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bobwilson
Posts: 595 Forumite
For someone used to living with people, one might think taking in a lodger would be a relatively simple task. However, no matter how much we vet potentials before hand, becoming a landlord has introduced me to some bizarre situations that I never have experienced or had knowledge of in the past.
We have a spare room in our home & below is a list of some of the worst experiences we've had with the worst lodgers. These people are supposedly respectable members of society who all passed referencing checks (teachers, professionals etc.).
Out of interest, which of these situations (they're real), would you consider bad enough to kick a lodger out, and how many warnings would you give them?
1. Lodger arrives home drunk almost every night when everyone is asleep & leaves the front door wide open to the main road before going to sleep (not just unlocked but open). When approached about it, he says "maybe you need a new door". This happens several times a week.
2. Crockery, cutlery & glasses gradually disappear from the kitchen over time until there's almost nothing left. Struggling to find a fork or glass to eat with, we go on a hunt around the house & it is later discovered the lodger has been using them & piling them up in his room.
3. Lodger took a pile of private post addressed to me & kept them in his room for a week. I wondered why I'd received no cards or presents on my birthday, and my family & friends were upset and started to worry theirs was lost in the post. A week later I discovered he had them. He offered no explanation.
4. Lodger regularly shouts out calling my name across the house between floors, then knocking on my bedroom door as if there's an emergency, while I'm asleep. She does this every day. It always turns out it's not urgent (e.g. "I might be moving out but haven't decided yet", "do you know any local hotels my friends can visit for a couple of days in a few months time?", ). This happens every day, several times a day or evening, often while I'm asleep.
5. Lodger turned up the thermostat to 24 degrees so the house feels like a sauna, then opened her window & left the house to go to work. She does this every day & night, 24/7. It increases the gas & electric bill of our 3 bed terrace to £8 a day (£230 a month). When I asked her to stop, she says she's too cold and continues the behaviour regardless. When I suggest closing her windows or wearing more than just a t-shirt, she looked at me as though I'm the devil. I locked our smart thermostat so it can't go higher than 21.5, but instead of talking to me about it, she found a way to bypass the lock by setting it to manual mode.
6. Lodger ignores all house rules, frequently enters my bedroom without permission or while I'm asleep just to "say hi" - this started immediately after she moved in, it was bizarre. She left her wet clothes & personal possessions thrown around the hallways & kitchen, drank my bottled water & ate my food. She only items she seemed to buy are pepsi cans, coke bottles, sugary drinks & caffeine, which she consumes non-stop. When I asked her about my water bottles, she said "it's because I don't drink tap water". I suggested she buy her own bottled water, and she looked like she was about to cry. She didn't stop pestering me or anyone in the house for even 1 second during the day to a point where everyone in the house was exhausted 3 days after she moved in.
7. Lodger left pieces of food thrown around the kitchen surfaces & doesn't clean up after himself. He keeps his clothes in the tumble dryer so no one can use it all week. He's heavy handed, broke the toilet flush handle, broke the shower control dial, and sits in the toilet for 2-3 hours every day after work so no one can use it. He blocks the toilet regularly, and on the rare occasion he vacuums his bedroom, he will throw the vacuum cleaner on the floor half way through the job & go to work, leaving it in there for 48 hours so no one else can use it.
8. Lodger was very friendly before moving in, but a month after moving in, he changed personality, stopped smiling, moves in an aggressive manner & looks at everyone with an angry face as if he dislikes us. We try to carry on as normal, but he just gets worse. I asked him if anything's wrong, but says "Nope. I'm fine.". Everyone ended up avoiding being in the same room as him just to avoid the anger & friends no longer wish to come to the house.
9. My sister moved to another country for work, so we have another empty room in the house. After few weeks, we discovered the spare bedroom had been messed up & the bed used. We later discover on the security camera in the front garden that our lodger had been bringing his father home to stay 3 nights a week without permission. Apparently he'd been staying in the spare room. When we approach the lodger about it, he went red in the face & denied it.
10. Lodger insisted on a rent refund because he had to "clean hidden dust" from behind the radiators & on top of the doors. When we ask him to show us the dust, he said "it's gone now, because I cleaned it.". When I explained to him that daily cleaning isn't included in his rent, and that it only takes 1 minute to vacuum up dust hidden behind a radiator, he said "but I still don't expect there to be dust when I move in".
