Interesting article about the perils or the rental market.Article by Emma Lunn of The Guardian.We tell two cautionary tales of rent eviction: one from a landlord's point of view and the other from a tenant'sTenant evictions are a thorny subject. On one side tenants say they are often evicted illegally, without reason, and far too often. On the other, landlords complain that ousting troublesome tenants is expensive and time-consuming. We've looked at two evictions – one from a landlord's point of view and the other from the tenant's, and offered a guide to your rights – whichever side you are on.The landlordLandlord Janet Beardsley endured a "year of hell" over a tenant who currently owes more than £20,280 in unpaid rent – and still has possession of her property.Beardsley, who lives in the US, used a letting agent to find and check references for a tenant for her three-bedroom property in Fulham, west London. It was let to a man we'll call "Dr X" in November 2012.Dr X signed a two-year tenancy agreement with a one-year break clause, paid the first month's rent of £2,700 and a £3,750 deposit, and moved in.But almost every month since then he has paid less than the agreed monthly rent, or no rent at all.Just six weeks after moving in, Dr X emailed Beardsley with a long list of repairs he said needed to be done before he would pay rent. The list has been seen by the Guardian and it is easy to see why Beardsley found the demands totally unreasonable."He saw the house before he moved in and was fine with it. But then he wanted it to be as warm as his native country, draft-free and all the doors and windows to be replaced," says Beardsley, "He also wanted a radiator installed in the downstairs toilet, which he said was unusable without one – but the loo is too small for a radiator. Other complaints included the freezer door being heavy to open and the laminate floor having a chip in it."Beardsley checked with local environmental health officials that the property was legally warm enough – it was, so she refused to change the windows or doors. In April 2013, with about £5,000 rent owed, she offered Dr X the chance to break the lease and move out, but he refused.She then issued a section 8 notice under which tenants can be evicted if they haven't paid a minimum of two months' rent – but Dr X was careful to keep his arrears just under the level for the notice to be valid.When Beardsley's son visited the property to discuss the £5,000 rent arrears, he says he was threatened by Dr X and the police were called – although no action was taken.Beardsley says that by September 2013 Dr X hadn't paid any rent for the previous three months, and she hired eviction experts Landlord Action who issued a section 21 notice (this can be issued two months before the end of a fixed contract). "In November the police escorted me to the house and a man and a woman were there. The woman said 'you have to have a possession order'(to evict) so they clearly knew what they were doing," says Beardsley. "They were playing the system. Despite the section 21 notice, Dr X refused to leave. By this point he owed £17,600 plus my legal fees. At a court hearing in December 2013 I was given a possession order, but he refused to hand over the keys. He changed the locks and took the new keys with him."Meanwhile Beardsley checked the information given on Dr X's references and which was supposedly checked by the letting agent. She says that despite calling himself a doctor, there was no record of him on the General Medical Council register. He'd also lied about his previous landlord's details.Throughout the tenancy, neighbours complained about loud music playing at the property and shouting both inside the house and in the street. Litter was also strewn all over the garden. She says Thames Water is pursuing Dr X for unpaid bills, while British Gas's fraud department is investigating him for opening accounts in other people's names.Beardsley is unclear whether Dr X is still in the property, and believes another individual may now be there.Bailiffs are due to carry out an eviction on 9 April."The whole situation has been devastating for my family. Our lives have been on hold and debts have been mounting up. On top of what he owes me I've paid more than £3,000 in air fares back and forth from the US to sort this out, and £1,000 in legal fees. Because I had to fly over twice in December, I was worried about my job," she says.Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action, says cases like Beardsley's are not uncommon. "We've been helping Janet get her property back from this man. We've served the notices on her behalf and, fingers crossed, she gets her property back soon," he says. "We deal with a lot of cases like this and it can be stressful and emotional for the landlord, not to mention expensive, when they have to go through the evictions process."The Guardian has been unable to contact Dr X for comment.The tenantRosie Walker says she was evicted from a house in multiple occupation in Hackney in October 2012 after asking the landlord for repairs to be done.Walker, 36, paid £556 a month plus bills for her room and says the landlord was difficult to deal with from the start of the tenancy. She says: "He had no concept of the laws surrounding renting and thought he had complete power over the property. I tried to communicate that there were laws he had to stick to, and even contacted a tenancy relations officer at Hackney Council – but they weren't much help."After a couple of months of living in the house, Walker's landlord announced a 30% rent rise. As all the tenants were on a joint tenancy already running before she moved in, Walker was forced to agree. However, she negotiated a lower increase – and agreed to pay if a list of repairs were done. Issues including broken furniture, faulty electrics, mould in the bathroom, damp, and security problems, she says."I even offered to replace a chest of drawers myself and deduct the £70 cost from the rent," she says. "But a year later nothing had been done, so I sent a polite email reminding him about the repairs – which prompted him to issue a section 21 eviction notice because I was 'too much hassle'."Walker's landlord initially tried to evict all five tenants, but later told two they could stay if Walker moved out."It was all very divisive and the landlord took advantage of the fact that none of us knew each other before we moved in," she says. "Everyone left in the end. The last two months of the tenancy were very difficult as he would just let himself in without our permission and show people round."Walker's landlord had never produced paperwork proving he'd protected her deposit so, doubting that it would be returned and sure she hadn't damaged the property in any way, she withheld the last month's rent – the same sum as the deposit."It was an emotionally distressing time, horrible and unfair, but that's the power private landlords have," she says. "Although we had a big house with a garden there were five of us sharing a kitchen and bathroom so we didn't have much space. He never invested any money in the property and it was really shabby. "It was the third time I'd been evicted without a reason and you can't do anything about it."Walker's landlord denied the allegations. In a statement, he said (in broken English): "All the facts are fabricated. There was no eviction – at end of the tenancy myself and other residents did not want to renew the tenancy with her. All viewing was arranged with the lead resident present at the time of viewing. She also withheld the last month's rent, which was a breach of the tenancy. All maintenance was carried out in accordance with the terms of the tenancy agreement.But Walker says: "I have kept all the emails. The landlord constantly tried to play us off against each other by offering different deals. Lots of the other tenants were international and did not know anything about tenants" rights in the UK, though I tried to tell them. The landlord coming into my room whenever he wanted without my permission during the final month constituted harassment. I withheld the last month's rent: I did not trust him to give the deposit back."Know your rightsTenants Call housing charity Shelter on 0808 800 4444 or visit its website, shelter.org.uk which gives details on how to deal with court orders, bailiffs and notices. For face-to-face advice, try one of the 3,500 Citizens Advice offices. The CAB is also developing a national telephone service, fully operational in Wales (call 08444 77 20 20) and rolling out in England (08444 111 444).Landlords gov.uk/private-renting-evictions sets out the rules. Landlordaction.co.uk offers legal help in the eviction process (fees start at £117), plus a helpline on 020 8906 3838 Interesting article about the perils or the rental market.
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