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First of all, this pertains to Scotland so the law, if any applicable, may differ from that in England and Wales.
I live in a block with four other households. It's clean and tidy and normally peace reigns. However, a few years ago a problem arose with one neighbour attempting to turn his flat (owned by his parents in N. Ireland) into an HMO and raise the building roof and created further rooms in his intrepid scheme to become a landlord. Long story short, he was stalled on all of that but has continued, over the years, to let the flat out. Despite repeated requests from him to tell us who his tenants are he has refused every time. It's unsettling to see different faces coming and going in the stair.
Finally, this week, something serious occurred involving the male tenant. Around 2am on Monday morning we were awakened by police requesting access to the stair as they could not get an answer from this flat. Eventually, they did and remained there for over two hours. Over the next few days, plain-clothes began attending, trying to speak to this guy again but, as it turned out, he had done a runner. He had committed a serious crime, is all the CID guys would say and they've been here every day this week. I had to furnish them with the absentee landlord's email address and place of work and the finally got ahold of him last night and they turned the place upside down.
What I'm curious about is does a landlord have an social responsibility in letting his neighbours know the names of his tenants and how often these people are rotated. Everyone in the stair is now concerned about security and safety. I'm going to approach my solicitor about this but welcome Beagles' views before the weekend is out.
I live in a block with four other households. It's clean and tidy and normally peace reigns. However, a few years ago a problem arose with one neighbour attempting to turn his flat (owned by his parents in N. Ireland) into an HMO and raise the building roof and created further rooms in his intrepid scheme to become a landlord. Long story short, he was stalled on all of that but has continued, over the years, to let the flat out. Despite repeated requests from him to tell us who his tenants are he has refused every time. It's unsettling to see different faces coming and going in the stair.
Finally, this week, something serious occurred involving the male tenant. Around 2am on Monday morning we were awakened by police requesting access to the stair as they could not get an answer from this flat. Eventually, they did and remained there for over two hours. Over the next few days, plain-clothes began attending, trying to speak to this guy again but, as it turned out, he had done a runner. He had committed a serious crime, is all the CID guys would say and they've been here every day this week. I had to furnish them with the absentee landlord's email address and place of work and the finally got ahold of him last night and they turned the place upside down.
What I'm curious about is does a landlord have an social responsibility in letting his neighbours know the names of his tenants and how often these people are rotated. Everyone in the stair is now concerned about security and safety. I'm going to approach my solicitor about this but welcome Beagles' views before the weekend is out.
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