UK Landlord Forum / Life

The tenant has left the property owing rent arrears but has left other family members there who are not on the tenancy.  Would these people fall under the term "squatters" or "trespassers" ?  and would I then be able to get them evicted without a court order for possession and simply call the police to evict them?

Police don't deal with civil matters.

DO NOT TAKE MONEY OFF THESE PEOPLE OR ACKNOWLEDGE THEY ARE 'TENANTS' OF YOUR PROPERTY!

You need to evict the actual tenants as if they were there.  The bailiffs will clear out any waifs and strays they find at the property.

Section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (the2012 Act) came into force on 1 September 2012. It creates an offence of squatting in a residential building. This offence is committed if a person (a) is in a residential building as a trespasser having entered it as a trespasser, (b)knows or ought to know that he or she is a trespasser, and (c) is living in the building or intends to live there for any period.
Proving that family members who are" visiting" the tenant for a few weeks (as I have seen claimed) satisfy the conditions of the offence is nigh on impossible. Only way to go with any degree of certainty is to get a possession order.

Hello. I am interested to know how you got on as I have a similar problem as below
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We have a tenant where section 21 has been served and as he decided to stay we are starting court action to evict. He also owes 2 months rent unpaid.

He should have left the property on the 8th of December 2014 after we gave 2 months notice to vacate but up to the middle of January he remains in the property

Today (14th Janaury 2015) the tenant called me to say he had left the property and would not be returning.

....BUT... his girlfriend and her 15 year old son remain in the property and are refusing to leave claiming that we have to evict her through the courts which will cost us near on £1000 to do so.

The girlfriend is not named on the tenancy agreement at all ... Just the gentlemans name who has now left the property (the let is managed through a letting agent so it's an official let with all paperwork in order etc)

When the gentleman initially let the property he did not state that anyone else would be staying at the property.

My question is ....how do we get the girlfriend to leave. Do we have to evict her through the courts, or is this not necessary as her name is not on the tenancy agreement.

If we do have to evict through the courts, will it mean we will actually end taking court action against gentleman (the official tenant) as the girlfriend is not connected to any official paperwork

The gentleman hasn't returned the keys to the agent and hasn't officially checked out, yet has informed me verbally by telecom that he has gone and will not return.

Should he be taking his own action to remove his girlfriend rather than us going down the court eviction road.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Tony. Why have you hijacked Jarch's thread ?

Well why not?

Surely one is better than two, and the circumstances are similar.

And generally it's nice to help.

Unless you were joking and I look knob now?

smiley face added just in case!