Taking a housemate to court over unpaid bills and rent.

Big_Shaun

I'm thinking about taking a former housemate to court over unpaid bills and rent and just wanted to see what people thought with regards to the strength of my claim.

The problem is that he's moved out and flatly refused to pay either the 300 quid he owes on bills or the 400 he owes in rent. Obviously this is a lot of money and I bloody well want to claim it one way or another.

The way we had the bills organised was that it came out as a direct debit from my account and he (and my other housemate) paid their share to me in cash. This was done as a verbal agreement which I realise is legally binding but very difficult to prove.

The rent is set up as a joint tenancy meaning that the three of us are liable for the total rent of 600pcm. Again, this means if he doesn't pay then the two of us have to cover the difference.

Actually, just reading this I realise that we don't have a great claim. Both me and the landlady are going to chase him about it as much as possible but I sincerely doubt that he'll pay up voluntarily.

I did write down his bank and card details just in case...

spacey2012

If you placed the bills and contracts for these services in your name, you owe the money.
This will be pointed out in the first 30 seconds of your claim.
Don't fall for all that verbal agreement rubbish, your contract, your bill.
Next time, make sure any potential free loader signs the same contract as you do, then they will be jointly liable and if you are pursued for a share they are contractually obliged to pay, you can counter claim it from the others.
You are wasting your time with county court, even if you get a CCJ if it is not defended, the chances of getting any money are slim indeed.
If it is defended, it will come down to contractual liabilities.

Big_Shaun

Any thoughts on the rent?

BigAunty

Do you know where he lives now? In England/Wales, you'll need a residential address to serve the court papers to.

Even if the court finds in your favour, you may have trouble enforcing it - do you know where he works? An attachment of earnings is one way to get the debt paid but quite often, the person just skips jobs, too.

Kynthia

As far as I understand it small claims court works on the balance of probability, so you have to prove that it is more likely that he owes than he doesn't.

The tenancy agreement is in all your names, therefore it is assumed that you all pay rent. However as long as someone does pay the rent it is up to the joint tenants to decide how to split. If you can evidence that in previous months you received a share of the rent from this person then I would imagine you would do well. Same with the bills.

Big_Shaun

I don't have a forwarding address but I have his mother's address and his work address (he's worked there for years). Could possibly do it as a c/o?

Big_Shaun

Quite honestly I'm giving serious thought to just paying his share of the bills online for him using his details. I realise this is illegal and I'd more than likely get in trouble but at this stage I'd be willing to eat a police caution just to force him to do the right thing.

BigAunty

spacey2012 wrote: »

If you placed the bills and contracts for these services in your name, you owe the money.
...
If it is defended, it will come down to contractual liabilities.

Yes, the liability is for the OP to pay the service providers and it is typically felt that a ' verbal agreement is worth the paper it's written on' but but is still might be worth claiming for the share of bills, too, even though the bills are in the OPs name if bill sharing was the arrangement agreed by the flatmates.

If the claim is not defended, I believe the judgement is usually made in the claimants favour anyway.

The OP may not necessarily see a penny of the judgement but at least it screws up his old flatmate's credit record, making it hard for them to get a tenancy in the future as many landlords will undertake basic screening of prospective tenants and resist those with CCJs.

BigAunty

Big_Shaun wrote: »

I don't have a forwarding address but I have his mother's address and his work address (he's worked there for years). Could possibly do it as a c/o?

Absolutely not - this is between you and the flatmate, not his family or employer (unless in the latter, you win the court case and then decide to enforce it via an attachment of earnings which can still be thwarted by the defendent by simply changing jobs). It has to be their residential address. Did he skip out early from the contract or did he serve correct notice?

What you could do is leave it a few months and then pay a small fee to a tenant tracing service who may be able to uncover his new address, even though he will invariably not put himself on the electoral register which is the main way people are traced.

BigAunty

Big_Shaun wrote: »

Quite honestly I'm giving serious thought to just paying his share of the bills online for him using his details. I realise this is illegal and I'd more than likely get in trouble but at this stage I'd be willing to eat a police caution just to force him to do the right thing.

Police caution or criminal record for fraud?! The desire for revenge is understandable but misplaced.

If you are going to drain his bank account to inconvenience him at least do it in a less traceable way - not back to your household via your IP address!!

Big_Shaun

BigAunty wrote: »

Police caution or criminal record for fraud?! The desire for revenge is understandable but misplaced.

If you are going to drain his bank account to inconvenience him at least do it in a less traceable way - not back to your household via your IP address!!

Yeah, it would be pretty obvious wouldn't it. Would be bloody satisfying though. And I wouldn't just drain it to inconvenience him, I'm not a thief. I just want him to pay what he owes.