Advice on tenant deposits and rent/bill payments

Guest101

HappyMJ wrote: »

Is this a lodger?

Next time include bills in the rent. They don't have to pay for the bills if they aren't there and using anything.

If the lodger wants to move out on the 25th then I'd let them.

Deposit shouldn't be used for last payment of rent but many try. If this really truly is a lodger then ask lodger to leave immediately. You don't need to give a lodger notice at all.

If this really is a tenant with an assured shorthold tenancy then don't push anything at all...let T go whenever they want and use the deposit as rent. You haven't protected the deposit. T can ask court to grant them 3 times the deposit back with no deductions.

You can read the contract from here?

Ofcourse they have to have notice.

Now the lodger may be in breach of contract, which means the OP can sue for LOSS.

E.G the bills and the rent. The deposit will no doubt cover this.

The OP is in breach of contract, the lodger could well go to a b&b for 3 weeks and then sue the OP for this cost.

It all depends on what the contract says.

pmlindyloo

As I understand it since you have a contract with the landlord then you are the tenant and the other person is your lodger and you have a contract with her.

Since you (or the landlord) have not protected the deposit then you should be careful not to rely on a tenant's responsibilities as opposed to a lodger's.

This is a strange arrangement and rather than go into the legal 'ins' and 'out's' of whether she is a tenant or a lodger I would go with the lodger scenario (Protection of a deposit for a tenant is a legal requirement)

So, you should reach some sort of compromise.

Suggestion.
Do a 'check out' to ascertain if there is any damage. Lodger can then put any damage right/do some extra cleaning/whatever. Then use the deposit for the last month's rent. Since they won't be using any utilities in the last week then seems sensible to pro rata the utility bills for the last month (three quarters instead of all of it/whatever)

You run the risk of the lodger/tenant finding out their 'rights' which then may bring all kinds of unwanted hassle.

Guest101

Commandante wrote: »

Sorry, to clarify...

Essentially, the flat is owned by a friend of mine who is now living on the other side of the world and asked me to manage it for him, meaning I take responsibility for the day-to-day landlord-style issues and find a second tenant for the second room. Yes, I live in the first room.

I have a contract with the landlord and pay him the full rent from both of us on the 1st of each month by direct debit, so that's already been paid for. In theory the second tenant puts their half of the rent into my account by direct debit at the same time so I'm not left out of pocket. All previous tenants have done this, but annoyingly this one insists on making the individual transfer each month and it has sometimes been a week late, but I've not raised it as an issue because I've always got it eventually. In this case, she hasn't paid at all yet and is requesting to use the deposit as the rent instead. I know it sounds long-winded and you might ask why the second person doesn't pay straight to the landlord, but this is how we agreed to do it so, we are where we are.

I then have a contract with the tenant which describes me as the 'property manager, acting on the landlord's behalf'. This contract states (direct quotes) that...

-The rent is X per month payable in advance on the 1st day of the month, payable by standing order to the property manager.
-[FONT=&quot]The tenant will divide payment of the bills equally with the Property Manager, which will be payable on the 1st day of every month by direct debit to the Property Manager. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]-[/FONT]The tenant is required to pay a deposit of X. The deposit will be held as security by the Property Manager, acting on behalf of the Landlord against non-payment of rent or early termination of contract by the tenant and for any damage caused to the property by the tenant. The deposit will be returned to the tenant within 14 days from the end of the tenancy less any deductions for sums properly incurred by the landlord under the tenancy.

- [FONT=&quot]Either party must give one month’s prior written notice to terminate the tenancy[/FONT]

Her 'notice' was worded as "As per our conversation I will be ending my contract and am looking to move out on the 31st August."

Copy / paste job off the internet.

It's a mixed bag of tenancy and lodger - which is just so confusing!

All you needed for 1 A4 side of paper and PLAIN English.

Anyway, she's a lodger, not a tenant. So basically, you're right, but you cant force her to pay up, so just take it from the deposit and move on.

She could argue that she gave notice on 20th July and could move out 19th August. It would be a stretch, but possible.

You could go to court, but it would likely be a waste of time, you havent so far suffered any loss. (and you may not suffer additional loss anyway)

The Bills for a wekk - What £20? Accept it.
Rent, you have the deposit.

jjlandlord

You have a problem because the agreement you have with your 'lodger' makes it clear that she is renting from your landlord (your friend) and that you are his agent.

Therefore, arguably she has in fact an AST with your friend and, amongst other things, you/your friend should have protected her deposit and your friend remains liable for council tax by law.

I would not make waves, keep things amicable and let her go, then do my homework and start over with a new, sound agreement.

Pixie5740

I can't believe I'm going to say this but for the second time in a week I find myself agreeing with jjlandlord.

The agreement you have suggests that your friend is landlord to both of you and that you are an agent acting on behalf of the landlord. It has the potential to get messy but she wants to leave and you want her to leave so just let her go and chalk it up to experience.

Next time get a lodger agreement with you named as the landlord.

Guest101

Pixie5740 wrote: »

I can't believe I'm going to say this but for the second time in a week I find myself agreeing with jjlandlord.

The agreement you have suggests that your friend is landlord to both of you and that you are an agent acting on behalf of the landlord. It has the potential to get messy but she wants to leave and you want her to leave so just let her go and chalk it up to experience.

Next time get a lodger agreement with you named as the landlord.

Haha!

I'm not sure. I'd want to see the whole agreement.

But in practical terms I agree with you both, she wants to leave, and there definitely needs to be a new agreement. The biggest loss seems to be £20 in bills.

Commandante

Fyi the deposit is a month's worth of rent and therefore wouldn't cover rent + bills. The bills would be about £30 for a week, which may not seem much but I'm unemployed at the moment and would rather not lose money that I'm arguably entitled to.

[Deleted User]

The situation you are in with such an unclear agreement seems to put you in a rather dodgy situation. You have all the responsibility, little protection, an unclear agreement and the LL gets the profit lol.

Let the tenant go, consider yourself lucky it wasn't worse and learn from it.

Pixie5740

Commandante wrote: »

Fyi the deposit is a month's worth of rent and therefore wouldn't cover rent + bills. The bills would be about £30 for a week, which may not seem much but I'm unemployed at the moment and would rather not lose money that I'm arguably entitled to.

That's all very well and £30 might seem like a lot of money in your situation but do you realise what the consequences of pursuing the £30 could be? A lot more than £30 if the outgoing tenant knows about deposit protection etc.

Guest101

Commandante wrote: »

Fyi the deposit is a month's worth of rent and therefore wouldn't cover rent + bills. The bills would be about £30 for a week, which may not seem much but I'm unemployed at the moment and would rather not lose money that I'm arguably entitled to.

But if she's not there, then you wont have 'spent' those £30. You arent losing anything. You're trying to profit from it....

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy-supply/energy-bills/paying-your-energy-bills/paying-your-landlord-for-energy/

What can’t your landlord charge for?

The bill that your landlord gives you for gas and electricity must only be for the cost of gas and electricity you use.