My housemate has recently revealed herself to be a complete and utter lunatic and so my landlady and I both want her to move out. She's lived in the house for three months and has no rental agreement, the landlady has emailed her an eviction notice but she is refusing to move out. Does anyone know where the law stands on this sort of thing?

Cheers.

That would depend on the type of tenancy that you both have. Need a little more situation on the arangement.
- Do you live with your landlord?
- Did you and the mental tenant move in at the same time?
- Has your landlady accepted rent directly off the mental housemate?
- Do you live in England/Wales or Scotland?

What does she do? Why is she a loony? Maybe you have grounds to bag up her stuff and change the locks, Is she violent?

Planner:

We don't live with the landlord. Myself an my other housemate moved in a month before the nutter. The landlady has accepted rent directly from her. We live in England.

Boshdadosh: Worryingly she is a nurse that works with premature babies (not the ideal career for the mentally unstable). Two weeks ago I got woken up to her running around the house slamming each door three times loudly, this went on for about an hour or so and during the time she sent me text messages telling me that her and our other housemate think that I should move out (up until this point i had no idea she had any problems with me). I was locked in my room scared that if I came out she'd knife me or something, eventually a while after she stopped making so much noise I got dressed an ran out of the house without a shower or brushing my teeth. I talked to my other housemate that night who had no idea what she was going on about when she said that he wanted me to move out and agreed to back me up on getting her evicted. Talked to the landlady the next morning and within half an hour she'd emailed the crazy bitch an eviction notice, which she's been ignoring. Since then I've had at least 30 texts from her (the majority of which I ignored except for the ones that made me really angry) and a threatening call from her boyfriend. The girl lives in some sort of delusional fantasy land where she's done nothing wrong and where our other housemate wants me out too (got another one of those messages yesterday which again he had no clue about). She hasn't actually been violent towards me (just the doors).

On the bright side I've just found out that she's gone to Goa for three weeks and wont be back until after my exams - so I might just pass them (although I've basically lost half of my revision time due to her behaviour). Starting to think that the easiest thing might be to move out myself and hope that the landlady still evicts her.

tell landlady that till the headcase goes you are moving out

She has an Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement, the same as you have. It doesnt matter that there isnt anything in writing. The fact that the landlady has accepted rent from her has brought it into being.

There is no way to remove her until six months has expired. This is the period of protection that and AST offers. Your landloady should serve her a section 21 notice to leve now, expiring when her six months is up. If she still wont leave then you landlady will have to take court action.

Your landlady shouldnt change the locks etc as advised as she would be in serious trouble. They only way to get her out is following the correct path. You wont be a ble to leave either for six months as you are bound by the terms of the AST even if you dont have anything in writing, unless of course you landlady agrees to let you leave early.

Did you landlady take a deposit off her as well? ans has she protected it in one of the TDS schemes?

Out of interest has anyone actually just asked her to leave?

Keep the evidence - texts, etc. Go (with nice housemate) to the Council Tenancy Relations Officer and get him to send firm letter to mad housemate pointing out her responsibilities under the Prevention from Eviction Act.

Its PROTECTION from Eviction Act and has nothing to do with tenant - tenant relations. The councils tenancy relations officer wouldn't get involved I'm afraid.

The more I hear about the AST system the more defective it appears to be. On the one hand it offers no protection for long-term tenants from being kicked out of their home and forced to move every year (with all the trouble and expense this involves), yet on the other it offers no way of dealing with someone who behaves disruptively and destructively during the course of their tenancy. In most of the European countries which have tenancy protection legislation for people who rent long-term, the sort of behaviour described in post #4 (i.e. repeatedly disturbing the peace of other tenants and neighbours) is one of the few grounds on which a tenant can be evicted.

Dont get me wrong, there is a possesion procedure that the landlord can follow during the fixed term, but it would involve going to court (time and money) and the grounds for possesion would only be discretionary i.e. the court may not evict the tenant. The best route in this case would be to wait until the six months is up and get her out then.

Again as anyone simply said "look its not working out do you mind leaving?!"

Dont mix up the housing acts that deal with secutiry of tenure and those that deal with Tennancy Deposit Scheme, they are completley different things. Reading Ayatollahs post above, TDS in other countries is obviously completley different than it is in ours. TDS in this country simply ensures that the landlord/agent has protected the deposit, full stop.

Any threat of violence or harassment needs to be reported to the police.

You might find she will buck her ideas up once they get involved especially as she is a nurse working with kids she may realise the implications of her behavior.

Gone to Goa for a bit? Smoking lots of puff maybe?

Sounds to me like she may have drug-induced paranoia - in which case she should most certainly not be working with children. If she goes on like this I think the police and the medical system need to get involved. When you said she`s a `loony` I thought it was just an attitude problem, but it sounds like the beginnings of full-blown mental illness.

For her sake (loss of job, possible sectioning) I hope I am wrong in this matter

Agreed. Take them to the police. Ask them how you need to store them for use.

If you can get the police to take it seriously I would be amazed they will really only do somethig about repeated domestic violence or once you have received actual bodily harm however it is worth reporting in case you need it "on record" on day