My housemates boyfriend has moved in and won’t leave no matter what

I mean realistically all you can do is keep pestering the agency. Email them every day or so? And the land Lord if you can.

You might force them to visit, estate agents are working during COVID so providing precautions are taken in not sure why they can’t pop around.

Maybe keep a diary of evidence of days staying there..

This is also an issue with moving in with people sadly (dishes not cleaned.. etc) that’s just life experience building. I understand your frustrations but sometimes you have to live with people you don’t like & such.

Note - check your rental agreement. They might not be technically breaching anything, so just double check.

I'd have called the police pretty early in this situation

"Leave my home"
"lol, no"
"Ok, hello Police? strange armed man refusing to leave my home, why yes, he does keep shouting he's not afraid of dogs, no matter how many there are."

Job done,

Does he pay rent/bills? If not point this out to the girl

If he does, is he on the contract? If he isn't then it's essentially subletting, which most landlords won't allow

I'd suggest discussing this with your friend.

I did consider option but my university advised me against it as it wasn’t per say criminal activity. Thanks for your response!

What did the uni suggest?

My second choice would be to move out and tell the LL and group to go screw themselves, maybe in a nicer tone, maybe not.

By the sound of it the atmosphere is toxic now anyway? I'd more or less tell the landlord you have to leave as the property isn't safe as aggressive strangers are moving in and refuse to leave. (which they have not remedied) If they're explaining they 'can't visit due to covid, then you 'can't' accept forced visits from aggressive strangers mid lockdown.

It's generally a scorched earth approach, but the alternative seems to be living in an unsafe ripoff flat with people you don't get on with. I'd maybe give the landlord a written or emailed ultimatum to get this guy out your home within 48 hours or you'll consider them to have abandoned their duty of care as landlord. I'd say that puts you in a reasonable position to abandon the lease. (others may reasonably dispute this)

The university advised me to keep perstering my letting agent until they keep up their end of the tenancy agreement. Thankfully, I have just found out that they are doing a visit next week, hopefully, this should mean the bf gets proactively kicked out! You're right, the relations are quite somber and I am considering getting a legal opinion on whether I can legally get out of the agreement (according to my letting agent I cannot). If there is ni resolution from the landlord visit next week, I would definitely pursue a more pressing approach and get him to uphold his obligation as LL.

I'd have called the police pretty early in this situation

"Leave my home"
"lol, no"
"Ok, hello Police? strange armed man refusing to leave my home, why yes, he does keep shouting he's not afraid of dogs, no matter how many there are."

Job done,

That will not work. As soon as it becomes apparent to the police that he is staying there with the permission of one of the residents they will explain they cannot intervene. This is a civil matter that is out of the police's jurisdiction.

The university advised me to keep perstering my letting agent until they keep up their end of the tenancy agreement. Thankfully, I have just found out that they are doing a visit next week, hopefully, this should mean the bf gets proactively kicked out! You're right, the relations are quite somber and I am considering getting a legal opinion on whether I can legally get out of the agreement (according to my letting agent I cannot). If there is ni resolution from the landlord visit next week, I would definitely pursue a more pressing approach and get him to uphold his obligation as LL.

I find it very difficult to believe that you cannot get out of this rental agreement given the current situation. It's possible but very improbable that the contract has not been breached.

This is what I would do at this stage: now you've tried being civil with the estate agent I would change your tone and approach. I'd begin by going through the terms of your lease and highlighting every term that has been breached, making a note of the nature of the breach. Write this information up in a very matter of fact and formal email to your estate agent, directly quoting the breached terms. Essentially, you overwhelm them with facts outlining that you understand that you can leave this contract and know how to.

This last part of this is very important. Estate agents here the 'I'm going to sue you' line all the time, it's far more impactful to write like you're going to sue them than to say you're going to: a) it's more impactful when they realise it for themselves b) if you don't sue them then you don't lose rapport.

I would also summarise that email with a deadline with an associated reason for that deadline (e.g. I need this problem rectified by the 8th February because I have a summative issued then), if you don't have a reason then make one up- continually reiterate this deadline in follow up emails. This will create a sense of pressure.

Finally, but most importantly, finish with a line like 'How do you advise we proceed?'. This strokes their intrinsic desire for control whilst prompting them to solve your problem for you.

I think if you take this approach and generally you're a bit tougher with the estate agent than you have been so far, the issue will solve itself. Their ideal scenario is one in which you just shoulder the inconvenience of this situation but if you remove that option and make it clear you're pursuing legal action they have to choose between court or letting go of one tenant. They will choose the latter 100% of the time. The goal of the above is to remove the first option whilst suggesting that you are quickly moving towards the second, this should push them to take up the final option available to them- let you out of your contract.

Sorry for the length of this, I hope this helps!

I find it very difficult to believe that you cannot get out of this rental agreement given the current situation. It's possible but very improbable that the contract has not been breached.

This is what I would do at this stage: now you've tried being civil with the estate agent I would change your tone and approach. I'd begin by going through the terms of your lease and highlighting every term that has been breached, making a note of the nature of the breach. Write this information up in a very matter of fact and formal email to your estate agent, directly quoting the breached terms. Essentially, you overwhelm them with facts outlining that you understand that you can leave this contract and know how to.

This last part of this is very important. Estate agents here the 'I'm going to sue you' line all the time, it's far more impactful to write like you're going to sue them than to say you're going to: a) it's more impactful when they realise it for themselves b) if you don't sue them then you don't lose rapport.

I would also summarise that email with a deadline with an associated reason for that deadline (e.g. I need this problem rectified by the 8th February because I have a summative issued then), if you don't have a reason then make one up- continually reiterate this deadline in follow up emails. This will create a sense of pressure.

Finally, but most importantly, finish with a line like 'How do you advise we proceed?'. This strokes their intrinsic desire for control whilst prompting them to solve your problem for you.

I think if you take this approach and generally you're a bit tougher with the estate agent than you have been so far, the issue will solve itself. Their ideal scenario is one in which you just shoulder the inconvenience of this situation but if you remove that option and make it clear you're pursuing legal action they have to choose between court or letting go of one tenant. They will choose the latter 100% of the time. The goal of the above is to remove the first option whilst suggesting that you are quickly moving towards the second, this should push them to take up the final option available to them- let you out of your contract.

Sorry for the length of this, I hope this helps!

Yeah there's some good advice here.

I'd reiterate how important it is to do all this in letter/writing and keep at it, even if it means literally emailing them every day 'This guys still in our house', I'd consider adding on that you feel threatened since they're trying to control what you can and can't do in your own home, which is seriously interfering with your use & enjoyment of the property.

Definitely important to make to make it clear to the landlord that the ball is in their court and you won't wait forever for an answer or action. I agree there's no point shouting about suing people, best to stay honeyed and 'I'm optimistic we can resolve the situation amicably dot dot dot.'. At the end of the day when a landlords bluff is called and they know they're going to lose at least one tenant no matter what, they're hardly going to want stuck with the one that caused the problems.

You're absolutely correct, I've had to leave my own house as legal tenant because of a squatter, my best option is to be firm and apply pressure at this point in time. Covid isn't an excuse for landlords to not uphold their end of the bargain. You took the words out my mouth tho, I asked my letting agent "won't the squatter just leave for the day and revisit after the viewing" - they assured me that they won't let that happen and make sure he's out the house. Thanks for taking the time to write to me, very helpful!

Can you collect evidence he's there? Photos, record conversations etc in case he disappears on the day of the visit ... he should be paying council tax as well so maybe report him to the council.