UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,
I am new to this forum and need some advice. I have a lodger in my house living since last 2.5 years. I have been living in this house since 5 years and also have another property which has been rented out. The lodger paid deposit before moving and was not protected as I believe is not required by law. The lodger is sharing kitchen, bathroom and common areas with us. There is no formal written contract between us. Due to bad and aggressive behaviour, the lodger was given verbal notice on 4 different occasions in last 3 months I.e. one in October, one in November and two in December. The last two notices were given on 16/12/16 to leave on 19/12/16 and on 21/12/16 to leave immediately. The lodger ignored all 4 notices and refused to leave. Yesterday when I gave her final notice. she called her friend who tried to threatened me. She also told me that £350 was stolen from her room yesterday. I asked her to call police but she was bit hesitant so I called police and informed about money and friend's behaviour. Later on lodger also reported to police. Police arrived and asked me permission to go in her room to investigate and I permitted them. They took my details and have called her today to police station for her statement. She also confirmed to police that she does not accuse me of stealing and on many occasions in past I returned her valuables (watch, phones) when she left in kitchen, garden and common areas without realising for it.

I checked with Shelters who advised me to leave her belongings outside when she is not home and change the locks. They also mentioned that she being Excluded Occupier I don't need to give written notice as verbal notices are sufficient. I should avoid any type of arguments/personal contacts with her and if she or her friend becomes aggressive or violent, I should report to police.

My question to forum is
1) can I legally change the locks and leaving her stuff outside?
2) Do I need to inform her regarding eviction and to collect her stuff from outside? Who is responsible if something gets stolen while her belongings are lying outside?
3) Shall I just change the locks and ask her to come to collect her stuff with police? For how long do I need to wait for her to collect her belongings? ( I really don't want to let her in and
     she may refuse to come with police)

Thanks

I don't know about leaving a Lodger's belongings outside, but you can certainly change the locks and deny access - then, upon their return, you can pass them their stuff through the door...

Leaving their stuff outside in the cold, wind and rain might mean something easily gets damaged... or, as you say, stolen. How can the Lodger be in any way responsible if that happens, the only person liable would be you. So be careful, but do what you need to do to remove the Lodger.

Be wary of advice from a forum (especially my own)
Always do your own research

I think what Shelter actually mean is that for the purposes of the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 your 'tenant' is effectively an occupier of the premises under an 'excluded licence'.
This is because under s 3A2 of the Act
A tenancy or licence is excluded if:
(a) under its terms the occupier shares any accommodation with the landlord or licensor; and
(b) immediately before the [] licence was granted and also at the time it comes to an end, the [] licensor occupied as his only or principal home premises and [ ] the shared accommodation formed part [of that house]

Which is the present case.

For an excluded tenant (and these are mainly tenants sharing facilities with the landlord in his main household) only requirement is a that 'reasonable notice' is given. This is usually related to the length of rental period. Ultimately, the reasonableness of the Notice period may be for the courts to decide, as in some cases, immediate notice may be held to be reasonable. The notice does not have to be in writing, but in your case you have served all these.

Therefore you can go the next stage and change the locks (I would suggest on your front and exterior doors as well).

The problem then is that under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977 you have now become the bailee (which means reluctant custodian) of the 'tenants' property and are now responsible for that property.  They can actually claim against you if you dispose or damage it.

So now the nub of the problem ...how to return goods to a potentially violent bailor (your ex-tenant) .... I suspect passing them through the letter box wont work.

Option 1.  Call the police (not the emergency number) and tell them you fear violence if this person is let back into the property to collect their belongings
Option 2.  My brother came up with this one - genius.  We had a group of violent tenants in fact the entire area was in fear of them so they were evicted with police/blue lights and bailiffs in stab vests etc.  After the police led them away my brother hired a man with a van and put all their stuff in the van while they were gone and then texted them the number of the van man.  The van man had experience in this before so wasn't fazed at all.  They got their stuff and we never heard from them again.  [you might want to be careful about jewelry and valuables though].

Hope it all works out for you.
Best of luck