11. Lodger asked us to buy a desk for his room. We suggested he chooses one he likes online & we'll see if we can buy it for his room. He doesn't mention anything about it for weeks, then says "I've been having to sit on my bedroom floor to work on my laptop because you still haven't provided a desk. This is unacceptable." - and demands a rent refund. When I remind him that we're waiting for him to choose one, and that it's a courtesy we've agreed to buy him one, he looked at me as if I'm the devil.
12. New lodger insisted the in-built cupboards his his room smell "toxic", and provided an unreliable website as a source to prove MDF is toxic. We can't smell anything in his room, and neither can our friends, neighbours or family, or our builders or carpenter (whom we called especially to find out). The lodger threatened to call environmental health unless we provide him with a rent refund.
After weeks of silence, he then started complaining again about the illusive toxic smell, at which point we discovered he had spent the last few weeks of silence dismantling £600 worth of in-built MDF storage & put it in our garage without permission. He also used an expensive electric fan from our garage to air his room but left the fan outside in the rain for weeks. Apparently none of this had fixed his issue, so he once again insisted on a rent refund.
13. Lodger ignored the "overnight guests twice a week" rule & brings her bf home almost every night.
14. Lodger moved out & left all her stuff in our garage. I texted her a few weeks later asking her to remove it. She arrived in a dress & high heels & didn't seem interested in removing her things. I was busy looking after guests at the time, but she kept clinging around me, in quite an inappropriate way. It then emerged that she had left her stuff in the garage for weeks so that she'd have an excuse to come back & see me again. I explained I'm not interested, she eventually took her stuff and left (but it took several hours to get rid of her!).
15. Lodger continually slams the all the doors in the house with such force & stomps around to a point where the doors started buckling & floorboards began to crack.
Having said this, we have had some amazing lodgers. Above are some of the worse situations we've had to deal with.
Which of these situations would you consider bad enough to kick a lodger out, which are just minor annoyances to tolerate & which should deserve a few warnings first? and how many warnings would you give them? Quite interested in the numbers. :rotfl:
We have a spare room in our home & below is a list of some of the worst experiences we've had with the worst lodgers. These people are supposedly respectable members of society who all passed referencing checks (teachers, professionals etc.).
Out of interest, which of these situations (they're real), would you consider bad enough to kick a lodger out, and how many warnings would you give them?
1. Lodger arrives home drunk almost every night when everyone is asleep & leaves the front door wide open to the main road before going to sleep (not just unlocked but open). When approached about it, he says "maybe you need a new door". This happens several times a week.
2. Crockery, cutlery & glasses gradually disappear from the kitchen over time until there's almost nothing left. Struggling to find a fork or glass to eat with, we go on a hunt around the house & it is later discovered the lodger has been using them & piling them up in his room.
3. Lodger took a pile of private post addressed to me & kept them in his room for a week. I wondered why I'd received no cards or presents on my birthday, and my family & friends were upset and started to worry theirs was lost in the post. A week later I discovered he had them. He offered no explanation.
4. Lodger regularly shouts out calling my name across the house between floors, then knocking on my bedroom door as if there's an emergency, while I'm asleep. She does this every day. It always turns out it's not urgent (e.g. "I might be moving out but haven't decided yet", "do you know any local hotels my friends can visit for a couple of days in a few months time?", ). This happens every day, several times a day or evening, often while I'm asleep.
5. Lodger turned up the thermostat to 24 degrees so the house feels like a sauna, then opened her window & left the house to go to work. She does this every day & night, 24/7. It increases the gas & electric bill of our 3 bed terrace to £8 a day (£230 a month). When I asked her to stop, she says she's too cold and continues the behaviour regardless. When I suggest closing her windows or wearing more than just a t-shirt, she looked at me as though I'm the devil. I locked our smart thermostat so it can't go higher than 21.5, but instead of talking to me about it, she found a way to bypass the lock by setting it to manual mode.
6. Lodger ignores all house rules, frequently enters my bedroom without permission or while I'm asleep just to "say hi" - this started immediately after she moved in, it was bizarre. She left her wet clothes & personal possessions thrown around the hallways & kitchen, drank my bottled water & ate my food. She only items she seemed to buy are pepsi cans, coke bottles, sugary drinks & caffeine, which she consumes non-stop. When I asked her about my water bottles, she said "it's because I don't drink tap water". I suggested she buy her own bottled water, and she looked like she was about to cry. She didn't stop pestering me or anyone in the house for even 1 second during the day to a point where everyone in the house was exhausted 3 days after she moved in.
