Illegal Eviction Means Prison
Rogue Landlord Convicted For Illegal Eviction
A landlord from Sheffield has been sentenced to 9 months in prison for taking the law into his own hands and forcefully removing a tenant from his rental property, instead of following legal procedures or appointing a qualified tenant eviction specialist.
The landlord, Jay Allen, had not applied for a court order and had not even started proceedings to obtain one, before taking physical action to remove the tenant from one of his rental properties. Instead Mr Allen and friend Razwan Mohammed proceeded to intimidate the tenant who wasn’t even given the time to put his shoes on before being dumped on the street.
When sentencing landlord Allen to nine months in prison, Judge Roger Keen QC said that Allen had “Attempted to dominate and frighten the tenant whilst knowing that the eviction was unlawful.” Allen’s cohort Mohammed, was handed a six month jail sentence suspended for a year, and a tagged curfew from 7pm to 6am.
There are legal precedents and procedures that must be adhered to by all landlords (or managing agents) when they wish to remove bad tenants, or tenants in serious rent arrears from rental properties.
Even though the property is technically owned by the landlord, the law states that it is the tenant’s legal home, therefore the tenant automatically has rights.
The onus is always on the landlord to try to bring about the resolution of disputes and attempting to find an amicable solution is cheaper than having to take legal action.
Landlords should be certain that they have a valid case before taking legal action for tenant eviction, in that the tenant has breached the terms of the tenancy agreement, i.e. Late or non payment of rent, lack of care or misuse of the property, anti social behaviour etc
Tenant eviction can be a bit of a minefield for the uninitiated landlord and the safest and fastest way to evict a tenant is to use a tenant eviction specialist, like Legal 4 Landlords who take care of all the paperwork and appoint trained legal teams to deal with the hassle.
Legal 4 Landlords knowledge of tenant evictions is second to none, that’s why they are the UK’s leading tenant eviction specialists!
