VERY Worried - mate who cant afford to pay bills!

MercilessKiller

Hi.

Just moved in then with 3 other guys (and the girly ^-^)

Am on holiday atm with the internet of course. Anyway, just spoke to one of the guys. He's maxed out his overdraft and a credit card, and spent £300 out of £500 of a none-interest free overdraft - meanwhile he hasn't sent his student loan form back (he blamed them not sending him the application). He has a job but its on demand work and he only worked one day in a week getting £25!

He's VERY lazy - and I'm VERY worried. He can't afford to pay the first months rent, but I'm soon to receive NTL and Electricity bills which he has to pay towards. I feel I'm going to have some problems getting the money in!!!! I know he's a mate and I shouldnt be harsh but i REALLY cant afford for him not to pay me back for the bills!!!!

He's applying for Emergency Funding but once again, he's lazy so sod knows what's going to happen. He said he may not be able to stay at uni but its too late to defer for a year.. (we're starting our second year soon). He is also 21.

Thanks for ANY advice people can give regarding his situation or anything else!

Barcode

If true, this individual does not sound very pro-active.

Are you on a contract? If so, how long will it run for? I have a horrible feeling that the rest of you may be liable for the total rent if you have signed a six or twelve month contract.

You mention emergency funding, is this the Access to Learning fund? There are also short-term loans available (usually from the student union) to cover emergencies until the student loan comes through.

If you see no evidence of him doing this, then here is what I would do: Get together as a group and ask him to leave. It is not pleasant and will cause a few arguments, but better that than be constantly stressed out about having to subsidise a free-loader.

With regards to the impending bills, perhaps ask the companies if you can pay monthly. That way, you can all pay your share, and hopefully his student loan and university funds will have come through by the time he has to contribute his share.

MercilessKiller

It is true.. and he isn't pro active at all. He just said to me in these words "i'm so worried I'm shaking".. but this is the FIRST day he's actually said anything about it!

To be honest, yes feel sorry for him, but we've been warning him about this for a LONG time as he had similar probs last year. He ignored us compeltely and this is all his own doing.. all of it. Too much drinking and smoking but hey.. different lifestyles?

We are contracted together for 40 weeks. Its a joint tenancy agreement I do believe. The rent is £55 a week. Then the NTL adds up to about £5 per week (per person).. No idea how much Gas/Elec costs yet as bills are quarterly.

Not sure how he could leave without then making us liable to pay his rent? Would be near impossible to find another person.

Yes when I meant emergency funding it was access to learning funds. He said atm he will receive £50 per week. Once his Student Loan is sorted out he can then apply to receive a max sum of £3500 if successful. That would only just pay off his current debts.

Hmmmm I know its stressful for him but all the other housemates are doing hard courses too and struggling for money. The last thing we need is for him to start not paying the bills and worry/stress us too!

Thanks

melancholly

you probably want to be very clear to him that you cannot subsidise his share of the bills, even in the short term. if you start doing it, it may spiral out of control. maybe you could initiate 'house meetings' when you're back. that way there is a regular time (like once a month or something) when you can all sit down and talk about house related stuff. sometimes it helps to have a segregated time to discuss stuff, to keep it separate from day-to-day living. then you can be very clear about what everyone signed up to and show a united front to him with the rest of the house?

then again, maybe if he's that scared he'll have a mini-LBM and start to sort himself out?

enjoy your holiday!

rhig

You will be liable for his share if you have signed a joint contract with him. I probably wouldn't kick him out unless you haven’t had anything by November, however I would recommend getting together with the other housemates and drawing up a contract for him to sign stating that he agrees to pay his share of the rent plus bills by a certain date (state the percentage he should pay).

If he refuses to sign, kick him out, if he signs you can take it to small claims court if he decides not to pay you. If his parents can afford it they will be more likely to bail him out if he has signed a contract. Of course this is a pretty harsh course of action which you don't want to backfire socially; I would give him a week or two to provide some evidence that he is going to receive some money before pushing a contract. Being harsh is justified though as he is being lazy about getting some money.

He may be able to get a short term loan, if he or his parents pay his course fees they may also be able to delay payment with the finance office to cover his rent costs instead, he may also be eligible for an overdraft increase but this sounds unlikely.

Giving him till November would give him ample time to pay you, you would probably also be able to find someone to replace him, this may require you to cut the rent a little but the extra you pay each would be a lot less than paying for a whole room between you.

Blacksheep1979

if it is a joint contract you don't have to get him to sign anything else you can just take him to the small claims court, we are currently doing this to an ex flatmate who ran out on the bills and rent.

netally

If he returns the Student loan form NOW, he should get the money by Nov. (Quicker if you have a decent LEA). He also needs to speak to the uni, as some of them have bridging loans available which he would then repay when the proper loan came through.

If it's your 2nd year, hopefully it won't be as much hassle to sort the funding!

Snow_Angel

We had this happen just last year with a housemate. One of the other tenants was good friends with him ..... not any more!

He took advantage of our (limited) good nature and is now going to pay the price unfortunately. We all had a bill each in our name - he had the internet/phone bill. We paid him the money 2 months running and then, when our phone and net connection got cut off, we found out he'd just pocketed the cash and hadn't paid the bills. It took 6 weeks to get it back and in the meantime one of our housemates paid the bills on his behalf. He was also always late giving us money for our bills - I paid the gas bills and once he caused me to go into the red on my bank account and accrue bank charges. Not only that but I received red bills 3 times because of him - god knows what that can do to your credit rating.

In the end he ran out on 3 months worth of rent and bills. Our landlady kindly used his deposit to pay us our share of the bills he left us with (although she had no legal obligation to do that) and is now considering taking him to the small claims court herself for her loss (somewhere in the region of £800).

If he's a mate, all get together, sit him down, explain the situation (including your own financial situations i.e. you can't carry him and pay his bills until he can afford to pay you) and tell him what the worst case scenario would be. Maybe show him this thread and people's replies. He needs to know.

Good luck

MercilessKiller

Thank you for all this advice...

It's going to be hard because one of the other house mates is a good mate with him and shares his lazy attitude but has a better financial situation. They both sit, drink and game all night and day (literally). Saying this though he still won't take any crap from the other guy so that will go for us...

I'll leave it 2 weeks. Hopefully he will know whats going on with his loans, and have 2 jobs by then. If not, then I'll have to take some of that advice very seriously.

Thanks again all

rhig

Cheers for the info Blacksheep1979, I was under the impression this wasnt possible if the individual tenents rent was not stated in the contract.

Blacksheep1979

nope you can still sue (at least I hope so as I have a court date in a few weeks). The bills anyway you can prove that its reasonable that the bills are equally shared in a shared house. Small claims court is fairly informal and the judge will be able to see he owes.