As a landlord with a correct and legal lease agreement, you can exercise your right to use enforcement officers to peacefully re-enter a commercial property to gain possession. This is often relating to matters such as forfeiture of the lease or to remove squatters. But an increasing number of these landlords are finding that the tenants then break back into their property. So, what do landlords need to do in these situations?
Increasing problem
In recent years, this issue has been a growing problem for landlords with an increase of around 25% of the number of such cases reported. Once a forfeiture is complete, the possession and occupation of the property returns to the landlord until a new lease is agreed. However, former tenants are breaking back into the property.
The normal route to take when you find that this has happened with your property is to get the police involved. Take photos of where the former tenant has broken into the property and any damage that has been caused. Copies of any CCTV footage is also useful to have.
If the police decline to help
As part of the growing number of these cases and the workload of law enforcement officers, landlords are seeing many of these cases being classed as civil trespass, rather than breaking and entering. This means that the landlord must take action to deal with the problem.
The best option in this situation is to ask enforcement officers (like Able Investigations) to once more repossess the property and to secure it. This basically repeats the process used to remove the tenant in the first place.
Preventing a repeat
Once the tenant has been removed for a second time, what is then to stop the whole process happening again? In this situation, the best option is for the landlord to use security guards to discourage attempted re-entry.
Usually, they will stay in place for 24 to 48 hours to ensure there is no immediate repeat of the process. Their presence can act as a longer term deterrent too, as the tenant will have no idea how long the security guards will be patrolling the premises for. Additional security measures may be worth considering such as shutters or alarms to prevent further damage to the property.
Should the tenant attempt to re-enter the property after this period, the landlord can then contact the police once more and this will often be classed as aggravated trespass and would see police action.
How can Able Investigations help?
By using an expert enforcement agency, you can be certain that all efforts are legal and within the terms of your tenancy agreement. This places you, the landlord, on the right side of the law and the problem tenant on the wrong side of it. For help with evicting commercial tenant fill out our contact form and we’ll get back to you or call us on 0345 366 0000.
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