Problem lodger damaged room - help required

moneyistooshorttomention

phill99 wrote: »

There is no such thing as. Lodger Agreement. Lodgers have virtually no rights.

I wouldn't fanny around.

Photograph the room as evidence. Then get it cleaned and the mattress removed. Change the locks. When he comes back ensure he removes his stuff with immediate effect (that you have already boxed up ready for removal) have a large male friend (or 2) there when he comes back.

Keep the deposit.

Certainly don't give him 2 months notice, not even a week (as GM suggests).

I had a lodger once and gave her 24 hours notice. She didn't move her stuff out so I left in the front garden and changed the locks.


It is no good !!!!! footing around with people.

Seconded.:T

I've had a couple of "filthy" lodgers myself before now (if not to quite as bad an extent as you have here:eek:).

I would certainly Get Rid Immediately in your position. I'd keep the deposit to go towards the damages he has done. I wouldn't rate your chances of getting the rest of the money he owes you towards putting things right out of him...though I would certainly work out an itemised bill of what he owed me and try to get it from him in your position.

The only consolation here is that such a Lazy Lowlife is highly unlikely to try arguing back about being thrown out immediately/deposit kept. He's clearly too lazy to breathe basically. Some people are like that and he just won't wish or try to summon up the energy to argue back. That's the only positive point I can think of for you here.

Good luck.

NB; Don't forget that someone as dirty/lazy as that may possibly have imported one or two "critturs" into the room. So do check it out for anything "living" when he goes.

Please don't be so "trusting" of people in future. I'll admit to surprise that it took so long to "check out" the state of his room. When I had a couple of lodgers of this ilk before now they were told to go after about two months (as I could see they were this type and things were starting to "build up"). It's always wise to have a sneaky peek if you have suspicions about things like this. In the case of the worst Mr Filthy I had in...I was starting to detect a bit of a smell just outside the room door and hence had a peer round the door to see why...

I don't understand people even wetting a bed...still less leaving it to "stew"...but that happened to me with a previous lodger too. The room didn't look dirty, but when he got given notice (because of his general behaviour) I took the mattress cover off a pretty new bed and realised he had obviously wetted the bed on both sides and just washed the mattress cover and disguised the fact from me and I had to throw out the bed. I didn't realise unfortunately until after I had handed back his deposit (ie because that washed mattress cover looked perfectly normal...and hence I didn't know until I took it off because I was going to sell the bed). I had to cancel the bed sale and throw it out instead.

In fact, if I had my time again, I wouldn't take in any male lodgers. The men were ALWAYS without fail Mr Filthy in their habits. I dont believe any of the men ever did any cleaning as far as I could tell. Not to say the women were necessarily always Mrs Clean in their habits...but the men were uniformly filthy little tykes.

FR_262

I would tell him what a dirty little g*t he is and give one week's notice in writing. Pack up his stuff (double rubber gloves job by the sound of it) and put it in the shed.

Tell him you'll store his stuff for two weeks and if he wants it back he has to arrange for somebody to come and get it or you're chucking it.

I've let rooms in my house and found all the lodgers to be at least reasonably clean. But I have a HMO and one bloke really stank! The whole house stank from the smell in his room. Eventually I evicted him and the room was disgusting! Some of his socks were so crispy they nearly broke in half! And another T who left a dirty (very dirty) mattress in the garden and a wee-wee mattress in the cellar.

What's really bad is these are the people we pass in the street or in the shops. I try not to bump into anyone these days.

moneyistooshorttomention

Personally, I would doubt the wisdom of giving him as long as a week for notice in the circumstances.

During that time he would have plenty of time to brood about "How unfair she is...how come she didn't do my cleaning for me?" etc. My own experience of lodgers was you could tell them absolutely loud and clear AND in writing that they were responsible for their own housework and they simply wouldn't believe you unless they wanted to. It always used to end up in Stand Off Time when a lodger wouldn't do their own cleaning. They should do, but wouldn't. I shouldn't do it...so I didn't. That meant no-one ever did their cleaning.

From experience, all men let the words "Lodgers do their own cleaning" go straight in one ear and out the other and I think it highly likely he will be telling himself that YOU are being unreasonable. I know...I know...but I'd be willing to bet that IS what he will tell himself and then decide to be aggrieved with you, even though HE is the one in the wrong here.

