We want an injunction please!

Many years ago when I was a trainee, my principal and I saw some new clients, a middle aged man and his wife. His new wife as it turned out.

“We want to get an injunction against my daughter” he began, his wife nodding in the background, all blonde curls and pursed lips. “We have asked her to leave but she won’t go”.

When we enquired deeper into this unusual request, it turned out that the daughter was bringing unsavoury friends home and leaving the kitchen in a mess. “We’ve told her we are not going to put up with it any longer, and now we want an injunction to get her out”.

We explained to them gently, that an injunction was a serious legal remedy generally used, in a family context, against violent partners to protect their family from physical attack. It was most unlikely, we continued, that a Judge would award an injunction in these circumstances.

This did not go down well. “Oh well” he said, standing up and reaching for his coat, “if we can’t get an injunction, then there’s no point in staying”. We were left feeling very sorry for the daughter.

People often talk glibly about injunctions, but to a lawyer they are a serious business. They will only generally be used if someone is in physical danger, such as the violent partner situation, or if the claimant’s property rights are threatened in some way (or example you may be able to get an injunction to prevent someone building something on your land).

In a lodger situation they are almost unheard of. The only circumstances where I think an injunction would be suitable would be if a lodger had turned violent and the landlord and his family were in danger of physical attack (and the Judge would normally want to hear about an attack that had already taken place and be persuaded that a future attack was probable). An injunction may also be appropriate perhaps if a lodger became vindictive after being evicted, and resorted to stalking his former landlords and invading their privacy in an intrusive manner.

But bear also in mind the limitation of legal remedies. If someone is absolutely determined to break your knees, particularly if they are slightly unbalanced, a piece of paper with a court seal on it, may not in reality be much protection. They may of course go to prison after they have broken your knees, but what good is that? The damage is done.

It is far, far better to avoid conflict situations (so far as you are able), in the first place.

Have you every used a legal remedy against a lodger? Was it successful?

You have decided that you are absolutely fed up with your lodger and you are going to serve a notice to quit on them (as discussed in day 19 of our 21 days of tips). You have written it all out. How do you go about serving it?

As you share a house with the lodger, you don’t want to put it in the post (and posting notices isn’t advisable anyway as it is impossible normally to prove that it has been delivered).    There are a number of possibilities:

• handing it to them
• leaving it on their bed
• leaving it on the table in their room
• sticking it on their door

Personal service is generally best.  Also you can arrange for someone else to be present with you, so that if your lodger is minded to lie and say that they have never had it, you will be able to prove otherwise.  Indeed, the very fact that you had someone there will often mean that the lodger will know that this is not something he can do.

However happily not all lodgers are liars. In many cases you will prefer not to risk a confrontation, and will just leave it in his room.  You can still have someone with you when you leave the notice on the bed (or where ever) to be a witness just in case.

Finally, make sure you keep a copy of the notice or less, and keep a careful note of the date and time that you served and how you served it.  You can get your witness to sign and date this also.  Hopefully your lodger will leave as requested, but it is as well to keep careful record just in case.

Have you ever had to serve notice on any of your lodgers?  How did you do it?  Were there any problems?

In most cases your lodger experience will be a positive one. However sadly, this is not always the case. If you do experience problems, todays tips should help.

Stage 1 – talk to your lodger
If you are unhappy about something, have a word with your lodger about it. For example if he is not complying with your house rules (discussed on day 14), or is starting to pay rent late.

Bear in mind that it may be that your lodger is unhappy about something that *you* are doing, and this is the reason for his behaviour. We all have irritating habits – your lodger may find your love of opera played loudly as annoying as you find his failure to wipe the kitchen surfaces down after use. If you are both reasonable people you should be able to sort something out.

Getting it out into the open so you both know what the problem is, will generally be better than letting things fester.

However you should try not to get into an argument or say anything you might later regret. If you don’t think this is possible, it might be best just to write. Although if your relationship with your lodger has deteriorated to the extent where you cannot have a proper conversation with them, you may want them to leave anyway.

