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He evicted us because he could rent it out for more money. Something about your comment makes me think there's more to this story.

mAEStro-paNDa 7y ago
Why? I agree some of the actions are taking it too far, but this part is not that far-fetched. It happens.
- setquk 7y ago
  I thought I went too far for a few years to be honest. Now I realise that no protection whatsoever was afforded to any private tenants back then other than taking the landlord to court which was expensive, time consuming, resulted in unpaid days off work and generally a waste of time. The moral high ground doesn't necessarily drive the point home either. Now we have a deposit scheme in the UK which stops landlords doing this because the deposit is held in trust. The landlord has to prove it. Therefore there's escrow and a third party involved. Not being in this scheme is illegal and results in fines that go directly to the tenant as well. This action is not necessary now, but changing the locks still is because it's your personal space and security and you genuinely don't know who has access to that unless you do it. Could even be the previous tenants with key copies.
setquk 7y ago
Nothing at all. Paid on time every time and basically decorated the place. Went on the market for £100/month more the moment the tenancy expired and he evicted us. The guy ran umbrella companies to hide his assets and address and to rip people off, got caught going through our stuff. He’s still a landlord and has been the director of about 12 companies now in the last 20 years all dissolved. Who’s the bad one? Hmm Edit: also the place we had after that I rented for 11 years with no problems direct from landlord and they were excellent and we were excellent back.
- levosmetalo 7y ago
  > Who’s the bad one? Hmm And you basically did a disservice to all his future tenants by not reporting him to the police after being caught by you illegally accessing your home and destroying your property? By not reacting you basically silently allowed him to keep doing this. I would understand that he had some kind of power over you and you were afraid to react and report him, but you choose to confront him by being asshole to him, without doing the right thing and reporting him to whatever authority in UK is responsible for this. Because of that, both of you are bad, though he is a bit worse.
  - mAEStro-paNDa 7y ago
    Have you considered some of the landlord's actions might not have been illegal? Anyone from the UK that can chime in on this? Is there an authority responsible for this?
    - addicted 7y ago
      I don’t know abounthe UK but I’m pretty sure I’ve had a lease agreement when I was a student that gave the landlord the right to enter at Will. It could still have been illegal, but it was definitely in the lease.
      - setquk 7y ago
        It's not quite that straightforward here in the UK. Well it is but the other way. The landlord has no right to enter a property outright. The property is for exclusive enjoyment by the tenant according to law. They can give 24 hours' notice and enter to do repairs etc but you can refuse that outright and they have no rights beyond that without taking you to court. If they turn up unannounced this is actually harassment under UK law. We had some rather unpleasant slum landlords between the 1950s and 1970s which caused a few laws to be introduced. Unfortunately the nature of being a landlord seems to attract certain people who find new and creative ways to be dicks. Not the majority of landlords I will say who are mostly pretty good, but enough to cause problems.
quickben 7y ago
Doesn't have to be. That landlord move was so popular here in Toronto, that they outlawed it. For example, $75k in fines: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/02/24/landlord-fined-75000-for-evicting-tenants-in-bad-faith-money-it-can-recoup-in-less-than-a-year-from-higher-rents.html https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/02/24/landlord-fined-7...
- setquk 7y ago
  Totally agree. Good to hear this level of enforcement is taking place.
DanBC 7y ago
There are two types of eviction in England: section 8 (non-payment of rent) and section 21 (no blame). There are strict protections around section 21 during the "fixed term" (normally 6 months to a year), but after that it's pretty easy to get tenants out even if they've done nothing wrong, and it's common to evict tenants, re-paint, then re-let the property at a big markup. If you're a tenant in England it's probably a good idea to talk to the landlord each year about a small rent increase.

mAEStro-paNDa 7y ago

Why? I agree some of the actions are taking it too far, but this part is not that far-fetched. It happens.

setquk 7y ago
I thought I went too far for a few years to be honest. Now I realise that no protection whatsoever was afforded to any private tenants back then other than taking the landlord to court which was expensive, time consuming, resulted in unpaid days off work and generally a waste of time. The moral high ground doesn't necessarily drive the point home either. Now we have a deposit scheme in the UK which stops landlords doing this because the deposit is held in trust. The landlord has to prove it. Therefore there's escrow and a third party involved. Not being in this scheme is illegal and results in fines that go directly to the tenant as well. This action is not necessary now, but changing the locks still is because it's your personal space and security and you genuinely don't know who has access to that unless you do it. Could even be the previous tenants with key copies.

setquk 7y ago

Nothing at all. Paid on time every time and basically decorated the place. Went on the market for £100/month more the moment the tenancy expired and he evicted us. The guy ran umbrella companies to hide his assets and address and to rip people off, got caught going through our stuff. He’s still a landlord and has been the director of about 12 companies now in the last 20 years all dissolved. Who’s the bad one? Hmm Edit: also the place we had after that I rented for 11 years with no problems direct from landlord and they were excellent and we were excellent back.

levosmetalo 7y ago
> Who’s the bad one? Hmm And you basically did a disservice to all his future tenants by not reporting him to the police after being caught by you illegally accessing your home and destroying your property? By not reacting you basically silently allowed him to keep doing this. I would understand that he had some kind of power over you and you were afraid to react and report him, but you choose to confront him by being asshole to him, without doing the right thing and reporting him to whatever authority in UK is responsible for this. Because of that, both of you are bad, though he is a bit worse.
- mAEStro-paNDa 7y ago
  Have you considered some of the landlord's actions might not have been illegal? Anyone from the UK that can chime in on this? Is there an authority responsible for this?
  - addicted 7y ago
    I don’t know abounthe UK but I’m pretty sure I’ve had a lease agreement when I was a student that gave the landlord the right to enter at Will. It could still have been illegal, but it was definitely in the lease.
    - setquk 7y ago
      It's not quite that straightforward here in the UK. Well it is but the other way. The landlord has no right to enter a property outright. The property is for exclusive enjoyment by the tenant according to law. They can give 24 hours' notice and enter to do repairs etc but you can refuse that outright and they have no rights beyond that without taking you to court. If they turn up unannounced this is actually harassment under UK law. We had some rather unpleasant slum landlords between the 1950s and 1970s which caused a few laws to be introduced. Unfortunately the nature of being a landlord seems to attract certain people who find new and creative ways to be dicks. Not the majority of landlords I will say who are mostly pretty good, but enough to cause problems.

quickben 7y ago

Doesn't have to be. That landlord move was so popular here in Toronto, that they outlawed it. For example, $75k in fines: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/02/24/landlord-fined-75000-for-evicting-tenants-in-bad-faith-money-it-can-recoup-in-less-than-a-year-from-higher-rents.html https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/02/24/landlord-fined-7...

setquk 7y ago
Totally agree. Good to hear this level of enforcement is taking place.

DanBC 7y ago

There are two types of eviction in England: section 8 (non-payment of rent) and section 21 (no blame). There are strict protections around section 21 during the "fixed term" (normally 6 months to a year), but after that it's pretty easy to get tenants out even if they've done nothing wrong, and it's common to evict tenants, re-paint, then re-let the property at a big markup. If you're a tenant in England it's probably a good idea to talk to the landlord each year about a small rent increase.