Landlord Antanas Klibavicius has pleaded guilty to illegally evicting his tenant and not taking any steps towards ending the tenancy properly and legally.
Klibavicius, from Sheffield, pleaded guilty to unlawfully depriving his tenant of accommodation contrary to s1(2) Protection from Eviction Act 1977.
Taking into account Klibavicius’ early guilty plea, magistrates ordered him to pay £2,249 in court costs, fines and compensation to the tenant.
The court heard how the tenant fell into rent arrears and returned home from work during February 2020 to see his belongings had been removed from the property and put in bags outside on the street.
They included his clothes, TV, vacuum cleaner, watch, bedding, collectable coins and the clothes and toys of his five year old son, who stayed with him at weekends.
The tenant tried to open the front door with his key but it wouldn’t fit and he could see that the lock looked different.
A Sheffield council spokeswoman says: “We will not tolerate the harassment or illegal eviction of private tenants in this city as this case shows.
“We have one of the most robust approaches to tackling illegal evictions of any city in the country and we have a zero-tolerance approach to those who intimidate and exploit vulnerable tenants.
“Everyone deserves to live in safe, good quality housing regardless of whether they rent or own their home. I am determined to carry on clamping down on the very small minority of bad landlords in Sheffield who treat their tenants badly and tarnish the private rented sector.”
The court costs and fines imposed on Klibavicius are made up of £1,183 costs, £650 compensation to the tenant and a £416 fine totalling £2,249.
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One bad apple ...
Probably cheaper than trying to evict legally and having a non paying tenant for the best part of a year waiting for the courts to open!
There is no mention in the article of how big the arrears were, but given no legitimate way to evict a non paying tenant for the last year I am not surprised that some LLs resort to this kind of behaviour.
Spot on Tricia Urquhart!
Good LL’s as well as good tenants are suffering due to unfair laws, Shelter and Councils favouring unscrupulous tenants.
LL’s are forced to find alternative cost effective methods to protect their homes being rented to help good tenants live there temporarily by contractual agreements.
The court should have fined Sheffield council for not providing ‘free’ housing for an unemployed person with child.
It’s not LL’s responsibility to provide ‘free’ housing for a lifetime to tenants.
Bravo 👏 for Antana Klibavicius for taking a brave, necessary step as a homeowner to protect own property.
If he didn’t get him out that day the tenant would still be there not paying rent as he had the perfect excuse handed to him on a plate by Boris the following month
Unfortunately I think the comments above are right. The cost and time associated to removing a tennant legally do not act as an incentive to act in accordance with the law. However, that does not condone the use of illegal methods and vigilante justice. We have to live by the standards we set and not allow our actions to fall below the line. This type of action will just fuel the fires of generation rent and shelter and we are the ones giving them that fuel.
There are other methods we can do legally such as CCJ's.
Like I said I fully understand the landlords actions to save their bank balance and I get the frustrations of knowing Sheffield Council and court would not have shown such "robust" actions against a defaulting tennant who is in breech of their legally binding contract.
I wonder if having now having paid the fine & the compensation etc, if the landlord now goes down the ccj route for the outstanding rent....I would
Good point!
Can't see why that would not work.
Govt need to take responsibility for this ! - M.P's have encouraged, almost made this a mandatory option for landlords who are financially struggling with tenants who've not paid rent since the removal of due legal process from landlords in march 2020.
There's no 'Furlough' or financial provision for landlords, - just suck it up the government tell us.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but the country, not just Landlords are sick of the ' Political spin '
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