flat share

Spitakimus14

Hi all

Daughter whose 20 is leaving home to live with her friend and boyfriend in what was supposed to be his dads flat.
Rent all inclusive of bills £300 a month.

So far so good
Except
1 other girl does not work and the guys a roofer who only earns when he works ie bad weather no money
2 the father of the boy is moving from the flat which is why my daughter can move in but he now admits he rents it from a mate .
3 no locks on bedroom doors
4 she cannot get a permit for the car park
5 want payment in cash and dont seem to want to confirm in writing whats included .
other than the obvious things im worried its a housing association block of flats ... how can i check ??

obviously im getting the 'why do you put a downer on things ' coments

so HELP..........:(

MarsdenCuckoo

Good luck with that one!

Guess it depends how 'on hands' you want to be or whether you're happy for your daughter just to 'wing it'......

On the one hand, if there's nothing in writing then seems to me that she can't be made liable for any costs (irrespective of how they're obviously going to mount up)

On the other hand, do you really want to take any sort of responsibility for such a mish-mash?

Maybe your best tactic would be to just let her wing it and pick up the pieces at the ends if needs be? Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised and she'll take control herself.....

As I said, good luck - maybe time to take a step back?

Fire_Fox

Locks on bedroom doors could breach fire regulations and/ or make the flat a HMO (depending on number of 'households' I think). If she is illegally subletting no she probably won't get a parking permit. Why does it matter who works/ has no money if the rent is all inclusive? The worst that can happen is she gets evicted at short notice, lesson learned and home with her tail between her legs! If the flat is housing association it *should* have all the right gas safety and fire alarm checks in place.

Spitakimus14

THANKS

Taking two large steps back with my tin hat on and waiting for the bang...

Probably sounds a bit silly but im being a dad i suppose:o

oh and theres £8000 in a savings account that i can see being used

princeofpounds

Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Subletting of a council flat?
Joint and several with people who have irregular/no income and probably credit problems too?
Refusal to put contracts in writing?

It's a shame it would seem overbearing to point her in the direction of this forum. I'm not a different generation to her, but old enough to have a little perspective and experience, and she is being quite naive.

She needs to protect her back in the following ways at least
- If there is a deposit, get it protected. Better yet, no deposit.
- Get receipts, and preferably bank trails for ALL money.
- Deperately try to not end up in joint and several liability with the co-tenants. Does she realise that if they leave, she will have to pay ALL their rent until the tenancy finishes?

BitterAndTwisted

If you know the address of the property you should be able to find out who owns it from the Land Registry website. It will cost you about £4

If the property is a Housing Association one and you're right about the flat being rented from a mate this would make this arrangement an illegal sub-let. The main danger for your daughter would be if this possible illegal arrangement came to light through non-payment of rent for instance your daughter and the other occupants would be evicted and your daughter would have no recourse whatsoever. It all depends on whether your daughter is willing to run that risk.

To my mind, the other most obvious disadvantage would be sharing with a couple, and a couple with little/irregular income at that. Being a third person in such an arrangement can be very difficult indeed as your daughter will always be outnumbered and it seems to me that the other two have more to gain from this arrangement than your daughter does.

In your position I think you should advise your daughter to protect herself and ABSOLUTELY NOT agree to have any of the utility bills in her name.

Spitakimus14

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

If you know the address of the property you should be able to find out who owns it from the Land Registry website. It will cost you about £4

If the property is a Housing Association one and you're right about the flat being rented from a mate this would make this arrangement an illegal sub-let. The main danger for your daughter would be if this possible illegal arrangement came to light through non-payment of rent for instance your daughter and the other occupants would be evicted and your daughter would have no recourse whatsoever. It all depends on whether your daughter is willing to run that risk.

To my mind, the other most obvious disadvantage would be sharing with a couple, and a couple with little/irregular income at that. Being a third person in such an arrangement can be very difficult indeed as your daughter will always be outnumbered and it seems to me that the other two have more to gain from this arrangement than your daughter does.

In your position I think you should advise your daughter to protect herself and ABSOLUTELY NOT agree to have any of the utility bills in her name.

Yes but between the ages of 15 and 22 they seem to know better
Wonder how long it will last

BitterAndTwisted

Probably about three months, tops

Jowo_2

The only 'good' thing, if you can call it that, is that their allergy to a paper trail or potential unauthorised subletting from a housing association means she can pretty much bail out at any time and it very difficult for the landlord to take the tenant to court to claim arrears (due to lack of notice) or damage to the property.

The other tenants and their irregular income pretty, plus the casual approach to giving her lodgings there pretty much guarantees disputes will arise. Let her fly the nest but do as my mate's mother did and remind her that their family home would not be a hotel - "Good luck but you have to know now that you can't come back if it doesn't work out"...

lynzpower

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Locks on bedroom doors could breach fire regulations and/ or make the flat a HMO (depending on number of 'households' I think). If she is illegally subletting no she probably won't get a parking permit. Why does it matter who works/ has no money if the rent is all inclusive? The worst that can happen is she gets evicted at short notice, lesson learned and home with her tail between her legs! If the flat is housing association it *should* have all the right gas safety and fire alarm checks in place.

Sounds like an it could be designated an HMO anyway to be honest- it all depends on the LA. Now dad is moving out leaving potentially 2 households - your daughter and the couple. New regulations have come in requiring every HMO to have planing permission granted ( since April)

I am unsure whether this would tick the box being a flat on one level ( Im guessing on one level) and the applications of these new regs are a bit mixed from what I read.

I think the lack of contract and the subletting issue is a lot more important than the HMO issue which is almost too negligible to be worthwhile.

however, its also the case that if you live in a unregistered HMO, then you can claim back all your rent payments if the EHP or HMO officer deems this an unregistered HMO.

Of all the shared houses she could live in , this is the option that gives her the absolute least protection.

Spitakimus14

i think the only people deaming it a hmo are the dad whose moving out and the couple still there who cant afford the rent on there own....


if it is a housing association flat what is the rent liable to be in Southend for a new 2 bad flat .

wonder if i can get a snooker table in her room;)