Jasper C
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18 Posts
I have a rent protected tenant whose bedroom has beome a dangerous fire hazard due to a very considerable amount of rubbish and junk taking up virtually all of his room and piled up to the celing. The local council, who has been paying his rent for the last 20 years, has recently complained to me about the resulting fire hazard both to himself and to other tenants living in the same property.
However, I feel intimidated and powerless as the tenant is unwilling to cooperate and remove his junk. I feel that I cannot evict him as he is a protected tenant (pre-1989) with access to free legal aid while I am an elderly landlord finding the current situation very difficult and stressful. He has also let it be known to me that I cannot arrange to remove any of his junk/belongings without his permission as this would be harrassment. Everytime I have approached him on the matter, amid this and other serious antisocial behaviours (e.g., shouting/singing on a regular basis during the early hours and not allowing others to get their sleep), he becomes aggressive and incoherent claiming that he is unwell from a mental health perspective. The latter is not helped by the fact that he has no family that I know of living in this country who might be willing to take him into their care. I'm also dissapointed to discover that the penalty provisions provided in antisocial legislation do not apply at all to protected tenants as distinct from all other tenants.
I got in touch with the local council to see if they could he-house the tenant in a care setting enviroment given his deteriorating behaviour and apparent unstable mental condition. They advised that they would remove the tenant's junk and rubbish if I would agree to pay the large cost involved, as I am the property owner and the tenant is not in a position to reinburse them. Althought unfair, I would be willing to bear the large cost involved, but they are not willing to provide the tenant with alternative accomodation more suitable to to his health and care needs going forward.
I would very much appreciate any practical advise on how I should proceed on this matter.
