When / how to kick out a nightmare lodger?

Comms69

bobwilson wrote: »

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. - You're a live in landlord, it's quite different.

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.). - not sure how that's relevant? Shipman was a qualified GP...

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? - I would give notice, as agreed; unless I felt threatened with violence.

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. - Notice.

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.- Notice.


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.- Notice.


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.- Notice.


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.- Notice.


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.- strong chat

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.-strong chat

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.- not an issue

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. - strong chat

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".- you should apologise

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.- not an issue. Tell him to buy his own

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. - invite him to move out if he doesn't like the surroundings

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.- Ask for payment to cover any damage (take from deposit)

13. Lodger ignored the "overnight guests twice a week" rule & brings her bf home almost every night. - non issue; chat and ask for £10 a week extra to cover water usage

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!). - non issue

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. - Chat


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:

as above.


Some things serious, others non issues

Brock_and_Roll

From my experience, lodgers are no better or worse than having older teenage kids in the hours with the upside that they usually pay to stay and you can tell them to sling their hook if you get fed up (or jealous of) of their habits/sex lives/smell/personality etc !

FreeBear

Marvel1 wrote: »

This is good as unemployed and on benefits always get a bad rep when some are decent.

The last pair were turned out to be as awful as some of the ones in the OP's list. Between having to call the police to break up their arguments and watch my wine disappear down their necks, they just had to go.


The current lodger is a charming and trustworthy young lady. Unemployed and on long term sickness benefits. To date, has washed up after cooking/eating, keeps her room (fairly) clean, and is willing to lend a hand when required. Also good company in the evening when I get back from work.

bobwilson

need_an_answer wrote: »

...afterall they are paying you to live there.

I didn't realise you think someone's bound to leave the front door open to the main road all night when they pay to live there.

hazyjo wrote: »

I'd love to know how many points were the same person lol :laugh:

I'll list the lodgers by letters (A, B, C..etc.)
1. A
2. A
3. B
4. C
5. C
6. D
7. E
8. E
9. E
10. F
11. F
12. F
13. C
14. G
15. A & E

Over the years, I'd say 30% are lovely, but the remaining 70% turn out to either not know how to live with people, or verging on mentally ill.

The house is on a busy main road (it's all we could afford in such an expensive area), and although the house is quiet inside, you do have to walk along the road with a constant flow of traffic doing around 50mph next to the pavement for about 10 minutes before you get anywhere. Sometimes I wonder if the reason some become hostile as time goes on is because the road noise somehow affects their brains! 30% of people seem to be fine though- so maybe it's just that more people are mentally ill than we noticed before becoming landlords?! We can speculate until the cows come home!

hb2 wrote: »

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.

Agreed! Lodger 11 & 12 was the same person, and we gave him 1 month notice to leave. When we refused to refund his month's rent, he moved out secretly without telling us, but somehow bolted his door from the inside & left via the ground floor patio window. I'm not sure why he did this- we don't enter his room anyway! He seemed to be paranoid that we'd keep his rent & rent the room out again (which we wouldn't!). It was such a relief to be rid of this one.

sevenhills wrote: »

Maybe both were interested in you, romantically?

Quite a long list, how many lodgers have you had?

Only one was interested in me romantically. She was the most polite & kind person before moving in, but suddenly changed personality when coming to collect her stuff. My guests at the time commented on how inappropriate & unstable she seemed. After she eventually left, she texted me "I've never been refused by anyone before! You must be sick! Do you have a disease?". I was relieved she was no longer in the house at that point. I've since heard that she falls over-the-top in love with random men throughout her life & has taken revenge actions against various people for not returning her feelings. I kept quiet & thankfully she's moved on since then. It was bizarre though! I'm no catch lol. I lead a fairly quiet life & never came across anyone like this before.

We've had a number of lodgers because the area is quite a transient part of London & although it's lovely here, most lodgers seem to move to other countries or areas eventually. Our best lodger got a new job offer a long distance away, so she had to move out. We begged her to stay & find a job closer! She's still friends with us now & has even commented on how crazy some of the lodgers are that she now lives with in her new home.

sevenhills wrote: »

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.

This is true! We've found the reference checks to be fairly useless. Everyone presents themselves in the best light during the interview, then the bad ones transform afterwards lol

macman wrote: »

...their behaviour is such that I'm amazed you've allowed this to continue. For how long, and with how many lodgers?

We don't allow it to continue- we served notice to several of them. The above list of 15 experiences totals 7 lodgers in the past.

ripplyuk wrote: »

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.

I’m curious about number 7 though. What was he doing in the loo for all that time? Was he actually on the toilet?

Agreed! Re: th mail, apparently he said he "took the whole pile up" (to his room)- and forgot to put the ones not for himself back downstairs. It could easily be interpreted as creepy though. I've realised having been a landlord for a while (and a tenant before that), that there are many weird people out there with no regard for others.

Number 7 was on his iPhone in the toilet for hours! I used to know people who behave like this- they feel relaxed in a small locked space, but he really took the biscuit given that it was 2-3 hours every day. He definitely needs his own flat!

Wanderingpomm

bobwilson wrote: »

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.


. :rotfl:

You need a surveyor sharpish, stomping should do that much damage. And I assume you have all the warning signs up you need for CCTV?

Comms69

Wanderingpomm wrote: »

You need a surveyor sharpish, stomping should do that much damage. And I assume you have all the warning signs up you need for CCTV?

No Need for inside the home.

Sea_Shell

If I'd had lodger A, I wouldn't have got as far as B,C,D etc.

bobwilson

Wanderingpomm wrote: »

You need a surveyor sharpish, stomping should do that much damage. And I assume you have all the warning signs up you need for CCTV?

It's an old cottage & he weighed about 80Kg and would frequently jump from half way up the stairs, down to the ground floor as if he's an olympic long jump athlete. The house is fairly solid, but it would shake all the picture frames on the walls & after so long, the wooden floors have started to creak. I'm surprised it held up as long as it did- his behaviour was odd.

The CCTV is obvious, it lights up & is in plain view, and yes we have signs. If you live in a big city, it makes couriers behave much more politely than usual, deters thieves & makes postmen wait longer than 2 seconds for us to answer the door! I recommend it :rotfl:

bobwilson

Thanks for all the replies.. it's good to know we're not alone in our thoughts about these lodgers! It's quite therapeutic to finally get it all off my chest!

bobwilson

FreeBear wrote: »

The last pair were turned out to be as awful as some of the ones in the OP's list. Between having to call the police to break up their arguments and watch my wine disappear down their necks, they just had to go.


The current lodger is a charming and trustworthy young lady. Unemployed and on long term sickness benefits. To date, has washed up after cooking/eating, keeps her room (fairly) clean, and is willing to lend a hand when required. Also good company in the evening when I get back from work.

Where on earth did you find her?! :T Can we have one please?!