7. Lodger left pieces of food thrown around the kitchen surfaces & doesn't clean up after himself. He keeps his clothes in the tumble dryer so no one can use it all week. He's heavy handed, broke the toilet flush handle, broke the shower control dial, and sits in the toilet for 2-3 hours every day after work so no one can use it. He blocks the toilet regularly, and on the rare occasion he vacuums his bedroom, he will throw the vacuum cleaner on the floor half way through the job & go to work, leaving it in there for 48 hours so no one else can use it.
8. Lodger was very friendly before moving in, but a month after moving in, he changed personality, stopped smiling, moves in an aggressive manner & looks at everyone with an angry face as if he dislikes us. We try to carry on as normal, but he just gets worse. I asked him if anything's wrong, but says "Nope. I'm fine.". Everyone ended up avoiding being in the same room as him just to avoid the anger & friends no longer wish to come to the house.
9. My sister moved to another country for work, so we have another empty room in the house. After few weeks, we discovered the spare bedroom had been messed up & the bed used. We later discover on the security camera in the front garden that our lodger had been bringing his father home to stay 3 nights a week without permission. Apparently he'd been staying in the spare room. When we approach the lodger about it, he went red in the face & denied it.
10. Lodger insisted on a rent refund because he had to "clean hidden dust" from behind the radiators & on top of the doors. When we ask him to show us the dust, he said "it's gone now, because I cleaned it.". When I explained to him that daily cleaning isn't included in his rent, and that it only takes 1 minute to vacuum up dust hidden behind a radiator, he said "but I still don't expect there to be dust when I move in".
11. Lodger asked us to buy a desk for his room. We suggested he chooses one he likes online & we'll see if we can buy it for his room. He doesn't mention anything about it for weeks, then says "I've been having to sit on my bedroom floor to work on my laptop because you still haven't provided a desk. This is unacceptable." - and demands a rent refund. When I remind him that we're waiting for him to choose one, and that it's a courtesy we've agreed to buy him one, he looked at me as if I'm the devil.
12. New lodger insisted the in-built cupboards his his room smell "toxic", and provided an unreliable website as a source to prove MDF is toxic. We can't smell anything in his room, and neither can our friends, neighbours or family, or our builders or carpenter (whom we called especially to find out). The lodger threatened to call environmental health unless we provide him with a rent refund.
After weeks of silence, he then started complaining again about the illusive toxic smell, at which point we discovered he had spent the last few weeks of silence dismantling £600 worth of in-built MDF storage & put it in our garage without permission. He also used an expensive electric fan from our garage to air his room but left the fan outside in the rain for weeks. Apparently none of this had fixed his issue, so he once again insisted on a rent refund.
13. Lodger ignored the "overnight guests twice a week" rule & brings her bf home almost every night.
14. Lodger moved out & left all her stuff in our garage. I texted her a few weeks later asking her to remove it. She arrived in a dress & high heels & didn't seem interested in removing her things. I was busy looking after guests at the time, but she kept clinging around me, in quite an inappropriate way. It then emerged that she had left her stuff in the garage for weeks so that she'd have an excuse to come back & see me again. I explained I'm not interested, she eventually took her stuff and left (but it took several hours to get rid of her!).
15. Lodger continually slams the all the doors in the house with such force & stomps around to a point where the doors started buckling & floorboards began to crack.
Having said this, we have had some amazing lodgers. Above are some of the worse situations we've had to deal with.
Which of these situations would you consider bad enough to kick a lodger out, which are just minor annoyances to tolerate & which should deserve a few warnings first? and how many warnings would you give them? Quite interested in the numbers. :rotfl:
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Comments
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I wouldn't get past item 1 before serving notice.
Edit: >re-reads< Oh! It's not all one lodger!
I thought "wow, you've got a live one there!"
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I'd love to know how many points were the same person lol :laugh:
Agree with above, I'd not get past 1. In fact, I'd never have a lodger in the first place. It's bad enough sharing with a husband/partner lol.2023 wins: *must start comping again!*0 -
If you choose to open your private living space up to lodgers then you need to be pretty thick skinned...afterall they are paying you to live there.
Your choice really.
