Hello all,
You might remember my 'thieving tenant' thread some months ago. Well, I am in court on Thursday 15th to have my case heard. Grounds 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 17 were all cited on the claim for possession. I never thought I'd hear myself say this but UNFORTUNATELY the council has now sorted the issue of rent arrears and so the mandatory ground 8 no longer applies to my case!
As all the other grounds are discretionary I am really starting to panic in case this character decides to show at the hearing to 'fight his corner'. He has been saying for weeks that he will give me the keys back but during our last phone conversation (22nd February) I told him I was not prepared to discuss returning the deposit until I had received the rent due! At that time the arrears stood at £1,200+!!!
I received a cheque off the council the following day for almost £1k and have received two further cheques in the last week (totalling almost £400 and so the rent account is now almost straight. However, the tenant has not been back in touch since that last conversation!
I have also received confirmation from the police that the tenant WILL BE CHARGED for one count of theft of my property and with three counts of deception concerning the catalogues accounts he opened in my name.
I have prepared my witness statement and a file of evidence which I have submitted to the court today (hopefully in time) and I also hand-delivered my witness statement and copies of all documentation to the tenant at the rental property (this was done last night and so should definately be in time).
My questions are as follows:
1. If the tenant plans to appear at court 'to fight his corner' should he have provided the court with some kind of defence statement? If yes, should I have received notification of this and copies of any correspondence etc?
2. If the tenant does show up - what are the chances of him actually preventing the possession order being granted?
3. Should I be fortunate enough that the tenant does not appear - do I presume that the court will issue the possession order and also issue an order for outstanding arrears & charges?
4. In the event the judge does award the possession order - how much notice does he have to allow the tenant to vacate? Is there a minimum period of notice required? If no minimum period could I request that the judge make the order to come into effect immediately?
The reason I ask question 4 is that I believe the tenant may have absconded back to his home town of Glasgow. The ex-wife of the tenant has been in touch yesterday and today to say she hasn't seen anything of him for over three weeks (and she only lives a few doors up and across the road). She says that her husband (the tenant) telephoned her yesterday and said that one of his mates has got the key to the property and that he will arrange to get the key to her for her to remove some possessions she left at the property when she left him (AGAIN).
Question 5. Would it be safe for me to assume the property has been abandoned?
Question 6. What do I do about somebody else on the estate having the key to my property?
Question 7. Would I be entitled to let the wife enter the property (using my own key) so that she can remove her possessions? She was not named on the tenancy although all my dealings regarding the tenancy were with her (I have known the wife for about 7yrs which is how the tenancy came about). I would be keen to access the property prior to the court hearing in order to do a property inspection and to see if there is evidence that the tenant is still in occupation. I have hand-delivered numerous documents pertaining to the court hearing over the last week and so it would be easy to tell if he had been at the property.
Question 8 (hopefully the last one). If the tenant isn't at the property if/when I visited could I change the locks and leave a note attached to the door informing him I have a set of keys waiting for him in the event that he hasn't abandoned the property?
I realise this is a very long thread with lots of questions but to be honest I'm at my wits end with this joker. The final straw came when his wife informed me that he had asked her to validate a store card of mine that was delivered to the address!!!
Any and all assistance that can be offered in relation to the above queries would be gratefully received!
Many thanks in advance.
Kind Regards
J
You might remember my 'thieving tenant' thread some months ago. Well, I am in court on Thursday 15th to have my case heard. Grounds 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 17 were all cited on the claim for possession. I never thought I'd hear myself say this but UNFORTUNATELY the council has now sorted the issue of rent arrears and so the mandatory ground 8 no longer applies to my case!

As all the other grounds are discretionary I am really starting to panic in case this character decides to show at the hearing to 'fight his corner'. He has been saying for weeks that he will give me the keys back but during our last phone conversation (22nd February) I told him I was not prepared to discuss returning the deposit until I had received the rent due! At that time the arrears stood at £1,200+!!!
I received a cheque off the council the following day for almost £1k and have received two further cheques in the last week (totalling almost £400 and so the rent account is now almost straight. However, the tenant has not been back in touch since that last conversation!
I have also received confirmation from the police that the tenant WILL BE CHARGED for one count of theft of my property and with three counts of deception concerning the catalogues accounts he opened in my name.
I have prepared my witness statement and a file of evidence which I have submitted to the court today (hopefully in time) and I also hand-delivered my witness statement and copies of all documentation to the tenant at the rental property (this was done last night and so should definately be in time).
My questions are as follows:
1. If the tenant plans to appear at court 'to fight his corner' should he have provided the court with some kind of defence statement? If yes, should I have received notification of this and copies of any correspondence etc?
2. If the tenant does show up - what are the chances of him actually preventing the possession order being granted?
3. Should I be fortunate enough that the tenant does not appear - do I presume that the court will issue the possession order and also issue an order for outstanding arrears & charges?
4. In the event the judge does award the possession order - how much notice does he have to allow the tenant to vacate? Is there a minimum period of notice required? If no minimum period could I request that the judge make the order to come into effect immediately?
The reason I ask question 4 is that I believe the tenant may have absconded back to his home town of Glasgow. The ex-wife of the tenant has been in touch yesterday and today to say she hasn't seen anything of him for over three weeks (and she only lives a few doors up and across the road). She says that her husband (the tenant) telephoned her yesterday and said that one of his mates has got the key to the property and that he will arrange to get the key to her for her to remove some possessions she left at the property when she left him (AGAIN).
Question 5. Would it be safe for me to assume the property has been abandoned?
Question 6. What do I do about somebody else on the estate having the key to my property?
Question 7. Would I be entitled to let the wife enter the property (using my own key) so that she can remove her possessions? She was not named on the tenancy although all my dealings regarding the tenancy were with her (I have known the wife for about 7yrs which is how the tenancy came about). I would be keen to access the property prior to the court hearing in order to do a property inspection and to see if there is evidence that the tenant is still in occupation. I have hand-delivered numerous documents pertaining to the court hearing over the last week and so it would be easy to tell if he had been at the property.
Question 8 (hopefully the last one). If the tenant isn't at the property if/when I visited could I change the locks and leave a note attached to the door informing him I have a set of keys waiting for him in the event that he hasn't abandoned the property?
I realise this is a very long thread with lots of questions but to be honest I'm at my wits end with this joker. The final straw came when his wife informed me that he had asked her to validate a store card of mine that was delivered to the address!!!
Any and all assistance that can be offered in relation to the above queries would be gratefully received!
Many thanks in advance.
Kind Regards
J
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