Illegal possession due to tenant being sectioned?

Illegal possession due to tenant being sectioned?

10:23 AM, 21st November 2017, About 7 years ago 2

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A friend of mine was compulsorily sectioned under the mental health act two days ago following a failed suicide attempt. This followed an incident at the beginning of the week where he had an alcohol related mental breakdown and caused criminal damage to a neighbour’s car.

As a result, the landlady demanded he leave his flat within one week without having served any notice whatsoever. Already in a fragile state, this tipped him over the edge causing him to attempt suicide.

I am now trying to sort this matter out and need to establish if she has any grounds to evict him at short notice. He is on a one month rolling periodic tenancy and there are no rent arrears.

Clearly if she were to serve a valid section 21 notice then the minimum notice period would be two months. I understand that Section 8 would not apply as there has been no breach of contract; the damage to the car was nothing to do with the tenancy itself as it did not affect the flat and furthermore no charges have yet been brought, let alone any conviction.

Given the above, could there be any grounds under which she might be able to serve a notice for accelerated possession and if so what grounds might these be? Also, if she takes matters into her own hands and repossesses the flat, changes the locks and/or throws out his possessions, what action could be taken against her?

Any advice on this would be very gratefully received as this is is of acute concern at this very difficult time.

Mark


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Gary Dully

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14:54 PM, 21st November 2017, About 7 years ago

Your friend appears to be seriously ill and as such is protected from eviction by the law.

The mere fact that this landlady has attempted to evict your friend in such a manner, is a criminal offence.
By not serving adequate notice and doing it correctly, can be classed as harassment of her tenant.
They also have a tenancy agreement in place that should lay out what notice should be given.

Google the prevention from eviction act 1977 and read part II, section 5. Validity of notices to quit.

I am sick of landlords getting away with this, when I have to go through the nightmare of a section 8 notice, followed by a court hearing and finally a bailiff. (Approximately 5 months) to do it legally.

The grounds for eviction would be the committing a criminal offence, but it is a discretionary ground and the circumstances would be taken into consideration by the court.

Now on the other hand, why has the landlady been so aggressive?
Is this not a first indiscretion?

It doesn’t matter if your friend shot down a jumbo jet full of blind orphans, he is still entitled to a court hearing, if required, before he can be evicted.

I have had to evict a tenant that got 15 years for attempted murder, which was racially motivated and he won’t be coming back.
But you still have to get a court order, unless the tenant surrenders the tenancy or offers a written notice period of at least 4 weeks. (It took me nine months)

It’s not impossible, but if your friend doesn’t get his day in court, his landlady is in big trouble.

They are called no win, no fee solicitors and they will ream that lady another body cavity if she breaches the rules.

Accelerated possession will take a minimum of two months duration, if your friend doesn’t leave, she will need a court order, followed by a bailiff, (5 months approx in total).

It’s nice to hear that he isn’t in rent arrears, I would suggest that he keeps it that way.

Puzzler

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15:17 PM, 21st November 2017, About 7 years ago

Contact your local NHS Care team. They will be able to help him and advise. Also CAB.

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