UK Landlord Forum / Life

Our tenant gave notice to vacate 2 months ago. He paid the rent for his notice period (although he paid late). He should have handed the keys back on the 15th November. the last day of his tenancy, but failed to.

The property (a one bed flat and a workshop) still contains lots of his possessions.

He has been quite obnoxious in behaviour, aggressive and will not enter into any dialogue. We tried to work with him but his aggressive attitude and lack of co-operation means he has now lost our goodwill. 

He has changed many locks on the flat and the workshop such that we do not have access to either. He has screwed shut one workshop door and secured the other with 2 padlocks preventing entry.

His view is simple in that he will hand the keys back when HE is ready to and he has said as much!

He has moved into new accommodation at "vast cost to himself" (his words) so he is not homeless and he seems to blame us that he has incurred expense in moving. The flat and workshop still contain a lot of items and he claims he will be moving them himself rather than hiring help. We doubt he has the ability to move these items (some are heavy woodworking equipment).

We have written to him to say that we consider that

(1) as he has not tendered his keys and the flat & workshop are not empty, he is still in possession of the flat and is liable for rent and utilities until the keys are handed back.

(2) he can hand the keys back immediately and then we will serve notice under the Torts Act  1977  and he can arrange to meet and remove his stuff.

We expect he will ignore the letter (he has ignored previous letters regarding serious breeches of the AST (lock changes, antisocial behavour leading to 2 phone calls from the police to us, fitment of internal door locks and window bars).

We are considering approaching a solicitor to "get him out"? Is there any thing we can do to avoid the cost ?

Double rent, surely you should try it? Isn't it called something like "staying over"?

Quote from: Hippogriff on November 22, 2022, 08:33:55 AM
Double rent, surely you should try it? Isn't it called something like "staying over"?

Thought is was mesne.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/costs_of_renting/rents_and_rent_increases/payments_after_tenancy_ends#:~:text=When%20a%20former%20tenant%20remains,the%20former%20tenant%20was%20paying.