Lodger Legal Question

Shabbadranks

Hello all. I am new here so I apologise beforehand if I have posted in the wrong forum. I will describe my situation below and I would be very grateful if anyone could provide me with some advice.

This is a situation involving me, my partner whom I shall refer to as H, and my partners ex housemate who i will refer to as T.

So until June 2016, H and T were housemates, who rented a flat together. I was living in another property until May 2016, where i encountered some financial troubles. Due to my financial troubles, H and T kindly offered to let me live at their property with them. H was my partner and T was a close friend who in fact originally introduced me to H. They agreed to let me stay in H's room with her as a lodger. There was no official agreement drawn up and neither asked me to pay towards any bills or rent as the reason for me moving there was due to my financial troubles. I believe that their contract would not allow for subletting anyway so i was living there unofficially. I did inform the council that I had moved there. T and H's tenancy agreement ended at the end of June 2016 and me and H moved to our own property, T i believe moved back to her parents house.

Anyway, a few months later, as i'm now residing with H, H received letters in the post which highlighted that T never paid her share of the council tax, and that they were now chasing H for this as the more reliable payer. T also left H with considerable debt in regards to utility bills. H has now continued to pay T's share of the council tax and her utility bills. As H is my partner, as a gesture of goodwill i have contributed a total of £350 to pay off these debts which were left for H by T.

Subsequently, H has now taken T to small claims court over the debts which were left, and as T did not appear in court on the date requested, the judge has ruled in her absence that T should pay this money to H, and a CCJ has been issued to T.

In light of what has happened, both me and H have now received multiple messages from T, threatening legal action against ME as she believes that as i was staying at the property at the time, I should have to contribute towards her debt.

As there has never been an issue with this up until now, I think that it is quite clear that this is being done out of spite, as H is my partner, and that this is nothing but an immature attempt for T to avoid paying for the bills that she owes. In any case i have given £350 to H which was paid to the council to cover T's debt and I can provide the statements to prove this if necessary.

I would like to know what other people think, and if T has any legal grounds to take me to court over this.

thank you in advance for any advice.

agrinnall

Probably no legal grounds, but morally don't you think you should have been making a contribution towards the CT bill for the property during the time you were staying there?

Pixie5740

Shabbadranks wrote: »

Hello all. I am new here so I apologise beforehand if I have posted in the wrong forum. I will describe my situation below and I would be very grateful if anyone could provide me with some advice.

This is a situation involving me, my partner whom I shall refer to as H, and my partners ex housemate who i will refer to as T.

So until June 2016, H and T were housemates, who rented a flat together. I was living in another property until May 2016, where i encountered some financial troubles. Due to my financial troubles, H and T kindly offered to let me live at their property with them. H was my partner and T was a close friend who in fact originally introduced me to H. They agreed to let me stay in H's room with her as a lodger. There was no official agreement drawn up and neither asked me to pay towards any bills or rent as the reason for me moving there was due to my financial troubles. I believe that their contract would not allow for subletting anyway so i was living there unofficially. I did inform the council that I had moved there. T and H's tenancy agreement ended at the end of June 2016 and me and H moved to our own property, T i believe moved back to her parents house.

Anyway, a few months later, as i'm now residing with H, H received letters in the post which highlighted that T never paid her share of the council tax, and that they were now chasing H for this as the more reliable payer. T also left H with considerable debt in regards to utility bills. H has now continued to pay T's share of the council tax and her utility bills. As H is my partner, as a gesture of goodwill i have contributed a total of £350 to pay off these debts which were left for H by T.

Subsequently, H has now taken T to small claims court over the debts which were left, and as T did not appear in court on the date requested, the judge has ruled in her absence that T should pay this money to H, and a CCJ has been issued to T.

In light of what has happened, both me and H have now received multiple messages from T, threatening legal action against ME as she believes that as i was staying at the property at the time, I should have to contribute towards her debt.

As there has never been an issue with this up until now, I think that it is quite clear that this is being done out of spite, as H is my partner, and that this is nothing but an immature attempt for T to avoid paying for the bills that she owes. In any case i have given £350 to H which was paid to the council to cover T's debt and I can provide the statements to prove this if necessary.

I would like to know what other people think, and if T has any legal grounds to take me to court over this.

thank you in advance for any advice.

It's one thing having your partner picking up your share of the rent, council tax and utilities but why would T want to continue paying half the bills when 3 people are living in the property?

Pixie5740

I'll also add that I find is disgusting that H took her former friend to small claims court over utilities which really you should have been contributing towards. £350 goodwill gesture.....pfffft.

pmlindyloo

Shabbadranks wrote: »

Hello all. I am new here so I apologise beforehand if I have posted in the wrong forum. I will describe my situation below and I would be very grateful if anyone could provide me with some advice.

This is a situation involving me, my partner whom I shall refer to as H, and my partners ex housemate who i will refer to as T.

