House abondoned

[lizzi]

I have served a section 21 notice on a tenant.

The tenant did not contact me after expiry & her phone was cut off. I Went round to the property & found it empty & the front door left open!!!!!

Tenant had left, leaving the usual mess & mayhem.

I arranged for my usual handyman to go & sort out the mess & he started
cleaning the rubbish up the next day.

Whilst there, the ex-tenant came back, was every abusive to him, even started hitting him & told him he had no right to be there. He threatened to call the police & she & her "back-up" left, throwing the full bins (of their rubbish) into the street.

Handyman rang me up, told me what had happened. I told him to change the lock, lock the front door & i would take advice.

The ex-tenant has not rang me & now does not have access to the property, & by the look piles of mail, has not lived there for some time.

Can anyone tell me where i stand legally?
or suggest a course of action?

[jjlandlord]

Legally, I'm afraid that by changing the locks you've illegally evicted your tenant...

[lizzi]

if tenant has already left how can I be illegally evicting?

the front door was left wide open for any thief or squatter to enter. I believe on purpose.
surely i must be able to protect the property?

[LesleyAnne]

The only way to legally end a tenancy is to get a court order, following your S21, or by the tenant surrendering the keys to you. As neither if these occurred,, your tenant has a valid tenancy agreement, and still has legal right to use the property.

By changing the locks and sending your handy man in to clear up, you have breached the tenancy, and I am afraid I must agree that this is illegal eviction.

There are correct procedures to follow when a property is apparently abandoned, and unforutnately, you may now receive a court summons for illegally evicting the tenants. In your defense, they have acted in an "un-tenant like" manner by leaving the property insecure and in a mess, but how do you know they were not planning to return and clear the place up before they finally moved out?

[werted]

I can't believe some landlords still do not know basic stuff such as evicting people legally.