House mate from hell!

melancholly

redcar wrote: »

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.

oh i agree - i just wanted to be clear that of the bills this guy is refusing to pay, the other student housemates have absolutely no responsibility for council tax at all - if he does then it makes no difference to them!

i'd also second the really good advice to speak to your tutor about this if it is impacting on your work - and do it asap. you will get a much more understanding response if you do this before you get work marked, otherwise it can sound like a post-hoc excuse (even if it is justified, there are plenty of people who try it on and so it's hard to separate them at that point in time).

redcar_2

fridgehead wrote: »

Hi thanks for all the responses, didn’t expect that many.

I think you can take all the responses as a sign how horrified a lot of other people are at your situation.

Hope you get this sorted soon - please keep us updated and good luck!

barnaby-bear

50plusabit wrote: »

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.

If this was a studnet HMO and he lied about his status the contract may well be invalid. I would personally report him to the council tax - he doesn't have to know it was you. You can't be held liable and I suspect being chased for it may encourage him to do a bunk...

fridgehead

Hi thanks everyone for posting, if we have to we will move out soon then deal with it, but the OH has just gone down to see the student union people to see what they say, whilst I wait in for the person to fix the heating as they never came yesterday.

Were also writing up a letter to send to send to the estate agent and the landlord telling them about the damage he caused so we shouldnt get it taken of our deposits.

We do think he has slight mental issues now as he was singing to no music until about 2am last night, and then started banging around again this morning at 9am. lucky enough we get on well with our neighbours so theyere going to complain about the noise for us as well.

But as soon as the OH gets back ill let you know what they tell us.

Cheers again
Fridgehead

absolutebounder

fridgehead wrote: »

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

If it is an HMO and the landlord does not live there it sounds like you should not have an assured shorthold tenancy but an excluded one as you are just renting rooms. An excluded tenancy lets you out very quickly. For more info about these tenancys go to the shelter website. If you agree with me demand compensation from EA for not knowing what they are doing.

sooz

absolutebounder wrote: »

If it is an HMO and the landlord does[STRIKE] not [/STRIKE]live there it sounds like you should not have an assured shorthold tenancy but an excluded one as you are just renting rooms. An excluded tenancy lets you out very quickly. For more info about these tenancys go to the shelter website. If you agree with me demand compensation from EA for not knowing what they are doing.

I think you've got that the wrong way round

absolutebounder

sooz wrote: »

I think you've got that the wrong way round

boolox you are right I have got the wrong brain cell engaged Sorry OP talking out of my @rse

fridgehead

Hi just a little update, the uni people wern't any good and just gave us a leaflet on how to deal with problems with the house.
And he's just refused to pay the bills because he say's he doesn't like people asking him for money and wont pay up. So tommorow were consulting a socilistor to see if they can get us out of our contract, and were looking for another house as i type lol.

Anyone got any else advice.

Many thanks

Fridgehead

poppysarah

CAB might be cheaper than a solicitor to start with (but you can have half hour free)

You need shut of the dangerous nutter. Whats the landlord said?

fridgehead

Yeah were going to try CAB tommorow before hand, then if there no good were going to find a solicitor. The landlord wont talk to us, and the estate agent is no use, And to finish it off he's trying to fix the broken radator again with a binbag and some gaffa tape.