HELP! Friends Room Mate Moved BF in

Avani

Hi, I have a friend who is in a bit of a pickle. She shares a rented flat with a flat mate. Both her and the flat mate have separate contracts with the live-out landlady. The flatmate met a guy around Christmas / New Year and he promptly moved it. He is not contributing to any rent, bills, food (as he doesnt have income). My friend raised her concerns with the flat mate, and said that while she understands his predicament, and the fact he has hit hard times, neither of them actually know this guy properly and she finds it unfair that he is not contributing at all. She asked how long he will be staying or if he will be paying some rent. She was told that as he doesnt have a job, he cannot contribute and he will be staying indeffinately. My friend is now living in a smallish flat with a housemate and a bloke she hardly knows and she feels quite uncomfortable about this. To make matters worth the housemate rang the landlady on the sly and got her permisson for him to stay, stating to her that my friend is happy with the arrangement. My friend has since contacted the landlady and stated she is not happy with this, but has been told she has to give a months notice to leave. Is this allowed? The way I see it, is she signed a contract to share with another female and has now found herself living with a couple. The bills are the responsibility of the housemates, so she is in reality paying for his keep with regards to water, heating, elec etc (hes at home all day as well).

This surely cannot be right?

BitterAndTwisted

If the landlady is happy to accept your friend's notice I suggest she serves it and gets the hell out of there. Just to be really wicked I'd only leave the equivalent of a third of any bills-money and leave it to the flat-mate to sort it with the jobless and incomeless boyfriend.

Avani

Yes, the landlady is happy to accept a months notice, in writing, but my friend would like to move out sooner as she is very uncomfortable about the living situation. I wasnt sure if she was able to do that? She has no deposit on this room.

BitterAndTwisted

Moving out sooner depends on a number of things: one of them being how keen the landlady might be to recover any rent outstanding should your friend not pay it. In her shoes I'd write the month's notice letter and go and sleep on a pal's sofa if I had to. I wouldn't want to be sleeping in the same flat as some strange bloke no-one knew from Adam.

sonastin

She can move out whenever. She can only not pay rent if the landlady agrees. IMHO she'd be better off paying the rent and clearing out sharpish rather than hanging around and haggling. Who knows what the cost of sticking around could be? If money is tight and your friend has a selfish part in her soul, I suggest she doesn't cough up her share of the bills and lets the flatmate chase her for it - after all she is the one that has driven your friend away.

I'm not sure I could follow that last suggestion myself but it could be a way of financing the months rent if she is so inclined.

azkaban420

I'd also defo suggest she hands in her notice, pays up to date for her share (less a third if the l/l is happy with this) and leaves pronto JUST in case the ll has a change of heart. I also would not be comfortable with this situation and would rather pay up and sever my ties asap rather than trying to see if I could get money off/back. Leave the flatmate to sort out future rent/bills. When she has to pay for everything herself without a flatmate to share it with AND a useless BF, she'll be kicking him out or asking him to cough up in no time.

Az

DVardysShadow

Avani wrote: »

Yes, the landlady is happy to accept a months notice, in writing, but my friend would like to move out sooner as she is very uncomfortable about the living situation. I wasnt sure if she was able to do that? She has no deposit on this room.

They are on separate contracts. What is she actually renting? A room and use of shared facilities? I'm struggling to get a sensible answer out of Shelter's tenancy checker

Anyone know what the governing law is for this type of tenancy? It does not look like an AST. So it depends on what type of tenancy it is as to the minimum notice - could this be less than the landlady's required month?

Jowo_2

I agree with the previous posts for the OPs friend to serve notice and move out.

Even if the landlady wasn't tricked, and hadn't consented to the new flat-mate, there's little the landlady can do to bring the tenancy to an end for the thoughtless flatmate if its within a fixed period of the AST as this type of breach doesn't allow her to end the contract early.

The new flatmate sounds like a loser and the other flatmate, his girlfriend, is inconsiderate but will punished via karma for being such a sucker by a sob-story sponger. If the unwanted new flatmate is on benefits, assuming he's over 21, he would receive £65 per week and therefore have disposable income to contribute towards the bills. Even those who don't qualify for unemployment benefits (for example, because they are sanctioned for walking out of a job) often qualify for a similar sum via a hardship allowance. Only the laziest of people don't qualify for any type of unemployment benefit at all (for example, those receiving Job Seekers Allowance who can't be bothered to sign on or attend mandatory courses). So he is either spending his benefit on himself or is simply such a loser that he doesn't even qualify for it.

Either way, the relationship dynamics when a new couple is in place is enough incentive for the other flat-mate to move out, never mind the scrounging and leeching that is going on.

PasturesNew

Jowo wrote: »

If the unwanted new flatmate is on benefits, assuming he's over 21, he would receive £65 per week and therefore have disposable income to contribute towards the bills. Even those who don't qualify for unemployment benefits (for example, because they are sanctioned for walking out of a job) often qualify for a similar sum via a hardship allowance. Only the laziest of people don't qualify for any type of unemployment benefit at all (for example, those receiving Job Seekers Allowance who can't be bothered to sign on or attend mandatory courses). So he is either spending his benefit on himself or is simply such a loser that he doesn't even qualify for it.

If the flatmate who's taken him in is earning enough, then he might not be able to claim contributions based on his own merits, nor income-based because the sucker earns too much. So it is possible for somebody to not have any benefits. And, knowing this much, it's also possible for somebody to make the assumption they'd receive no benefits, so not even sign on/try.

PasturesNew

If there's no deposit, then your friend could hand her notice in and just move out quickly the day before the next rent's due. Effectively doing a runner.

Yorkie1

The only thing that occurs to me re. payment of bills is to double check that none of them are in her name before she only pays 1/3 of the due amount (I'm not disagreeing with the suggestion, just ensuring it doesn't backfire). If her name is on any of the bills, she will need to address this as soon as moving out; might also be worth taking meter readings for any future disputes.