Not wise to have someone who has decided to feel aggrieved under your roof any longer than you can help...

dancingfairy

It's not ideal giving him no time in the country to organise alternative accomodation but what happens if you get it all cleaned up and give him another week there when he gets back? He's likely to damage it all again and possibly write off another mattress.
Personally I wouldn't give him the chance. Give him his notice, he should have plenty of time to find alternative accomodation even though he is abroad.
Obviously box up his things carefully and store them for him to collect on his return.
df

BigAunty

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

In fact, if I had my time again, I wouldn't take in any male lodgers. The men were ALWAYS without fail Mr Filthy in their habits. I dont believe any of the men ever did any cleaning as far as I could tell. Not to say the women were necessarily always Mrs Clean in their habits...but the men were uniformly filthy little tykes.

I had 3 young female lodgers in the past and while they had good personal grooming, the kitchen, bathroom and their bedrooms generally looked like a bomb had gone off in them, stuff strewn over the floor, empty fast food cartons, a pile of dirty crockery.

Each of them at the outset of their contract promised they were clean and tidy, each of them were shown where the cleaning products were and notified of what was expected (clean as you go, etc). It's like they entered a room, made it a shambles, took a quick glance and said 'looks fine to me' and left!

Typically the bathroom would have a damp floor, skiddies in the loo, and hair shavings left in the bath. I would find my kitchenware smashed in the bin - no apologies, notification or offer of replacement, just I would find my crockery broken or it was hoarded, dirty in their rooms. The grill, cooker, microwave, sink and surfaces were caked in their cooking filth. One of them managed to smash my glass shower cubicle which apparently just spontaneously shattered, my freezer was also cracked...

None of them ever emptied the kitchen bin at all - one occasion I came back from a long holiday to find the extra rubbish piled up against it, and then along the worksurfaces...The washing up liquid had also run out so decided to run the dirty crockery under the tap and put everything back in the cupboard greasy.

They just didn't seem to know the basics of how to be clean or cook or launder - one of my lodgers used metal utensils on all my non-stick pans, scratching the surface off, another used to cook a meal, leave the leftovers in the original saucepan and plonk it in the fridge. They also tumble dried their laundry on a sunny day and I would come back from weekends away to find they'd stuck the heating on 24/7.

All 3 of my female lodgers were dirty, lazy, careless, with rotten basic housekeeping skills.

Guest101

FR_262 wrote: »

I would tell him what a dirty little g*t he is and give one week's notice in writing. Pack up his stuff (double rubber gloves job by the sound of it) and put it in the shed.

Tell him you'll store his stuff for two weeks and if he wants it back he has to arrange for somebody to come and get it or you're chucking it.

I've let rooms in my house and found all the lodgers to be at least reasonably clean. But I have a HMO and one bloke really stank! The whole house stank from the smell in his room. Eventually I evicted him and the room was disgusting! Some of his socks were so crispy they nearly broke in half! And another T who left a dirty (very dirty) mattress in the garden and a wee-wee mattress in the cellar.

What's really bad is these are the people we pass in the street or in the shops. I try not to bump into anyone these days.

Wow and the op gets sued for breach of contract? That's good advice...

FR_262

The Op has a lodger who doesn't have the same rights as a tenant ie he can be given his marching orders without a court order. So the OP won't get sued.

Guest101

FR_262 wrote: »

The Op has a lodger who doesn't have the same rights as a tenant ie he can be given his marching orders without a court order. So the OP won't get sued.

Incorrect, the op does have a lodger who has been granted rights through contract. Not statutory rights but contract.

Aren't you a landlord? You know about contractual obligations?

moneyistooshorttomention

I wouldn't agree with you there. Lodgers and tenants are 2 very different "animals".

A tenant is living in their own accommodation (ie quite separate from the landlord/lady's home) and therefore one set of rules/laws applies.

A lodger is living in someone's own home with them and therefore a different set of circumstances entirely.

I think you are scaring the OP unnecessarily.

No reasonable person (be they judge or otherwise) would expect someone to put up with such "bad behaviour" in their own home.

I certainly never had any legal problems with badly-behaved lodgers if they had to leave....not so much as one breath of that sort of trouble from them. If they were badly-behaved they went...end of...and I don't seem to recall that they then had recourse to any legal ways to try and "get back at me" for having acted so badly that they had to be given notice.

Look at it this way...is a judge seriously going to expect a lone woman, for instance, to put up with some nasty person staying under their own roof/using their own kitchen and bathroom/etc against that persons will?

FR_262

You can put whatever you like in a contract, but he's still a lodger and his status is not the same as it would be if the LL lived out. He isn't a tenant and so his rights are considerably less.