Removal of Aggressive Tenant

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Mark Barrett

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Any Tenancy / PRTB experts out there - Advice very welcome. I am a Landlord with 4 bedroom house with 4 tenants. I recently issued termination notices and 3 of the tenants departed but I am having difficulty evicting the one remaining tenant who has been a tenant since 2009. This particular tenant has a history of aggressive and intimidating behaviour. To complicate matters further, I also live at the address in a quality Wooden/Seomra unit in the back garden. I have my own separate entrance and the Seomra area is only accessible by me. The remaining tenant is currently under service of an “”Intention to Sell”” 168 day notice which stipulates a July 15 termination date and I fully expect him to over hold beyond this date and I also expect he will play the situation out until the District Court / Sherriff procedure comes into play. My calculation is that it might be mid 2017 before I can finally close the situation. This tenant is aggressive and has been a thorn in my side since he moved on 6/7 years ago. The current situation is that this tenant now occupies the 4 bedroom house and I no longer receive the rent from the departed tenants. I have offered him a payment to depart but to no avail. One last complication is that I pay the utility bills and previously each of the 4 tenants contributed a fixed amount – now I must pay the bills with only one fixed amount being contributed. Am I legally obliged to continue paying the bills considering there is no written contract? I have got myself into an awful mess. Anyone any idea how I can avoid waiting til mid 2017 for closure? Would an illegal eviction be advisable?
 
Dreadful situation and sympathies to you. The law is a complete shambles in this area and something will have to be done about it soon. Whatever you do, dont force an unlawful eviction. I saw a recent thread on boards.ie of a similiar case, do a search and see what solutions were offered.
 
They recently changed the law which further enhanced the rights of the tenant. Little chance of Landlord rights being improved, I am afraid.
 
Mark Barrett said:
Would an illegal eviction be advisable?
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It might be depending on the figures. You do the maths.

Why are the utility bills in your name? Are you registered with the PRTB?

How is the tenant aggressive? Are you afraid of him? Were the previous tenants?

Are you trying to sell the house. What is his reason for refusing to budge?
 
Bills in my name because, my utilities share same connection and bills cover both dwellings. Yes, to PRTB Reg. Tenant makes demands in extremely assertive manner and if they are not met - he resorts to shouting to the degree that even neighbours can hear him. Not afraid of him but I have an aversion to the unpleasantness and I am not naturally aggressive and feel unable to respond. Yes, trying to sell house. He won't budge because despite his constant complaints - he is very happy with the place and the location. He is a Psycho I am afraid!!
 
First things first. Tell him he has to split the utilities 50/50 from now on. That might get him to make a start at moving. Secondly he may surprise you and actually move out. Tell him you family are coming to stay in July so you need vacant possession. Time to get tough with this guy.
 
He won't agree to 50/50 and how can I force him? If I stop paying the bills - I lose my own connections. As far as I can see, my only option is to wait it out and get a favourable PRTB ruling and then if required, get a court order. I expect this could all take about a year. Any clarification on this timescale from anyone out there would be appreciated. The law is extremely biased against Landlords and seems completely unbalanced.
 
Has he said he has no intention of moving ? Has he threatened you with PRTB if you try to ask him to leave ?
 
Bear in mind that until July he hasn't done anything wrong so you actually don't have a problem, I am guessing that you gave the tenants all the same notice to depart and unfortunately its tough luck on you that the others are already gone. You offered him and incentive to leave and he declined your offer. Keep it friendly and polite as much as you can until nearing the end of June and then start asking him about his expected departure date and handover plans.

Why are you in the garden shed instead of in the house? I presume he is only paying for a room so move back in and take advantage of the empty rooms, and get started on the clean up to prepare for sale.

As it stands he is altogether far too cosy for my liking in his lovely big house all to himself, no incentive there to move out. If I could rent a house for the low price of a room, I think I would take advantage and stay as long as I could as well.

*******Note this is very much dependant on the type of lease agreement you have in place. Moving in yourself may not be possible.

Alternatively have you a generous friend you could move in with for a couple of months? Transfer all utilities into his name and leave the premises, while you are depending on the utilities he will continue to let you pay for them. I presume you have a note of all outstanding bills and have notified him you will deduct them from his deposit if he does not pay his share? Has he paid 1/5 of the bills up to this point? (4 rooms plus yourself) He may be objecting to going from 20% of the bills to 50%.
 
