Urgent advice needed re: lodger

Money_maker

Perhaps the banking board might clear up whether this situation could potentially exist.

djdust

spunko2010 wrote: »

Then I apologise

No worries, accepted.

spunko2010 wrote: »

though you could have made that clearer.

Make what clearer? In my first post I stated:

Just over 2 months ago, I took in a temporary lodger who needed somewhere to stay before going to Uni in the Autumn. We agreed £350 a month for rent.

I'm not sure how that could be in any way misconstrued into "I can't afford to pay for my house and need to move into somewhere smaller", which is what Crashy Time seems to be implying. A similar example - if you do a job as a builder and agree a fee with a client and then they suddenly welch on the deal after you've done the work and leave you half a grand short and you were banking on getting that money, how is the builder in the wrong for daring to be reliant on money he was promised and suddenly finding himself a lot shorter of cash than he was expecting to be?

You say in your OP that you attract losers, it's because you're a "soft touch" and certain people will exploit that.

I know, which is why I'll be damned if I'm going to just let this lodger get away with this without at least making him sweat a bit (and besides, as already suggested, I want to talk to his mum and see what she says and until I've done that, I want to hold onto the only leverage I have). Some people may disagree with this and will say I don't have a leg to stand on and they're probably right. If I end up losing, fine, but there's no hurry here...

djdust

Money_maker wrote: »

That so doesn't sound right. When you transfer, you are advised of the amount available and it goes through almost instantly. Has anyone really had any experience of a payment such as this just hanging?

He did show me the payment screen on the Halifax app on his phone. It showed my sort code, account number and amount and very clearly said "payment pending". This was last Thursday though, it could very well be saying "payment rejected" now and he could be lying saying it's still stuck as "pending". I've no way of knowing.

booksurr

djdust wrote: »

He did show me the payment screen on the Halifax app on his phone. It showed my sort code, account number and amount and very clearly said "payment pending". This was last Thursday though, it could very well be saying "payment rejected" now and he could be lying saying it's still stuck as "pending". I've no way of knowing.

that's the point though. On Halifax faster payments you do not get "pending" if the money was there in the account in the first place, you just get a confirmation of payment.

as you now know he simply did not have sufficient available credit to stand such a payment and nothing will change that. Either he has a job and earns income or, if a student, he's spent his loan and he ain't gonna have any more money this side of next term. Go to court, get a CCJ and then decide whether to spend more money on enforcing the debt with the possibility (probability?) it could be Sept before he has any money you can access anyway

PS people are reacting the way they have because you said:

djdust wrote: »

I explained to him that I was now broke and reliant on this cash - I literally have no money at the moment, I had to gouge into my overdraft last week to pay the mortgage and my bank balance is now only back to zero because I got my weekly pay as a temp last Friday. We're in July now and more bills are coming soon.

that clearly suggests you are unable to live within your means without his money - I appreciate you have extra costs due to him (council tax etc) but if you are really "broke" then your level of expenditure depends on his rent as well as your own income. QED you cannot afford your lifestyle.

djdust

booksurr wrote: »

...that clearly suggests you are unable to live within your means without his money - I appreciate you have extra costs due to him (council tax etc) but if you are really "broke" then your level of expenditure depends on his rent as well as your own income. QED you cannot afford your lifestyle.

Sorry, I don't agree at all. I made some improvements to the home spending cash of my own because he assured me that I would get X amount on Y date - improvements that he benefitted from too - and I budgeted accordingly. If I'd have known that the money would not be forthcoming I'd have never let him in in the first place, I wouldn't have got the work done and would have been perfectly happy carrying on as I was. It's got nothing to do with my "lifestyle", it's to do with me getting caught short because someone broke their promise.

booksurr

djdust wrote: »

. It's got nothing to do with my "lifestyle", it's to do with me getting caught short because someone broke their promise.

we will agree to disagree. You spent cash you did not have in the expectation of getting some in the future. That, to me, is the essence of a certain type of lifestyle - one based on credit. Nothing wrong with that, it is a choice and is, of course, the basis of much of our consumer driven economy.

However, your budget was ill judged as you have no reserves to call upon and so, in my opinion, should not have exposed yourself to such a credit risk. By all means do the improvements, but not until you have the money in hand to pay for them, given it is clear you have an unstable "normal" income from temp work and nothing in the bank to fall back on. QED a lifestyle choice.

djdust

booksurr wrote: »

we will agree to disagree.

Indeed we will

paddy's_mum

Arguments and differing viewpoints apart, there are times in life where you just have to accept that you have been virtually robbed and be glad to lose the money because it makes you wiser.

Who was it said that if you lend £20 to someone and never see them again, it was worth it!

susannthe3cs

Maybe he set up the Halifax faster payment to show u but didn't type his password in at the very bottom to confirm the transaction so you just thought he had done it..

[Deleted User]

No the extended pending time is because he doesn't have the money in his bank.

Problem is, when will he?

I'd write to Judge Rinder myself (as a CCJ involves chasing after the money).

Hope you had a written agreement with him? Take photo's of his room.

You could try his mother but I should imagine she will have little power over this, depends on her personality thought.

Unfortunately this lad isn't even 'half cooked' yet so doesn't have a clue as to what a mess he's created, and I'm afraid, yes, you've been a bit of an eejit paying for improvements based on 'possible' income that hasn't really happened. But you will sort it out given time and won't do it again. BTW rent should be paid in advance, not behind. I'd have been chasing it from it being a day late. He'd have been locked out on day three.