Evicting my brother & his girlfriend from my Dads house.

[Karengo]

Hi,

Im new to this site and hope I'm posting in the right place,

I will be as brief as I can with the background....


My brother is a drug addict and had been living with my Dad for just over 10 years and my Dad had been paying for his drugs every day about £50 - £100 a day. Then my brothers girlfriend moved in about 4 years ago (not an addict) Neither of them pay any rent. My Dad had his own business but sold it about 3 1/2 years ago to pay a divorce settlement. He was 72 then and after this they all struggled with the drug habbit and food/bills after there was no real money coming in anymore. Dad seemed unwell for quite a while but I put it down to the stress of my brother being there taking all his money.

It kind of came to a head April 2016. My Dad told my brother the money had ran out in the bank and he couldnt have anymore, my brother got aggressive and my Dad left the house and went to a local shop and called the police. I took my Dad to stay at my house after this. A few weeks after he moved into mine we took him to the Drs and the Dr said he thought he had Parkinsons. After being referred to the hospital it turned out Dad actually has Lewy Body. We sorted out Power of Attorny for Property & Finance and also health. My Dad owns his house. Fast forward to December 2016 and Dad was then diagnosed with a brain tumour. After this time we were unable to leave him for any length of time. The tumour was removed in Febrary 2017 and was benign. Seeing as my brother seemed to be doing ok and said he was now clean I started letting Dad stay with my brother and his girlfriend the days that i was at work so I didn't need to leave him on his own. This seemed to be working ok until a few weeks ago when i found out that my brother was back on drugs again. Also Dads consultant said that he should think about moving to sheltered accomodation sooner rather than later. There is no way that Dad would go to sheltered accomodation or a care home whislt he has any say in it, he says he just wants to stay with me so we talked about him selling his house and we would sell ours and we would buy somewhere together that would suit his needs. His Parkinson symptoms are quite bad and he cant walk very far, hes in a wheelchair when we go out and he can just about get up the stairs at the moment but sometimes it can take me an hour to get him up there. So a bungalow would probably be best. My problem is how do i get my brother and his girlfriend out of his house, they pay no rent and the only bills they pay are for gas & electric as they are on a key/card meter. My dad still pays everything else. I need the house to be empty so i can clear it and then sell it. It is in such bad state of repair that it needs to be sold to a builder but i want them out first. The girlfriend is already kicking up a bit of a stink as i have dropped hints this is going to happen and she says she shouldn't be kicked out as she looked after my Dad for 4 years blah blah blah. Ive explained to her that its not about her and it is about what my Dad needs but shes just not getting it. Both of them are on benefits and dont work. I dont want my Dad going down there to stay anymore so i now need to get in a carer to look after him at my house whilst i am at work and pay for this.

Does anyone know how i go about doing this, my brain is just whirling all the time and i have enough to worry about with my Dad i cant cope with all this as well.

Thanks, im sorry it is such a long post as well but i thought you should have a bit of background first.

Regards,
Karen

 

[Soobee]

Hello Karen and welcome to Talking Point.

It is a awkward situation and you're going to have to get proper legal advice for it because it sounds like it's not going to be straightforward.

Before that, I would write to them first of all, with a deadline for moving out of 3 months. Explain why they will need to move and that you understand their predicament but that the house has to be sold. Let them know you're serious about taking further action and take it from there.

 

[Beate]

I have no idea of the technicalities but if they are in need of council housing they will probably need a written eviction notice they can take to the council to prove their need, so it will all have to be legal and written down. A solicitor can surely advise on the process and grounds for eviction because for example if no one ever charged them rent you might not be able to use non-payment of rent as a reason. But it's good that you have LPA and you can prove this eviction will be in your father's best interests as he needs the house to be sold for care costs etc.

 

[jan.s]

I can see no reason why they can't be evicted as they pay no rent, although there are procedures you need to follow to this end.

As Soobee says, the first step is to give them written notice and a set date for them to leave by.

 

[Bunpoots]

The notice period required for eviction is only 2 months in a normal landlord/tenant relationship and I think that needing to be able to sell the property with vacant possession would be a good enough reason.

If you put the house up for sale with an agent they will ask for a signed agreement that everyone will vacate the property and you would normally be expected to instruct a solicitor.

Maybe the Citizens Advice Bureau would know how the process works and could advise before you start the selling process.