Alternatively you and a bunch of friends move in (temporarily) and make your man's life a misery
 
Unbelievebly, I came home tonight and saw the light on on one of the spare rooms. Knocked on front door and he has a friend staying in the room. Completely nuts!! It may be just for the night, so no point in panicking yet. And we Landlords have no legal protection in this scenario. Being honest, I find myself considering Illegal Eviction. By the time this is all sorted out - I will be out of pocket to a worse extent than whatever damages the PRTB might award against me. Some really interesting ideas here and very much appreciated. There is no lease agreement so I guess the default PRTB standards apply. It seems there are 2 areas where I may have some leverage. The bills and the empty rooms.
 
He has no rights to the empty rooms.Put a padlock on them.
You sound unbelievably soft.Time to grow a pair.
 
Mark Barrett said:
Unbelievebly, I came home tonight and saw the light on on one of the spare rooms. Knocked on front door and he has a friend staying in the room. Completely nuts!! It may be just for the night, so no point in panicking yet. And we Landlords have no legal protection in this scenario. Being honest, I find myself considering Illegal Eviction. By the time this is all sorted out - I will be out of pocket to a worse extent than whatever damages the PRTB might award against me. Some really interesting ideas here and very much appreciated. There is no lease agreement so I guess the default PRTB standards apply. It seems there are 2 areas where I may have some leverage. The bills and the empty rooms.
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Last time I looked an illegal eviction cost 10K (though it could have been 20K) so think about that first. Years ago I figured out that going the legal route or risking the fine - it was cheaper to do my worst. No idea right now what the fines are, but I reckon doing everything the proper way, notice, emails, proofs of behaviour, is best course of action. Then it's a judgement call.

Personally the bribary route is what has worked for me the one time I needed it.

Can't remember now, but there are rules about the utilities, so I don't think you can just cut them off, check the PRTB rules. And you should never leave them in your name if the tenant is to pay them. But in your case you were also part of it so that makes it very messy.

If perchance you sell the house and heading to Oz, the PRTB will be wasting their time pursuing you, it would also be difficult if the tenant doesn't know where you are to tell them.
 
Does he actually have a written lease? Is the tenancy registered with the PRTB? If he was actually a licensee renting rooms in your dwelling you could evict him at any time and he would have no recourse to the PRTB.

You should move back into the main part of the house now to assert your rights as a resident homeowner.
 
MugsGame said:
Does he actually have a written lease? Is the tenancy registered with the PRTB? If he was actually a licensee renting rooms in your dwelling you could evict him at any time and he would have no recourse to the PRTB.

You should move back into the main part of the house now to assert your rights as a resident homeowner.
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You don't have to have a written lease to be a landlord/tenant. It's debatable about the rent a room scheme, and then he'd have to be also below 12K rent. I know that you can be in a house with a flat attached and that complies, but it was my understanding that a stand alone building on the property falls foul of the rules.
 
Bronte said:
You don't have to have a written lease to be a landlord/tenant.
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Indeed, but in the absence of a written lease it may be unclear what the intended nature of the arrangement was. If the tenant has nothing in writing, and the owner moves back into the main part of property, it could be hard for the tenant to prove that they are not a licensee. Not that I'd recommend that with a violent tenant.

It's debatable about the rent a room scheme, and then he'd have to be also below 12K rent. I know that you can be in a house with a flat attached and that complies, but it was my understanding that a stand alone building on the property falls foul of the rules.
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Rent a room scheme determines qualification for tax relief, it does not determine whether someone is a licensee. If you lived in a large four bedroom house, you could easily rent out three of the rooms to licensees and exceed the rent a room scheme limit. That said I see this particular tenancy is registered with the PRTB as such.
 
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MugsGame said:
Rent a room scheme determines qualification for tax relief, it does not determine whether someone is a licensee. If you lived in a large four bedroom house, you could easily rent out three of the rooms to licensees and exceed the rent a room scheme limit. That said I see this particular tenancy is registered with the PRTB as such.
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Sorry you are correct Mugsgame about the tax relief, so yes it could still be rent a room.
 
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