Police and changing locks

[kckbxr86]

Hi everyone!

I had a very interesting conversation with a very helpful Police Officer a few days ago and I was hoping someone on here could clarify a few things. The circumstances leading up to the conversation are:

1. Tenant moved in in Feb 2014
2. Hasn't paid a penny since April 2014 = nearly £5000 in arrears.
3. Currently evicting through Section 8
4. She's damaging the flat (can't prove but 99.9% sure) and is then coming up with disrepair counterclaims because she's not letting me in to do repairs
5. I found out the references she gave were fraudulent

This led me to the police and I am currently trying to convince them to investigate "Fraud by False Represntation".

Anyway... the conversation I had with the police officer went as follows:
P.O: "Why don't you just change the locks?"
Me: "It's illegal isn't it?"
P.O: "No. All disputes between landlords and tenants are civil not criminal"

He then went on to give me step-by-step instructions what to do if I went ahead and changed the locks, and also what to say to the police when my tenant phones the police to report me.

I'm a little wary as it seems too easy, so any info or insight anyone has would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[Wannadonnadoodah]

Very funny. What a complete and utter idiot. It may be a civil matter meaning that the Police won't head over to your house, kick the door in an arrest you but it is totally illegal.

Suggest you point him/her to;

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_ad...legal_eviction

and

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_ad...legal_eviction

Was this a PCSO by any chance?

[jta]

It's councils that prosecute for illegal eviction and they can get enthusiastic about it too. ignore the ignorant copper.

Why are you using S8 rather than the more certain route of a S21?

You have a professional tenant here that may know more about the law than you do so tread carefully.

[theartfullodger]

Hi everyone!

I had a very interesting conversation with a very helpful Police Officer a few days ago...

Given whaat he said, no he wasn;t helpful IMHO....

This led me to the police and I am currently trying to convince them to investigate "Fraud by False Represntation"....

So you already knew about the Fraud Act 2006, with criminal elements, when you went to see the police
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/...sheading/fraud
& presumably knew therefore that ..FA 2006 S1(3)...

(3) A person who is guilty of fraud is liable—
(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or to both);
(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or to a fine (or to both). etc etc etc..

..yet you took plod's word for it that the law was wrong & he knew better>>
.
He then says..

P.O: "No. All disputes between landlords and tenants are civil not criminal"

so we already knew that's a lie..

... my suspicion is his view may be for at least 3 probably reasons...
i) Police like to keep the crime figures down to show what a great job they are doing.. (silly them, more job security if the figures were higher, as they actually are...) .. or.. more likely
ii) "It's a civil matter" for LL/T is the brief summary from the 30 minute intro to the law course which is all he remembered....
iii) Perhaps wise old cop was thinking "we really don;t want to waste our time prosecuting tenant for fraud - months of work, probably no result, I'll use Plan F in the "How to avoid unwanted work" booklet..."

If you see your helpful chum again perhaps to "help" him, point him at PoE 1977 Part 1
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/43/part/I
- which is the key one on changing locks & depriving tenant of his home, his property(yes, his property whilst he has a tenancy, even if not paying the rent..., not yours)
& various other criminal matters reLL/T law including..
- Administration of Justice Act 1970, , s40,
- Protection from Harassment Act 1997
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 S3 (failing to inform tenant about change of landlord..)

Cheers!

[islandgirl]

I would think there is little chance of the Police taking this further. What level of proof is there that the refs were fraudulent? Hearsay? Was the decision to award the tenancy based solely on those refs? It is far from as simple as it first appears. Evict legally and attempt to get money for repairs from tenant.

[property mongrel]

Perhaps OP would care to explain in what regard the references were fraudulent?

Sadly these days unless the OP can make it impossible for the Police not to act, gather all the evidence and put this in a manner that a child would understand he is unlikely to get any help from those whose function is supposedly to help in such matters.

pm