Tenants come and go from time to time, but with the recent recession, the number of people losing their jobs has led to a rise in the risk of tenants defaulting on their rent. In some cases, this can lead to considerable inconvenience for residential landlords.

John Williamson had let a house in a major Midlands town to Eric for several years without any problems. Unfortunately, Eric then lost his job and was unable to find another. Of course, he was entitled to social security benefits and for some time he used these to meet the cost of his rent, so there was no disruption to John's income.

Unfortunately, after six months, Eric's ex-wife became ill and he had to look after the children full time while she was in hospital, significantly increasing his outgoings. Eric quickly found that he was unable to meet his rent and John suddenly found his income from this property had dried up; just when he had to pay his property owners insurance premium!

John's initial reaction was to be sympathetic towards Eric's problems, but there comes a time when business sense has to take over; there was no chance of Eric being in a position to re-start paying rent for some time as he had got into debt, let alone making up any of the shortfall. So, after a few months, John had no alternative but to ask Eric to vacate the premises.

Unsurprisingly, Eric, whose children had by now returned to their mother, was unwilling to leave, considering that this was his home and he felt entitled to stay there even if he could not pay any rent. He refused to move out.