Shared Accommodation & house mate not paying bills

Yorkie1

Ulfar wrote: »

The best advice I can give as I have been through this situation with people I thought were friends is to move.

You may end up covering his portion of the bills up to when you move, when you move take meter readings and notify the utility companies that you are not the bill payer any more. They will then send bills to the occupier.

Also hopefully you are not all on a joint tenancy contract but separate ones otherwise things could get even messier if he is in rent arrears and when it comes to the deposit.

May not be practical as OP is on a student tenancy - which will be fixed term for another few months in all likelihood. Even if OP was able to get the LL to agree to someone else being substituted for the OP on the contract, it's going to be difficult to find someone else willing to take on the risk of having to pay someone else's portion of a joint bill.

winterwhite11

sorry ,prob a load of rubbish from me but when he gets back and if you go out for a drink together with a gang of friends then maybe you could show him up in front of everyone ..say something like
sorry guys, i can,t buy a round as whatshisname owes me 2 months rent and i had to cover it so i,m skint
you can just say it in a jokey way this time.
if that happened to me i would pay like lightening.

tbs624

Show your fellow T that you mean business. Send him a formal "letter before action" detailing his utility debts to date and telling him that if he does not cough up within 7 days you will proceed to the Small Claims Court.

Remind him that a CCJ ( which he will have on his finance records if a judgement is made and he still fails to pay) will affect him for 6 years.

Don't have bills in joint names - as others have said, it's best to get each T to take on responsibility for for sorting out one of them.

If this charmer is giving the LL the run around over rent and you have joint and several liability, as others have pointed out the LL can chase the rest of you to make up the shortfall. Your only option would again be to pursue him via the small claims court to recoup your additional rent payments.

You may want to have a chat with your Uni accoms officer - they are used to giving students advice on dealing with this situation.

BitterAndTwisted

The problem is, if someone really did have the funds available, they would in all likelihood have paid by now. The roof over one's head plus the heating and lighting are vital and a priority. I suspect the actual scenario is the the student-loan or whatever funding for the current term has been spent and there won't be any forthcoming until the next terms starts. This is so very common with young people who've never had to learn to budget before.

Showing up the non-paying person in front of friends probably won't get the result expected. This person may never return after the Christmas hols. This isn't particularly uncommon unfortunately.

Bennifred

I think the student loan hits the bank accounts tomorrow - if the guy does re-appear, frog-march him to his bank and get him to hand over what he owes whilst it is still there! An advance against future bills might be a good idea, too.........

People who drop others in the mire over shared accommodation really p*** me off - it seems all too common. All three of my offspring have had problems with co-tenants one way or another (whist students). Why can't people just be decent human beings?!:mad:

BitterAndTwisted

Responsibility and acting decently towards others often comes with experience, I expect. I doubt that this particular person is unscrupulous or amoral, just foolish. It might come right in the end, especially if these possible joint-tenants have had to furnish the landlord with guarantors. I do wish the OP would pop back and give us more info so that they can be and guided and helped a little more.

I could describe my own niece's and nephew's experiences with renting with students as well. As could a few more posters on this forum. Lordy, I am soooooo glad that I won't ever have to face this or anything like it myself ever again.

Finalv

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Responsibility and acting decently towards others often comes with experience, I expect. I doubt that this particular person is unscrupulous or amoral, just foolish. It might come right in the end, especially if these possible joint-tenants have had to furnish the landlord with guarantors. I do wish the OP would pop back and give us more info so that they can be and guided and helped a little more.

I could describe my own niece's and nephew's experiences with renting with students as well. As could a few more posters on this forum. Lordy, I am soooooo glad that I won't ever have to face this or anything like it myself ever again.

I'm Back!

Sorry guys i went to bed and ive been a bit busy today. Firstly no we do not have joint responsibility over the rent we are on separate short-hold tenancies and in so each pay the LL our rent at the start of the semester for that period i.e 4 months. (Dont ask how he got behind on this).

Secondly one of the other tenants is my fianc!, we chose to take up this kind of accommodation as we were friends with the other tenants and had only been together a year. We now however have plans to get our own place in August when then the tenancy ends.

Ill re-read all your posts now and see if their is anything else i need to answer.

Thanks again


P.s's

I think the student loan hits the bank accounts tomorrow - if the guy does re-appear, frog-march him to his bank and get him to hand over what he owes whilst it is still there! An advance against future bills might be a good idea, too.........

Unfortunately ours don't come till the 16th and furthermore I don't think we will be seeing him till February when his course starts again.

Responsibility and acting decently towards others often comes with experience, I expect. I doubt that this particular person is unscrupulous or amoral, just foolish.

I Agree. He owes money left, right and centre and is completely ignoring his responsibilities in paying the money back.
I know me and my Fianc! have accumulated some debt, However we are working as hard as we can to right this situation.

BitterAndTwisted

The issue of each of you having separate tenancy agreements is very comforting. To me and to you and your fiance. So the very worst that could happen is that the remaining three tenants share the fourth person's debt between you all. That would be the fairest way of dealing with this if the other one agrees. See what you can come up with after having a frank exchange of views. Having all of the bills in only one or two names isn't fair whichever way you look at it.

Good luck!

Finalv

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

The issue of each of you having separate tenancy agreements is very comforting. To me and to you and your fiance. So the very worst that could happen is that the remaining three tenants share the fourth person's debt between you all. That would be the fairest way of dealing with this if the other one agrees. See what you can come up with after having a frank exchange of views. Having all of the bills in only one or two names isn't fair whichever way you look at it.

Good luck!

It most defiantly is!. I wouldn't of dreamt of getting a shared tenancy agreement with anyone other than my Fianc!. We are searching for properties now and have seen quite a few we like. I imagine the LL will give glowing references but I cant imagine the Credit checks will go well.

Another problem with this Non-payer is the fact that he never gave in a guarantor form for the LL like everyone else did!. He had one and ended up writing some notes on it in a lecture before throwing it in the bin. So I imagine she will have issues getting the arrears from him.

We got our first response from him today via text. It basically said sorry for not replying but he is embarrassed about his finances and its not his fault, We will get the money when he has it.

Reassuring when he said the same thing the day he left owing the money after buying a pair of £280 headphones.

[Deleted User]

His name is not BigGuns, is it? :rotfl: