Tenancy/Renting query for my sister

KVet

Background - my sis and I jointly bought a house in England, she lives there and rents out the other 2 rooms to peeps which helps cover the mortgage etc. Back in June 2008 a girl, D, wanted to move in but didnt want to sign the year long lease that my sis had made up and only wanted a 6 month lease with 1 month rolling after that. My sister agreed but only on the basis that she would def stay there at least 6 months. No contract was signed, this was a verbal agreement over the telephone. The girl stayed there and payed bills etc til the end of October when she left to go work away somewhere else and said that she probably wouldn't be back and would move out. She sent my sister a text (which she has saved on her old sim card) that said "I will pay the last 2 months rent and just take the bills for those 2 months out of my deposit and return the rest". My sister was a bit unimpressed that she didn't keep to the agreement of living there for 6 months minimum but did as she said and billed her for the 2 months council tax/elec/water/phone etc out of her deposit which was around £170 and the 2 months rent was £520.

The girl didnt hand the keys back until Jan 2009 and still apparently has her car registered to that address and had loads of her stuff in the flat for a good few months after she "moved out" in October 2008. She then sent my sister a message that she didnt think she should have been charged for the bills for Nov/Dec as she wasnt living there, they didnt have a contract, she could have left whenever and paid her the rent "out of goodwill" and wanted her money back for the 2 months rent as well as the bills. My sister replied but then they both obv forgot about it until last month when the girl brought it up again and then threatened to take my sister to the small claims court for "keeping her money".

My sister is a bit worried about all this as
a) they didnt have a signed contract as she refused to sign the year long lease
b) all they have is a verbal contract over the phone with no witnesses
c) she does have evidence that she agreed to pay the bills with a text but she doesnt know how to get it off her old sim card onto some visible device or medium?

What can she do? She thinks the girl is just bluffing in an attempt to get some money back. My sis has checked out the CAB online and can't find much about this as it's all about written contracts. She feels she is in the right, which is fair enough as she only did what the girls texted her and told her to do and she's miffed she didn't keep to her side of the contract.

Thanks!

Fire_Fox

If your sister was a live-in landlord then this is a lodger arrangement, there are fewer/ different rights on both sides when compared with a shorthold tenancy. If it was a tenant a six month AST is implied even if it is not written down, lodgers however can be asked to leave at very short notice so I cannot imagine you can hold them to a long tenancy without a written agreement as I suspect that would be classed as an unfair term.

Your sister should not have been communicating with the lodger via text, that is highly unprofessional. Are you saying you are trying to charge her bills for the two months she did live in the house or two months after she moved out? If the latter you cannot do that unless you can demonstrate she was still a resident (albeit an absentee one). TBH I think you should chalk it up to experience and refund the deposit minus a modest fee for storage of property and any bills incurred whilst the lodger was still resident. Any communication really should be in writing preferably by recorded delivery, be prepared to justify any deductions (e.g. copies of bills). You cannot use a text in court.

KVet

The girl just left to work down south and texted my sister saying that she probably wouldnt be back and that she would pay 2 months rent and the bills for those last 2 months from her deposit. According to some research i've done as she lived in the house with my sister (landlord) then it is not an AST and is a Excluded or Non-Excluded Tenancy (I can't differentiate between the two online, some people use them as the same thing...) and she was a Tenant, not a lodger, as my sister did not do things like provide linen/clean her room etc, just rented her the room as her own private space. It's just a bit odd for the girl to voluntarily offer to and then pay rent/bills and then want it back 4 months later. I should also mention she also pre-paid her rent for jan/feb/mar in advance expecting to still live there but my sister refunded all of that to her.

Wee_Willy_Harris

From the information you have provided, your sister has created an "excluded tenancy". This does reduce the tenants rights when compared to, say, an AST.

Your sister has a number of options open to her.

1. Roll over and do what the girl asks.

2. Ignore it and hope it all goes away.

3. Ask the girl to put her request, in detail, in writing and deal with it then (See 1,2 and 4)

4. Go nuclear! Write to the tenant advising that as the keys were not returned until Jan, her rent liability still existed, her liability for a share of the bills still existed and that the costs of the empty room/re-letting have also been incured due to her early departure. Ask how the "tenant" proposes to address these issues?

I can only tell you what I would do, which may or may not be the wisest course.

BitterAndTwisted

"Probably moving out" is not actually moving out especially when her possessions were still in the property and the keys not returned.

I think your sister has been more than fair and I believe that this ex-lodger is just trying it on. In the absence of a written contract or any correspondence confirming what any monies received were for, she's going to have a hard job convincing a magistrate or any other party that your sister has withheld any money unfairly if it ever gets to that stage, which I doubt very much. Once the ex-lodger has consulted the CAB or Shelter or got advice anywhere else she will quickly realise that herself.