If the problem is about late payment of rent, there may be a reason for this – perhaps your lodger has had to take a cut in salary for example and is finding things difficult. It is better that you know this sooner rather than later.  For example, with good lodger who you would be sorry to lose, you might consider giving a temporary rent reduction.

Stage 2 – write a letter or note
If talking about the problem has not done any good, the next thing to do is to put it in writing. This may also be a good idea if your lodger is out a lot, and it is difficult to find a time to speak to him.

You may also find it easier to put your complaint in writing anyway, particularly if you get flustered and are easily intimidated by your lodger, or if you feel that he does not take any notice of what you say.

Your first letter need not be very formal. Just set out clearly and without using any language that might antagonise, the things that have been concerning you. Don’t be too accusatory, or say anything that you will later regret. Make sure you keep a copy, and that the copy is dated.

Stage 3 – write a second, more formal, letter
If your chat and first note doesn’t seem to have worked, you might want to try another letter. Or perhaps your lodger improved after your talk but has since slipped back into his old ways.

Make the second letter a bit more formal. You should also  warn him that if things do not improve you will be asking him to leave (assuming that this is in fact what you are thinking of doing).

Note that you do not *have* to do a second letter, and if you have already decided that you want your lodger to leave you can skip this stage and go straight to giving formal notice to leave. (Or if you are not going to ask him to leave, and think that he just needs a further reminder, you could do another informal letter, as discussed above)

The threat of being asked to leave may bring your lodger to his senses and hopefully you won’t have any more problems. However if he takes no notice and just carries on, then you should consider seriously asking him to go.  This is after all your house. If your lodger is behaving badly or not paying rent, you should not be expected to put up with this.

The first stage of getting a lodger to leave, is giving him a formal written notice

Stage 4 – give formal notice to leave
[Note: Todays tips are about problem situations. However in most cases where landlords ask lodgers to leave, it is for something non controversial which both parties understand (such as the landlord needing to use the room for something else). However, even here you should (just for the record) give your lodger a formal (although pleasantly worded) letter asking him to leave.]

Giving formal notice is the first stage, legally, in recovering possession of a property.

The standard notice period (for lodgers)  is ‘not less than 28 days’, ending at the end of a rental period. So, if their agreement is monthly and runs from the 12th of the month to the 11th, the notice should ask them to leave on the next 11th day in the month after 28 days.  If they have a weekly agreement which runs from Saturday to Friday, the notice period should end on the first Friday after 28 days. You should be able to tell from your lodger agreement (discussed on day 15) what the relevant days are.

If you are asking your lodger to leave because of relatively minor matters such as personality clashes or because they never clean the bathroom, you should give them the full 28 days so they cannot criticise you.

You should also read your lodger agreement carefully (if you have one) and follow any procedure set out there. For example it may state that you should give a longer notice period. If your lodger is not seriously in breach of the agreement, you should do this.

However for more serious problems such as aggressive or violent behaviour, or if you find your lodger has been using your property for criminal activities such as using or dealing in prohibited drugs (which will put him in breach of his lodger agreement), a shorter notice period may be appropriate.

Note – For very serious incidents, it may also be a good idea to tell the police when incidents occur. This will be helpful if you then need their help later if you have to evict your lodger (discussed on Day 20) as there will then be a documented history of (for example) violence, and they will be more likley to co-operate with you.

For cases of rent arrears, if you are using a professionally drafted agreement (as discussed on Day 15) , this will often say that the lodger’s license to occupy your property will end automatically if he is in arrears of rent of two months. However you will still need to give him a formal letter asking him to vacate.

There is a printed form of ‘Notice to Quit’, which can be used (the wording should have an option for licenses), but generally a letter saying that you are giving them 28 days (or whatever other period is appropriate) notice to leave, will be sufficient.  The notice to quit letter should just be about asking them to leave, and perhaps giving the reasons for this.  If you want to discuss something else, put it in a separate letter.

Note that the section 21 and section 8 notices used for assured shorthold tenants should *not* be used (for more information about these, and evicting tenants, see my Landlord Law web-site).

Tomorrow we will look at what you should do if your lodger refuses to go.

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What is your experience of the things in this section? Have you had any problem lodgers? What sort of things have caused problems? Do you have any tips for dealing with problem lodgers?