House mate from hell!

poppysocks1

What a horrible situation. I have had house shares in the past but none that bad.
Just re-reading this thread - have you called your landlord to explain? Could you call him first thing in the morning? (I know you should go via the estate agent but he sounds useless).If you tell the landlord that you cannot live in the house as things stand and that it puts you in a dangerous situation, and that you and your flat mate have no option but to seek alternative accommodation elsewhere unless he can get the other completely unsuitable tenant that was deposited in the house removed. I am sure if he thought that he would lose 2 people rather than just the one, then he may do something? You could say that you are seeking solicitors advice on the situation too. I do think you need to put the sitution in writing to the Landlord and maybe cc the Estate Agent/Students Union and Citizens Advice. I dont know what else to say but I do hope this gets sorted out asap as you shouldnt have to live like this. How about contacting Shelter for advice?

Incisor

fridgehead wrote: »

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.

I have just looked back at the start of the thread. Which bills are you talking about? And are you jointly and severally responsible for them with this character according to your tenancy agreement?

Someone more knowledgeable will be along hopefully, but it strikes me that actually you cannot/should not be jointly and severally liable with another party unless you have agreed that with full knowledge of who you are taking on the liability with. In other words with a HMO where the landlord is renting out rooms to individuals rather than a property to a collective of tenants, the landlord should be responsible for paying the bills to whomever and the tenants should be responsible for paying their share to the Landlord.

Hope you can get this sorted.

poppysarah

What about council's private tenancy suppport officer?

fridgehead

If i need to i can dip into my savings and just rent somewhere cheap but yeah were going to try to phone the landlord again and explain the situation and see if shes any use.
The bills im talking about is the water bill which has his name on it, and the electicity which is on a meter and we are having to top up every week, £20 a week its being used atm and were not even there 1/2 the time.
Weve both never been so strested before, and to make things worse i have a stomach condition which is brought on by stress.
Hopefully we can get it sorted tommoz or i may go mad lol.

fridgehead

oh never hurd of the council's private tenancy suppport officer before? ill look into it

poppysocks1

Just googled "private tenants advice and support" as per suggestion in earlier thread, and my local council has a dept that offers advice to landlords and tenants, so maybe you could do a web search adding in the name of your local council to see what contact details come up. Good luck, i really hope you get this sorted. You must mention how its affecting your health too, as that is important, and get a doctors note if that helps your case.

kunekune

You have been given excellent advice, I think, and I hope (and expect) this will be sorted out. Make sure you have documentation: even if you don't have exams, being postgraduates, there are deadlines and if you miss them, you may need to have proof of why.

But ...

Everyone else has been really nice and lovely and so forth. However, if you really are writing your dissertation, (a) that's how it's spelt, (b) there is something called an apostrophe and (c) I suggest that you make ample use of spell checking before you hand it in.

A concerned university lecturer ...

fridgehead

Yeah thanks for everyone's help and i know my spellings bad just getting very tired lol. Weve written down all the problems now and our neighbours are kindly writting a letter of complaint about the noise he's making, so hopefully we should have some idea of what will happen tommorow.

Thanks again
fridghead

KiKi

Hi kunekune

There are people who are fantastic spellers, but don't seek to use grammar and punctuation on an internet forum because it's not required and it's easy not to. (As a spelling and grammar pedant it's not my personal preference, but that's not the point!)

Perhaps the OP is stressed, upset, and not worrying about little things like that in a place where s/he doesn't need to! I'm sure his/her own tutors will pick up on anything from an academic point of view, whilst what they're seeking to ascertain on this forum is housing advice...!

OP - I really hope this gets sorted; it sounds like a nasty situation to be in. Let us know how it works out, won't you?

KiKi

poppysocks1

Good luck tomorrow, please let us know how you get on. I am sure there will be a positive outcome. Keep a folder together with all the documentation you need to refer to, i.e. a photocopy of your contract, dates/times of issues with your lodger, and contact names of people that you have already spoken to, like estate agent/landlord etc, plus the letter from your neighbour as it will help get a case together. Get the doctors note too if that helps. At least you have your other flat mate for support, and its not just you and the dreadful housemate. Keep us posted, I will be checking my email for updates.