at his low-priced house refused to pay rent and guarded the door with a vicious dog.

And Major Albert Benjamin M.B.E. blames the Island's judicial system for depriving someone a place to stay for the holidays due to fact that the matter will not be heard in court until next February at the earliest.

"In any case,'' he said, "I definitely won't be able to rent it to anyone else who really needs a place for Christmas.'' The Khyber Pass, Warwick resident explained to The Royal Gazette how he had wanted to "just help someone out for the holidays''.

"It's very disappointing,'' Major Benjamin, who is a former divisional secretary for the Salvation Army, said. "Here is someone wanting to make a present of an inexpensive place to live and because of legal fees I can't do it.'' He described how, after putting the house up for rent with the Bermuda Housing Corporation, the tenant had stopped paying the $800 rent in September but stayed in the house.

"In October he received two notices, from me and from my lawyers, that he had to vacate the premises,'' Major Benjamin said, "but he ignored both of these.

"When I tried to go up there recently and talk with him, I was met with a Pitbull dog chained up just in front of the door.'' After contacting the SPCA the dog was eventually taken away.

"The tenant has taken most of his clothes out of the apartment now, but although he still drops by now and then, he doesn't live there anymore.'' Major Benjamin explained how his lawyer told him that, while a court date to deal with the matter would not be available until February, he was within his rights to change the locks on the door.

Landlord loses out "I'm going to do that as soon as possible,'' he said.

But Major Benjamin added it would be time consuming and costly to take the man to court in an attempt to get the back rent.

And he said, on top of that, he would have to pay to have all of the former tenant's furniture removed from the premises.

"It only takes one bad tenant to turn a landlord's experience into a nightmare,'' Major Benjamin said.

"Frankly, I don't think I would ever do this sort of thing again and I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone else to do it either'', he said.

"But it's a sad state of affairs because there are so many people out there who really need such an affordable place to stay.

"And because the judicial system is not taking any urgent measures to help, then I've really got no recourse.

"This is the other side of the landlord-tenant story and I felt it really needed to be told.''