When / how to kick out a nightmare lodger?

bobwilson

Honeylife wrote: »

OP
Seems like you have a sense of humour because all of these would have been given instant marching orders if they were lodging with me!

One Lodger really made me tear my hair out but I knew her departure date so marked down the days on my calendar. She absolutely stank! Broke the pine bed frame. When she walked across her room the entire house shook - yes she was quite over weight! Masses of empty junk food packets all over her room. And she was a night prowler. Fumigating the room after departure took a lot of incense, washed carpet and room spray!

The girl who was shouting on the phone & Skype all day and night loudly to family overseas, even when she was cooking she was on the phone. Plus she left the window open all day and night because she was claustrophobic, so rain came in warped the floorboards. She had to go.

Did have one lad who swore blind he would only smoke outside but hadn't reckoned on my very sensitive smoke alarms!!

And I totally accept that no one will every wipe down the Hob after their pasta has boiled over spilling water everywhere. Sighing silently I just clean it up. Re-cycling strangely, is still a bit of a fight but I keep trying. I mean how hard can it be to work out what is food waste! Left over pizza is not the same as the cardboard box in came in. smh. Guests, 2 nights a week & only established relationships absolutely no one else, not your mum or your brother/sister, no one else. I recommend the BnB on the corner above the pub.

My saddest/strangest story is the girl who ran away and to this day I don't know what happened to her. Her parents just would not leave her alone and were always rocking up without notice to 'visit'. One day she disappeared, literally on the day of her last exam, she must have slipped out the house so quietly that no one heard a thing. The police found her and she indicated she did not want her parents to know where she was. (No they hadn't started digging up my garden!) Parents thought we should have looked after her! She was bloody 21, not in the contract to be a Guardian to an Adult. Weird thing was she asked for her deposit back early as it was originally paid in cash, at that time it wasn't a big deal to work in cash, so gave it to her Thursday as she was leaving on the Sunday. Friday she had scarpered! Thought I saw her several years later in a crowd, but she clearly avoided eye contact. Good luck to her.

I also had an American who was stopped at Heathrow and sent back to France where she had gone for a weekend. They were not happy with her visa, kept her in detention overnight and put her on a plane to last place of entry - Paris. Had to ship her belongings back to LA. Thank goodness for deposits!

Good to know we're not alone in all this! We too had the stinking one who made the house shake when he stomped :rotfl:- he was the same guy who kept leaving the front door wide open all night & suggesting I should buy a new front door. Months later the smell still hasn't gone from his room. He sent me a text a few weeks after leaving, apologising for his "behaviour", and saying he was depressed at the time- but is feeling better now. It made me a bit paranoid if there's something about this house that depresses people!

We also had the one who was on the phone to overseas in her loudest possible voice with no break- cooking with one hand, phone in the other. Eating with phone in hand. She put on a loud chesty voice that there was no escape from anywhere in the house. I forgot to mention those! Where abouts are you? I'm wondering if the percentage of nightmare vs decent lodgers changes in certain areas or if it's a nationwide thing, because a lot of people on here seem to have found great ones.

Re: sense of humour, one has to apply by necessity, otherwise I think I'd have gone barking mad

The irony of all this is that landlords are the ones who generally get the bad rep. When I was a tenant, I dealt with some nightmare landlords- but it seems now that I'm finally a landlord, it's the other way around! Always stuck in the middle I do often feel like if it came down to it, people would automatically take lodgers' side without listening to the landlord.

We have a strictly non-smokers policy however the latest one "started" smoking while living with us. There's always something

How do you deal with the deposit? Do you protect it under the DPS? Legally you have to.

seven-day-weekend

Five years ago I had a letter from a lodger, thirty years after she left, accusing me of reading her letters, writing on her lecture notes and stealing her pork pie.

She had mental health problems while she lived with us. She is obviously no better.

I have also had some great ones, including two who married each other and I am Godmother to their daughter and still see them every so often.

bobwilson

Skiddaw1 wrote: »

Lordy! All reminds me of the joys of shared house living when I were a bright young thing... Some of those lodger stories are horribly familiar.... :rotfl:

The strange thing is, I shared in many different houses as a student but never came across any of these problems! We didn't ever damage the fittings & each cleaned on a regular basis. We'd share house tasks & go shopping together. It was all quite amicable, and nothing like how these seem to behave.

The landlord was no where to be seen & garden was a mess but there were no issues with housemates not letting me sleep or shaking the house with their stomping. I'm wondering if bad lodgers is an area thing. I'm also thinking it could be like the dating scene- the available options are often the ones who can't find a relationship for good reason, and the lodgers available can't find friends to share with, or because no one wants to live with them? :cool:

bobwilson

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Five years ago I had a letter from a lodger, thirty years after she left, accusing me of reading her letters, writing on her lecture notes and stealing her pork pie.

