help with "friend" staying in house.....

mlz1413

When she has gone go in and hoover thoroughly then check in a weeks time and see if there is any evidence of fleas if there isn't then ignore your friends comments, it does rather sound like she would rather complain than talk to you.

Re the money tell here that she didn't tidy garden and broke other rules so you will accept the 2 weeks rent in lieu of this. If she doesn't accept that then pay her and take it as lesson that she is no friend of yours.

furndire

As an addition to all above, if you have any friends in common, let them know what happened - don't keep quiet - don't be embarrassed to let others know. She'll probably do the same to someone else. Its like people who borrow money - they do it on the quiet from loads of folk, and its not until they have bled someone dry that bits start to come out in conversation, and they owe thousands.
Friends like that, who needs enemies

Jowo_2

There is a quote that a verbal agreement is 'worth the paper its written on'. Without an inventory, AST and all the rest of the basic paperwork to prevent or resolve disputes, you don't have a leg to stand on.

I recommend you give a full refund back and put it down to experience. It may seem to be a disaster but landlord forums are chocca with threads on informal/amateur agreements between friends and relatives that turn into much worse nightmares. Accept the key and get the surrrender of the tenancy in writing.

Your friend, if she wished to hold you to housing law to the full degree, could pretty much stay there as long as she wished until you served her 2 months notice, then perhaps force you to gain a court order for possession, then perhaps forced you to then send the bailiffs in. This may take many months, hundreds of pounds and so forth.

You've got off lightly compared to some of the scenarios I've read of trashed flats and rent arrears or harassment by landlords, all because the knowledge about rights, responsibilities and regulations are poorly understood. Let it go and move on.

onecalledk

in reply to living elsewhere, i live in the house part time, i stay there at least a couple of times a week and have not officially moved out. The only payment my friend made was a couple of hundred pounds to cover the mortgage payment, she paid no electric, no phone , nothing else. My personal possessions are still in the house as I live between 2 properties due to work and various other complicated factors in my life.....

does that make a difference ? as for heat wave, this part of the country had a warmer than usual spell but it wasnt tropical ! i stayed in house over the warmest time and nothing bit me ......

i do take on board the replies and the stupidity of what i had attempted. When i do move out and rent my property it will be via my solicitor and a legal document etc etc will be drawn up. I thought i had just offered a fix for a friend who needed somewhere to stay .........

there had been a few comments about this friend from others about her being difficult and she seemed to forever be complaining to her previous landlord solicitor making out they were awkward, now of course i can see the reason why ..........

fingers well and truly burned ....

K

Jowo_2

It can make a difference to the security of a tenure of an occupant if they have a live in landlord but a person is supposed to have one primary residence where they ordinarily live so I can't offer any guidance on this at all, sorry.

mlz1413

she sounds like a lodger from your new info, ie this house is your main residence, do you pay council tax there and are on the electrol roll there?

how many nights a week you stay away is your choice, as long as its not empty for 30 days in row for insurance reasons. the money she paid was rent as a lodger - how much of your bills it covered is irrelevant that is the sum you wanted and she agreed to pay for a period of time. If you didn't specify she should pay for utilites I would expect them to be inclusive apart from the phone.

onecalledk

i am on electoral roll and do pay council tax there, it is not vacant for more than 30 days and i stay there at least once a week overnight if not for longer periods of time ....

lonestar1

Give her the refund she wants

It could easily have cost you more to find out shes really no friend at all

Planner

Give her the refund.

If she starts taking 'advice' on the situation, you could end up with a real can of worms.

Fire_Fox

onecalledk wrote: »

does that make a difference ? as for heat wave, this part of the country had a warmer than usual spell but it wasnt tropical ! i stayed in house over the warmest time and nothing bit me ......

fingers well and truly burned ....

K

I have moved into a house which had fleas (no pets myself at the time!). Trust me, the eggs can still be hatching months after the animal has left. Often pet owners vacuum daily to keep the hair down and so don't notice the fleas and, if given the choice, the fleas prefer to eat a pet than a human.

Not everyone (human or feline) is sensitive to flea bites and gets an itchy reaction. Unless you religiously use an in-food or spot-on flea treatment that you purchase from the vets, your cat will probably have left some flea eggs in the house. I had two cats one of which got scabby and itchy when he had fleas, the other you'd never have known.

I am not saying your friend is telling the truth, but it is possible and it needs looking into. I found it cheaper to get the professionals in to spray the entire house that to DIY.