I have a tenant who won't move out of my house and he is

Hello and thank you for your question. My name is ***** ***** I will be very pleased to assist you. I'm a practising lawyer in England with over 15 years’ experience. Please be aware that although I will endeavour to reply to you promptly, I am also in full time private practice and so I may not be available to respond immediately and it may also take me a few minutes to prepare a reply. The site will notify you as soon as I respond. I look forward to working with you to answer your question fully.

I am very sorry to read of the above.

1. May I confirm if the tenants fixed term of tenancy has yet expired please?
2. Have you served either a section 8 notice or section 21 notice to date?
3. Did you protect the tenant's deposit within 30 days of receipt?
4. Did you provide the tenant with an energy performance certificate, gas safety certificate ( if applicable) and a copy of the governments how to rent booklet being the edition in force at the time the tenancy commenced?

1. I am very sorry to read of the above. Presumably you will be contemplating making a claim against the tenant for the damage caused including consideration in respect of a claim against his deposit?
2. May I confirm if you have reported the matter to your insurer? Does your insurance policy cover malicious damage?
3. Did you obtain a warrant for possession from the court in addition to a possession order?

my apologies for the short delay in reverting to you. I had to step into a meeting.

My immediate concern is that by changing the lock, you potentially may have exacerbated the problem because it is a breach of the protection against eviction act to evict a tenant without a warrant. accordingly, you may have provided the tenant with a basis to claim civil damages against you if you do not have evidence that they have voluntarily surrendered their tenancy and left the property.

Accordingly, you may wish to liaise with the tenant to advise that having been unable to contact the tenant, you have gained access to the property in order to properly secure it as you become aware that criminal damage was being committed leaving the property insecure.

you can go on to say that you have evidence that the damages that have been caused were undertaken by the tenant themselves and you would ask them to explain the damage that has been caused.

You can go on to say (if they have not returned the keys to the property or message due to surrender the tenancy) that there tenancy is obviously still in effect and they can collect the keys from (address / from a mutually convenient time/place) and that they continue to be liable for rent.

You may need to consider raising a claim against them for the damage caused to the property in the county court which presumably can be offset against the existing order made against you

as above, changing the locks or taking any other action which violates the rights under the tenancy or seeks to encourage the tenant to leave can constitute a breach of the protection against eviction act. Accordingly, as per my above narrative, it seems to me you need to think about how you would frame the actions you took in the context of being appropriate to secure the property in the circumstances as opposed to being an action to prejudice the tenant's rights under the tenancy.

examples of situations in which actions you carried out may have been appropriate would be for example if you believed there was an emergency at the property requiring immediate access, if you are concerned that the property had been made insecure as a result of damage, if the property was being actively damaged and you need to put a stop to it or if you exercising a right to inspect the property under the terms of the tenancy and you are unable to gain access due to damage to the locks - in this latter case, you would likely need a detailed report from the locksmith setting out that you are unable to gain access due to damage to the lock which appear to be intentional.

Coupled with that, it is important to make clear that keys are available to the tenant so that they can be no suggestion that you have changed the locks and subsequently deprived the tenant from access

you are welcome to post a message here at your convenience. I am typically available during the week during extended office hours and from time to time outside of these hours. However you can post at any time and if I happen not to be available, I will respond as soon as I next am

I'm glad the above answers all your questions for now. If you have any follow up questions please revert to me.