House mate from hell!

redcar_2

melancholly wrote: »

well if he's the only one who's not a student, technically he is the only person who needs to pay the council tax (albeit with a single person's discount). if he is a student, he may have had to give a guarentor on the contract anyway - which is always the last resort with rubbish student housemates - contacting their parents!!

Yep but from OP he doesn't sound like he is contributing to any bills at the moment!

I would also be mightly !!!!!! off sharing bills with someone who stayed in all day using heating etc when I would have to pay a share of those bills. Its enough of a strain being in a shared house with people you know without mad strangers turning up too.

Anglea

I do empathise with the situation, and would advise to tread carefully as I once had a very unpleasant encounter with a house mate who attacked me as he believed I had done something to his stuff . He also didn't pay his share of the bills. I moved out and found out later that he had gone to the police and told them a pack of lies about me. Luckily the police believed my side of the story.

Have any of you ever videod him or took a photo doing something he shouldn't? Because it's hard to prove without evidence and he could claim that you were all ganging up against him. Or he might single one of you out (like in my case) and make your lives a misery.

Re the gas. There were all sorts of dramas like that in the house I lived - all young people. I don't think a lot of them have a clue about looking after a house especially boilers, gas cookers etc. We had a lot of near misses as I was the only one that seemed to know that there was anything wrong.

Could any of your parents or neighbours help?

fridgehead

Hi thanks for all the responses, didn’t expect that many.
Me and the other tenant are both students, and this new housemate apparently is, but as part of his course he should be on a year abroad at the moment, but he is not, he is in our house on job-seekers allowance. We shall definitely be going down to the university housing dept to see if they can help, the estate agent said that the only way they saw us being let out of our contract would be if we found two other people to replace us. If they can’t help we did think about going down to the citizens advice tomorrow as well.
We did go down to the estate agents the second he tried to let himself in because we weren’t sure if he was legit, when we got there they basically said ‘oh well he signed the contract last week and paid the rent, so theres not much we can do about it’ they were meant to give us some notice but evidently ‘forgot’.
I think our contract says that the contract can only be terminated by the landlord after 6 months and with two months notice, which is our entire 8 month contract anyway.
We are all on individual contracts, so we rent each bedroom separately, and pay separately, but the bills are down to us to split them up.
At least he’s not going in our room, we bought a padlock (which I know we’re not meant to do but I don’t want him stealing my tv) and that at least means our stuff is safe.
Yeah we did think about council tax, but as were students we wouldn’t get charged even if he does which is quite good.
No we haven’t taken any pictures of anything yet, but it’s a good idea, as he has attempted all day to try to fix the radiator but we have no idea if he has yet plus we took away our hammer he was hitting it with.
We only have one neighbour as well and there students lucky enough they’re the ones who picked up on the gas smell, but they’re getting annoyed just as much with him as our stairs go onto their front room and he keeps running up and down the stairs ( like 5 times a minute for no reason)
Thanks again for all your help

LittleMissAspie

fridgehead wrote: »

but as part of his course he should be on a year abroad at the moment, but he is not, he is in our house on job-seekers allowance.

I'm pretty sure you can't claim job seeker's allowance while being enrolled on a full-time education course. He's either claiming JSA fraudulently, or he's taken the year off properly and should be paying Council Tax.

fridgehead

Yeah we thought that as well, but if he wasnt a student then he lied about being a student wouldnt they find out?

PasturesNew

fridgehead wrote: »

wouldnt they find out?

They will if you grass him up

Of course it's not grassing him up is it if you're assuming he's told the truth about everything.

LittleMissAspie

If you mean the Council Tax people then no, they wouldn't necessarily find out. IIRC you have to send some proof that you're a student, well he could have sent it then taken the year off afterwards. Perhaps the Council think he's abroad!

minimoocow

Hi FridgeHead

That sounds horrible. Some years back (I'm feeling very old) my husband ended up sharing a student house with someone who turned out to have serious mental health issues (and ended up being sectioned). When she was released back to the house she blamed the housemates for everything and they considered that at the least their uni work would suffer if they continued to live there (and we didn't like to consider the worst as it was v scary).

Anway they moved out (all 3 other housemates) and informed the landlord. he wouldn't release them so they had to pay 2 lots of rent although only for 3 months. However the union had a fund for financial hardship and one of the housemates managed to claim the second lot of rent back from that (husband didn't as he'd saved a bit from holiday work so was expected to pay for it himself). Also from memory the uni had some spare rooms in halls for emergencies like this (although they weren't the cheapest option!)

So . . . first stop is the union - speak to the housing officer. Take your contracts and clarify whether the EA can actually move someone else in without informing you. 2nd speak to the Welfare officer - it is obvioulsy affecting your welfare so see what can be done. 3rd Speak to your course tutor and keep them informed so if you do have any issues with your grades you can use it in an appeal (but hopefully it won't come to that).

Hope that helps

MMC

50plusabit

Wow, you need to get this sorted asap. Write to your landlord you are legally allowed his address, sounds like your agent does not want the LL to know how useless they are. Explain that this tenant is totally unsuitable and un trustworthy, and you feel that it is putting your work in jeopardy. You understand that the new tenant has got a agreement that can not be broken, so you ask the landlord if he will allow you to leave asap or at the end of the six months. If your LL refuses this, then the only choice you have is to leave the property, and hope the LL will not take you to court for the rent. Even if he did most judges would be sympathetic.
Make detailed notes, times dates, of all the things that happen.
Also go to the CAB asap.

red

one final thought - make a list of all your support - friends, family, university, and ask them if they can offer any help whether it be by a free place to stay or putting pressure on the agent/landlord to do the right thing. i know it sounds like a bit of a long-shot, but i remember my tutor was lovely and offered me a place in his home and his truly lovely wife...they were so kind and although i never needed it as the university came through for me and found a new place for me, knowing there was somewhere gave me a lot of reassurance...also, do not panic, but i would plan to make a move asap. your health and safety are paramount.