UK Landlord Forum / Life

I have a friend who is going through the S8
process

My background is criminal law - beyond a reasonable doubt

I understand this falls within civil territory and therefore balance of probabilities

Under the S8 process, he's going for breach of tenancy on two counts illegal / immoral activity and nuisance and annoyance to neighbours

I'm aware a number of sworn statements have been obtained from the neighbours. The landlord has redacted the details of the witnesses, but I am not sure the court will?

I'm wondering where judges stand on discretionary evictions?

If the test is 'is it more likely than not that he's breached his tenancy',  that seems like quite a low bar for taking someone's 'home' off him?

So if 6 of the neighbours are putting him in for criminall behaviour in various forms and annoyance and nuisance, via sworn statements am I right in thinking, excuses not withstanding, the low bar has been likely met?

The landlord need to prove the grounds for eviction, and then the court have to consider that it is reasonable to grant an order for possession, which may be suspended. Good luck, your friend's going to need it.

https://landlordlawblog.co.uk/2016/05/05/grounds-eviction-ground-14-nuisance-annoyance-criminal-conviction/

KTC...

No luck required. The ground you cite ISN'T the ground being used...

He is using the GENERIC,  'Any breach of tenancy' and the grounds he is citing are the tenancy that says no illegal / immoral act...and no annoyance or nuisance to neighbours

No convictions or indictable offences required....

The same princples applies. (BTW, convictions is only one of the options in g14, there's (a) and (aa).) The landlord need to prove the ground and then need to convince the court that it is reasonable to make an order for possession, and I would assume the landlord also want it to actually take effect and not suspended. Like I said, good luck, your friend's going to need it.

This will be ground 12, not 14 - so no requirement for the convictions and other associated nonsense

I think there are about 12 different grounds evidenced under Ground 12 in this application. 3 are criminal, the rest are annoyance/nuisance

I will report back!

Proving the grounds to meet the civil burden is not a high threshold...I spent 30 years doing it to the criminal standard. As for the reasonableness, I guess it's what mood the judge is in. Does the defendant wear a tie etc etc

We shall see...

The chances in real life of getting a possession claim on the basis proposed are pretty remote.
What the landlord is asking the court to do would be disproportionate without a whole load of other things happening - like the police and local authority being involved.

You're asking a court to take someone's home away because someone's accused them of something.
Absent a conviction, the tenant is innocent until proven guilty - statements from neighbours notwithstanding.

I shall report back! In about a year, probably!