So until June 2016, H and T were housemates, who rented a flat together. I was living in another property until May 2016, where i encountered some financial troubles. Due to my financial troubles, H and T kindly offered to let me live at their property with them. H was my partner and T was a close friend who in fact originally introduced me to H. They agreed to let me stay in H's room with her as a lodger. There was no official agreement drawn up and neither asked me to pay towards any bills or rent as the reason for me moving there was due to my financial troubles. I believe that their contract would not allow for subletting anyway so i was living there unofficially. I did inform the council that I had moved there. T and H's tenancy agreement ended at the end of June 2016 and me and H moved to our own property, T i believe moved back to her parents house.

Anyway, a few months later, as i'm now residing with H, H received letters in the post which highlighted that T never paid her share of the council tax, and that they were now chasing H for this as the more reliable payer. T also left H with considerable debt in regards to utility bills. H has now continued to pay T's share of the council tax and her utility bills. As H is my partner, as a gesture of goodwill i have contributed a total of £350 to pay off these debts which were left for H by T.

Subsequently, H has now taken T to small claims court over the debts which were left, and as T did not appear in court on the date requested, the judge has ruled in her absence that T should pay this money to H, and a CCJ has been issued to T.

In light of what has happened, both me and H have now received multiple messages from T, threatening legal action against ME as she believes that as i was staying at the property at the time, I should have to contribute towards her debt.

As there has never been an issue with this up until now, I think that it is quite clear that this is being done out of spite, as H is my partner, and that this is nothing but an immature attempt for T to avoid paying for the bills that she owes. In any case i have given £350 to H which was paid to the council to cover T's debt and I can provide the statements to prove this if necessary.

I would like to know what other people think, and if T has any legal grounds to take me to court over this.

thank you in advance for any advice.

So you lived there a maximum of two months? Your partner and friend were not subletting. You use the word 'lodger' but I feel this is in dispute. You were more likely a visitor or guest.

Since you are not named on the CT bill nor the utility bills then you have no legal liability for either bills.

So what it comes down to is a moral issue. It seems from what you say that there was no discussion about about paying rent/utility bills/council tax.

However, you do not say how much the council tax was, over what period of time and ditto with the utility bills.

As I said, you have no liability for either the CT or the utility bills. it is rather late to redeem any friendship with the friend as your partner has taken her to court and she now has a CCJ against her. Since we do not know the sums involved it is not for us (IMOP) to say whether this was the correct thing to do. Certainly the friend would have been notified of the court date, able to put in a defence, chose not to appear at court and then got the CCJ. Not your fault.

If you choose to, you could work out your share of the rent/CT/utilities for the period of your stay and split this between your partner and the friend. Entirely up to you.

AdrianC

The "share" of CT is solely what's agreed between members of the household. The household itself is what is liable, with every member of it jointly and severally liable. So if the household have been underpaying CT, then everybody on that bill is liable. The council want their money, and they are perfectly entitled to go after the easiest ones for it.

The same applies for utility bills that are in multiple names. If the bill is in just one name, then that person is liable in full.

Your ex-friend can take you to court. Whether they win or not is another question. They have already lost their own court case, through the foolproof method of failing to turn up or enter a defence.

Pixie5740

AdrianC wrote: »

Your ex-friend can take you to court. Whether they win or not is another question. They have already lost their own court case, through the foolproof method of failing to turn up or enter a defence.

The paperwork might have gone to the wrong address. The OP only believes this once very good friend moved back to her parents' house, it's possible T was living somewhere else entirely.

AdrianC

Pixie5740 wrote: »

The paperwork might have gone to the wrong address. The OP only believes this once very good friend moved back to her parents' house, it's possible T was living somewhere else entirely.

That is a possibility, yes. In which case, a more appropriate (and productive) response would be to apply for the judgement to be set aside, not threaten to counter-claim.

Pixie5740

AdrianC wrote: »

That is a possibility, yes. In which case, a more appropriate (and productive) response would be to apply for the judgement to be set aside, not threaten to counter-claim.

Indeed but I suspect that whilst the OP feels that he and H have been hard done by T feels as though the OP and H were taking liberties.

G_M

As others have said, there appears to be no legal liability for you to pay rent, council tax, utilities or anything.

First time I've ever heard of a lodger sharing a bedroom with their landlord/lady. Mine never did .

It's common for residents in a propety to have guests. Overnight, weekend, a weeks visit, or a longer stay. The point at which this changes to a 'resident' is always moot, and even then their liability would depend on the contract agreed, whether informally verbally or in writing.

There IS a moral issue, but your post was specifically titled Lodger Legal Question so I shan't comment.

AdrianC

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Indeed but I suspect that whilst the OP feels that he and H have been hard done by T feels as though the OP and H were taking liberties.

I'm not sure which court route is appropriate for different grades of hurt feelings...