of it back.Petrus1983 said:
My parents neighbours house had fallen into a right state (old lady living there and things got on top of her) - the property was auctioned ‘as is’ and still made a decent amount to a local part time property person.
Once we've got access we'll evaluate the condition of the property, work out what we can get for it in it's current state, and see if it's worthwhile spending a few grand on it to freshen it up.At the minute we're thinking of just sticking it up for auction.
There's a few up for auction at the minute with guide prices anywhere between £2,000 and £50,000. Most seem to be around the £20-25k mark. It owes us about £30k, so we're going to take a hit, but I think we'd be happy if we could get £20k.
Fastpedeller said:
I feel for you. Yes, needs some careful thought. No point in spending say 5k cleaning it up to get 15k, if you can sell it for 12k as is.
Good luck.
That's it.Good luck.
I've looked through recent auctions, and it seems that many of these properties are selling for £28-30k so I'm hopeful.
https://auctionhouselondon.co.uk/lot/82-sixth-stre...
https://auctionhouselondon.co.uk/lot/11-ninth-stre...
https://auctionhouselondon.co.uk/lot/36-fourth-str...
elanfan said:
My bet is they’ll go but leave you a houseful of crap to clear which you’ll have to keep for 3 months in case they want it back.
Sorry
More than likely.Sorry
The yard was full of rubbish, but the council have been out and spoke with the tenant and agreed that the council would get a company to come out and clean the rubbish out of the yard, so that's one less job for us to do.
The tenants have moved out, but because they can't afford to hire a van they won't hand the keys back until they have the money to hire a van and collect their larger possessions.
They've confirmed they've moved out, and we know that their UC claim has been changed to pay their new landlord, as far as I'm concerned they've abandoned the property and I want to go in, change the locks and give them two weeks to get their stuff. They're arguing that it's illegal and if they go to the property and find the locks changed, they'll call the police. It feels like they're trying to inflict more financial outlay on us just because they can.
If we wait for bailiffs we are looking at another 6 weeks at least.
I'm consulting with our solicitor on what we can and can't do next.
They've confirmed they've moved out, and we know that their UC claim has been changed to pay their new landlord, as far as I'm concerned they've abandoned the property and I want to go in, change the locks and give them two weeks to get their stuff. They're arguing that it's illegal and if they go to the property and find the locks changed, they'll call the police. It feels like they're trying to inflict more financial outlay on us just because they can.
If we wait for bailiffs we are looking at another 6 weeks at least.
I'm consulting with our solicitor on what we can and can't do next.
KTF said:
Is that not tough s
t to them as they are no longer tenants and all their stuff is now 'yours'?
My understanding is that legally, until they hand the keys back we can't take possession without a bailiff unless we reasonably believe that they've abandoned the property.t to them as they are no longer tenants and all their stuff is now 'yours'?If we do go and change the locks, they could take us to court for illegally evicting them, and it would be up to us to show that we believed they'd abandoned the property. Whether it would get that far, I don't know.
So, I went past the house the morning and heard water running down the bathroom waste pipe. I nipped to the shop and when I went back to the house the water was still running. Went home, got my tools (and wife) and went down with the intention of breaking in.
As I was drilling the lock, a group of people from the council went past who we've had contact with previously, and the basically helped us to smash the bordered up back door in as they have emergency powers. I managed to change the lock on one door, and the council arranged for the police to come out and break the lock on the other door. This is all good for us as it covers our back should the tenant dare to want to take things further.
As for the house. It's horrid. Kitchen units have doors and drawers hanging off, they've destroyed the gas fire, ripped out an alarm system, damaged walls. The kitchen ceiling is falling in from all of the water from when they've left the tap on, the carpets and floors are destroyed, there's rubbish EVERYWHERE, including fag ends, and the house stinks of dog wee. On the laminate on one of the bedroom floors there's puddles of wee and dog poo.
It looks way worse than it really is.
The council are coming back out later to board up the doors and windows with those boards like look like PVC doors and windows.
As I was drilling the lock, a group of people from the council went past who we've had contact with previously, and the basically helped us to smash the bordered up back door in as they have emergency powers. I managed to change the lock on one door, and the council arranged for the police to come out and break the lock on the other door. This is all good for us as it covers our back should the tenant dare to want to take things further.
As for the house. It's horrid. Kitchen units have doors and drawers hanging off, they've destroyed the gas fire, ripped out an alarm system, damaged walls. The kitchen ceiling is falling in from all of the water from when they've left the tap on, the carpets and floors are destroyed, there's rubbish EVERYWHERE, including fag ends, and the house stinks of dog wee. On the laminate on one of the bedroom floors there's puddles of wee and dog poo.
It looks way worse than it really is.
The council are coming back out later to board up the doors and windows with those boards like look like PVC doors and windows.
FiF said:
Presumably OP is now ordering a big skip and just rapidly transferring all their crap, sorry possessions, into said skip.
There are no possessions, well, a sofa, but I doubt they want that back. Everything they've left is pure rubbish.We're arranging someone to go out and clear the house for us.
InitialDave said:
Well, at least they're gone now, so it won't get any worse.
Keep lots of photos/videos of it all, so if you do cross paths with their new landlord, you can pass it on to them.
We don't know exactly where they've moved, but between neighbours and the council we know it's close by, so maybe just in another street.Keep lots of photos/videos of it all, so if you do cross paths with their new landlord, you can pass it on to them.
thatsprettyshady said:
I've been following this from Day 1, glad you have access and the tenants are gone. It's been an eye opening thread regarding what bad tenants can get away with regarding payment/access.
The final "parting shot" is a shocker, imagine if you'd have either waited a week or given them £50 for the keys, also sounds like the van wasn't needed and the ploy was designed to (as you say) cause as much damage as possible. Mental.
I don't understand how these people have a new landlord? Did you get contacted for references?
The problem with this area is that if you relied on credit checks and landlord references, you'd never let your property out.The final "parting shot" is a shocker, imagine if you'd have either waited a week or given them £50 for the keys, also sounds like the van wasn't needed and the ploy was designed to (as you say) cause as much damage as possible. Mental.
I don't understand how these people have a new landlord? Did you get contacted for references?
Tenant is giving us until 6:30 to give her a set of keys, or she's coming to our home, and if we still don't give her a set of keys, then she's going to break in and take back possession.
She's arguing that what we've done is illegal, and she can legally take the property back.
The options she's giving us are, give her the keys, or £100. We're on the phone to the police now as this is going to far.
She's arguing that what we've done is illegal, and she can legally take the property back.
The options she's giving us are, give her the keys, or £100. We're on the phone to the police now as this is going to far.
Edited by TheBinarySheep on Friday 11th February 17:39
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