That's hilarious! And also a little frightening.. that someone that unstable still has your address & remembers where you live & still thinking about you after 30 years.. :eek:

I'm sure it'll be fine though :rotfl:

seven-day-weekend

bobwilson wrote: »

That's hilarious! And also a little frightening.. that someone that unstable still has your address & remembers where you live & still thinking about you after 30 years.. :eek:

I'm sure it'll be fine though :rotfl:

It's quite creepy!

I have moved house now

Kept the letter though....just in case!

Honeylife

bobwilson wrote: »

...
We also had the one who was on the phone to overseas in her loudest possible voice with no break- cooking with one hand, phone in the other. Eating with phone in hand. She put on a loud chesty voice that there was no escape from anywhere in the house. I forgot to mention those! Where abouts are you? I'm wondering if the percentage of nightmare vs decent lodgers changes in certain areas or if it's a nationwide thing, because a lot of people on here seem to have found great ones.

Re: sense of humour, one has to apply by necessity, otherwise I think I'd have gone barking mad

The irony of all this is that landlords are the ones who generally get the bad rep. ...

How do you deal with the deposit? Do you protect it under the DPS? Legally you have to.

I wonder if the phone thing is an age thing. I was a teenager when phones were in the freezing hall or you went to the phone box outdoors in the rain. Never got used to even having a phone at the dinner table. The lodger was supposed to be a student but she was home far too often. Turned out she was doing an 'online course'... when did that make you a student? She spoke to her parents, her mother in law and husband all day and night. She came in the front door on the phone, went up and down the stairs on the phone, ate and cooked on the phone, even took the phone in the bathroom. When I told her she was disturbing us with her loud voice on the phone she was totally baffled that it could be an issue. We told her to leave. When she was told to clean the room at departure she said "don't you have people to do that for you?" :rotfl: :rotfl:

As a Resident/Live in Landlord you do NOT have to use a DPS. I remind potential lodgers of that at the interview and again when they sign the Licence Agreement. I usually wait seven working days before I refund money as I have found some issues after departure (like a broken bed frame!), unless they tell me they really need it then I, with great show of reluctance, transfer it on day of departure! I no longer deal in cash.

I haven't had any with clear mental issues or depression (yet) and only a couple lads who drank way too much and couldn't get up the stairs, one found in the morning by my son asleep outside the front door. I pretend not to hear/notice!

I belong to a cohort of five Resident landlords (all accidental) in the same London area and we keep each other sane with a lot of alcohol and a lot of laughter.

But I have to say I have had some lovely lodgers. One girls parents took us all out to the Savoy for dinner - don't know why! And some beautiful hand written thank-you notes from my Chinese students who clearly consider it bad etiquette not to do so.

Murphybear

Blondetotty wrote: »

bobwilson wrote: »

Was he me or a copy of me by any chance?! I used to do things like that as a tenant & my landlords used to beg me not to leave :rotfl: I don't think that particular one was me though. I thought your story was going to end in you marrying him! aaahh../QUOTE]

Lol, trust me if he wasn't married I'd have been all over it! Fortunately I can add he was also a total gentleman to the list of amazing qualities. He and his wife are still happily married though and I wish them both well, she's a lucky lady.

Although, if you look like Michael Stonebridge too...:rotfl:

I bet he’s a terrific surgeon as well:D

I have only been a lodger once and was horrified to read about some of yours. I used to bake at weekends and always took LL some, along with a big smile. I gave it up to house share with a University friend. I would have loved a place of my own but this was Wimbledon

hazyjo

bobwilson wrote: »

How do you deal with the deposit? Do you protect it under the DPS? Legally you have to.

No, you don't have to legally protect it for lodgers.

seven-day-weekend

We had another lodger, in fact our first, who took us out to dinner and then proceeded to eat leftover food from strangers' plates . (He was actually quite funny - 'Ee up, finished with t'snap? Sound!' whilst shovelling it onto his plate.).

I didn't find it quite so funny when he threw my cat out of the bedroom window because 'it were buzzin (he meant purring) on me bed'.:eek: He thought it was Ok because cats always land on their feet

Luckily the cat was OK, but the lodger was very quiet and respectful for ages!

Skiddaw1

I'd have thrown him out of the window to see how he liked it. :mad:


The strange thing is, I shared in many different houses as a student but never came across any of these problems! We didn't ever damage the fittings & each cleaned on a regular basis. We'd share house tasks & go shopping together. It was all quite amicable, and nothing like how these seem to behave.


Actually, the student houses I shared were fine but I certainly encountered a few Housemates From Hell in the post-University years (not all I hasted to add- many of the people I met then were wonderful, charming, and became life-long friends ).