I love being a LL but I also would never live with my tenants.in S 38 T 2 F 50
out S 36 T 9 F 24 FF 4
2017-32 2018 -33 2019 -21 2020 -5 2021 -4 20220 -
We had lodgers in the past and were obviously really lucky as, on the whole, they caused few problems.
In the scenarios the OP has outlined, I would give warnings for 2,5.7.13 and 15. 11 and 12 would soon have led to the suggestion that they would be happier elsewhere. I would have had very little tolerance for the others, especially invasions of privacy, and notice would have been given pretty quickly I think.It's not difficult!
'Wander' - to walk or move in a leisurely manner.
'Wonder' - to feel curious.0 -
4. Lodger regularly shouts out calling my name across the house between floors, then knocking on my bedroom door as if there's an emergency, while I'm asleep. She does this every day. It always turns out it's not urgent (e.g. "I might be moving out but haven't decided yet", "do you know any local hotels my friends can visit for a couple of days in a few months time?", ). This happens every day, several times a day or evening, often while I'm asleep.
6. Lodger ignores all house rules, frequently enters my bedroom without permission or while I'm asleep just to "say hi" - this started immediately after she moved in, it was bizarre. She left her wet clothes & personal possessions thrown around the hallways & kitchen, drank my bottled water & ate my food. She only items she seemed to buy are pepsi cans, coke bottles, sugary drinks & caffeine, which she consumes non-stop. When I asked her about my water bottles, she said "it's because I don't drink tap water". I suggested she buy her own bottled water, and she looked like she was about to cry. She didn't stop pestering me or anyone in the house for even 1 second during the day to a point where everyone in the house was exhausted 3 days after she moved in.
14. Lodger moved out & left all her stuff in our garage. I texted her a few weeks later asking her to remove it. She arrived in a dress & high heels & didn't seem interested in removing her things. I was busy looking after guests at the time, but she kept clinging around me, in quite an inappropriate way. It then emerged that she had left her stuff in the garage for weeks so that she'd have an excuse to come back & see me again. I explained I'm not interested, she eventually took her stuff and left (but it took several hours to get rid of her!).
:rotfl:
Maybe both were interested in you, romantically?
Quite a long list, how many lodgers have you had?0 -
We have a spare room in our home & below is a list of some of the worst experiences we've had with the worst lodgers. These people are supposedly respectable members of society who all passed referencing checks (teachers, professionals etc.).
:rotfl:
I have only had one lodger, who was really nice. I never did any reference checks, because they dont not tell you if the person has a problem with alcohol or mental health issies around MDF.0 -
Firstly, since you live in the same property, and their rooms are not self contained units, you are not a landlord, and they are not tenants. They are just lodgers and as such have no right of occupation. You can ask them to leave without notice, but giving 7 to 14 days notice would be reasonable.
Given the litany of behavioural issues your tenants have displayed, they clearly have mental health problems. Despite this, their behaviour is such that I'm amazed you've allowed this to continue. For how long, and with how many lodgers?No free lunch, and no free laptop
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I’d kick out numbers 1, 3 and 15. In fact, number 3 I’d want him out immediately. Messing with someone else’s mail is just creepy.
Number 2 with the crockery etc, wouldn’t really bother me as long as I can access their room to collect the stuff and I have sympathy for number 5 as I feel the cold too but also have a thing about fresh air at the same time (I do wear jumpers though!). The rest I’d try to talk with them and see if things improve.
I’m curious about number 7 though. What was he doing in the loo for all that time? Was he actually on the toilet?0 -
I had lodgers for a few years while I was training to be a teacher and whilst working quite a low-paid job before it. My first two lodgers were amazing. Everybody looked rubbish next to them.
My worst lodger had just obviously been used to mummy and daddy doing everything for her. She also NEVER paid rent on time which put me in a really awkward position. In the end, I had to teach her how to set up a standing order.
Still, I'm also very happy not having lodgers now and glad that stage of my life is over.0 -
We have a spare room in our home & below is a list of some of the worst experiences we've had with the worst lodgers. These people are supposedly respectable members of society who all passed referencing checks (teachers, professionals etc.).
Out of interest, which of these situations (they're real), would you consider bad enough to kick a lodger out, and how many warnings would you give them?
This is good as unemployed and on benefits always get a bad rep when some are decent.
All the ones you posted, no warnings, goodbye.0
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