Part 3: Things start to go wrong
The intervening three years were quiet. The rent appeared to be paid regularly, albeit a bit late sometimes, and we received regular reports from Patricia Shepherd RLMS that our property was being well looked after and was in good condition.
The only bugbear was that the tenant seemed to require an inordinate amount of repairs. And many of them weren't in fact repairs either but were improvements - such as £5,000 worth of new windows. Despite this, we had never raised the rent; Patricia Shepherd advised against it as they said the market was stagnant and the tenant might find the increase too much to bear.
The additional outlay and lack of increased income didn't bother us so much when we had a regular salary coming in, but after the overseas posting had ended, we'd moved to another country for an extended holiday and were living off our savings.
We decided that enough was enough and it was time to return to our home. Under the terms of the contract we had with Karen Holliday, we gave notice in January 2005 that we would not be renewing the lease in March 2005.
We understood that this might cause her some difficulties in finding another place and we were prepared to be flexible and give her perhaps an extra couple of months but Patricia Shepherd wisely advised us against this. The tenant's moving out date in March came and went and she did not move out.
Now we had to take legal action to regain our house.
Part 4: Gaining a possession order
IMPORTANT NOTICE: To avoid confusion in case there are other persons of the same name: the Karen Holliday, aka Karen Davies, referred to on this website is the one who previously lived in Senga Road, Hackbridge and then at 30 Longfield Avenue, Hackbridge, Surrey, SM6 7BA, United Kingdom, from July 2001 until her eviction in June 2005. To the best of our knowledge she then continued to reside in the London Borough of Sutton.
LEGAL NOTICE: Remember - if it's true, it can't be libel.
