Problems....

wirm

I'm renting a house with four other people....this past couple of months I've noticed things going missing from my room and the cupboard in the kitchen where I keep my food. It started off as little things like sweets....yogurts but when I came back yesterday I noticed that two cinema vouchers have disappeared.

i've said to them all before and everyone says its not them. I have one suspicion, which my other housemates seems to think too because he's always been causing trouble since we moved it.

But what is my next step? I have loads of dvds/tv/hi-fi - the ususal stuff you'd expect and whats to stop someone stealing them too....

So what should I do? Should I get in touch with the people we went the house from?

Thanks,

wirm

---Just to add, there is no lock on my bedroom door, none of the bedrooms have locks and we aren't allowed to put one on ourselves. We approached the landlord at the start but they said it would cost £50ish each to put one on...

Jay-Jay_4

I think it would be £50 well spent for peace of mind (although he's having a laugh at THAT price)

fran_from_willesden

We're not allowed locks on our doors either.....if we put them on then we'd get charged an obscene amount of money. I know this may sound a bit far-fetched but what about investing in a lockable box to put some of your stuff in?

Or you could set little booby traps (depending on the amount of time you have and the extent of your imagination!)

wirm

It would need to be a huge box, but thanks for the suggestion.

Should I get in touch with the people I'm renting my house with?

rchddap1

If you have a video camera of sorts you could also hide it somewhere in your room, and set it to record when you leave. This might not stop anything else from going missing. But you will be able to confront the person concerned.

wirm

I have a web camera for my room, which has a motion sensor....but I take my laptop home at weekends....

Jay-Jay_4

Wirm, if it was me I would get on the phone to the landlord and explain the problem, not in a demanding way but a 'I could really do with your help' kind of way. I honestly think that it's worth spending a bit of money on a door lock, that way you know that your things are safe.

Hopefully your landlord will understand and agree to fit lock on your doors, if not you could ask him if he would be ok with you getting someone to fit them for him. It would probably be a bind for him to get someone out but the door lock would be beneficial for him in the long run if he continues to rent the house out.

I can see how it's not his responsibility to put the locks on for you but he should agree if you're willing to do the legwork and foot the bill.

I lived in a rented house a few years back and I sanded and varnished the tatty front door and glossed the windowsill stone thing. My landlord was quite grateful as he couldn't be bothered doing the jobs himself.

Kittenkirst

Hi,
Unfortunately its not really down to the landlords to sort out domestic problems between the tennants.

My only suggestion is to have a bit of a 'house meeting' and calmly say that peoples things have been going walkies, and whilst the odd splash of milk pinched here or there is fine, its really not on to pinch other stuff, afterall you're all living there and are all in the same boat (probably skint like me and my student mates) oh and in future keep stuff like cinema vouchers in your wallet or something : out of temptations reach!!!

wirm

Kittenkirst wrote:

oh and in future keep stuff like cinema vouchers in your wallet or something : out of temptations reach!!!

but they weren't sitting out in the open. They were in a drawer which means that someone was obivously looking for something to steal....

thanks for the reply though!

wirm

Kittenkirst

evil s**ts- now thats harsh- rifling thru someones stuff is just wrong! could you get a lockable box file thing (normally for paperwork) you could take the suspension files out and pop dvds and important stuff in there maybe? Staples do them pretty cheap and offer 10% (or 15% can never remember) student discount (every penny helps) :-)

wirm

i have way too many dvds to fit in a box.

What annoys me the most is that i'm the only one that has got stuff going missing....