When / how to kick out a nightmare lodger?

snilloct1957

"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."

Maybe her parents were forcing her into an arranged marriage, which she was desperately trying to avoid?

bobwilson

Honeylife wrote: »

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.

I'm in the London area too- makes me wonder if here is the place with the highest concentration of bad lodgers

Is any vacancy for me in your cohort of drunken landlords? :cool:

I agree there are some really nice lodgers out there, but in my area they're in short supply. Even with all my vetting before hand, I've only managed to reach 30% success rate in finding decent ones and that's probably up from 10% if I didn't vet them.

It's at least slightly comforting to know I'm not alone! With all the work of being a landlord, I'm quite surprised to discover the most challenging part of it is the attitude of lodgers as opposed to the work itself. From my experience, you can't do anything to please the bad ones. They're either angry or neutral. You'd think if you cook for them or give them surprise little treats or money off the rent, they'd be happy- but it only increases their happiness level to 'neutral' for a short while, and any gift they seem to perceive as weakness. So, you can't do right no matter what you do.

Our best lodger was a girl who had just moved to London- she was so happy & respectful of everyone, cleaned up after herself, didn't damage anything or store her things in the public areas. She'd show interest when I upgraded the house to make life a bit easier (e.g. google home). She cooked for whomever was in the kitchen & I took her out for meals & spent days chilling & showing her around the area. She sadly got a job elsewhere- but she almost turned it down to remain in our house!

We had our worst lodger at the same time who behaved like an angry animal, and appeared shocked by our 'nice' lodger's decent behaviour. He seemed to interpret our house upgrades as a sign we're rolling in money and taking advantage of him & his rent. That's something universal I've noticed in lodgers- they assume landlords must automatically be rich. They don't seem to understand it's possible a landlord worked his way up from nothing or, in some cases, financially struggling, not that it's relevant to them. They seem to think if a landlord is making money from them, that it deserves severe hatred in return. I couldn't live in a situation where I despised my landlord, but they seem perfectly content with living angry for long periods of time. We had a couple of the angry ones beg to come back because they realised they can't find anything better.

It's almost comical when the 'bad' one is outnumbered by nice ones though. The shock on their faces when their fellow lodger is respectful toward us.

Another good lodger even found another lodger for us who was also nice, and I re-imbursed her £100 rent as a thank you.

Our other best lodgers were the ones who basically didn't integrate with us, but at least cleaned up after themselves.

bobwilson

Honeylife wrote: »

As a Resident/Live in Landlord you do NOT have to use a DPS [to protect their deposit]

Are you sure? If you had 5 spare bedrooms for example, wouldn't you have to protect their deposits under DPS?

G_M

bobwilson wrote: »

Are you sure? If you had 5 spare bedrooms for example, wouldn't you have to protect their deposits under DPS?

Mandatory protection applies to tenancies. Lodgers are 'Excluded Occupiers', so it depends if you are a resident landlord under the definition of the Act.

With 5 bedrooms/4 lodgers you may well have to comply with HMO rules, but that is a different issue. There would almost certainly be tax implications eg exceeding the Rent a Room limits.

Voluntary deposit protection is an option.

lookstraightahead

Very interesting thread about how people live. I always use how people drive as a good example of what they're really like as well (bullying tactics by driving too close, driving too fast, polite, laid back, etc)

People are very different in their jobs sometimes. You would assume those with neat desks at work would be orderly at home etc.

bobwilson

lookstraightahead wrote: »

Very interesting thread about how people live. I always use how people drive as a good example of what they're really like as well (bullying tactics by driving too close, driving too fast, polite, laid back, etc)

Interesting correlation- I wonder how all these people drive. I had a friend who used bullying tactics while driving but I thought he was the nicest person in the world, and years later I discovered he was using bullying tactics on people and I just hadn't had the opportunity to see his reactions in certain situations before, it was like a completely different side to him. Perhaps there's something in your theory?

I'm a very patient driver & always leave a large enough space in front no matter how slowly the person is driving or how much in a rush I am- my theory is that driving up close won't get me there any faster & just increases danger pointlessly.

Honeylife

bobwilson wrote: »

Are you sure? If you had 5 spare bedrooms for example, wouldn't you have to protect their deposits under DPS?

No you dont as long as you are a Resident Landlord and they are Excluded Occupiers.

But would you really want to have 5 lodgers living in the same house with you? :eek: Four children you raise and attempt to drill your house rules into before they become teenagers are hard enough, but five lodgers ... I would move out "shudder"

ThemeOne

I've had three lodgers. First was a bit weird, but eventually could no longer pay the rent, so with relief I gave him his notice and he went.

Second was really good - did a lot of stuff around the flat (e.g. replacing immersion heater etc), upgraded computer network etc. We are still friends.

Third, who I've just got rid of, was the worst by far. A middle-aged man who seemed unable to use a toilet - let's just say a lot ended up on the floor rather than in the bowl - something he seemed oblivious to. The oven was left filthy, with fat spattered all over, and never cleaned. Also discovered he'd been using the place as a "shagpad" with frequent visitors in my absence, some of whom had stolen small items and damaged others. After he moved out I discovered the bed frame had been broken, and the mattress was badly soiled (both have to be replaced). He was also clumsy and messy, which caused numerous other problems. I'm so glad I took a full month's rent as deposit - I needed most of it to make good the damage he'd caused.

Now lining up lodger number 4. In my glass half full moments I figure he can't be as bad as No 3.

I guess there are few easy ways to make money in this world, and having a lodger is definitely not one of them in my experience. If no 4 doesn't work out I may just give up on the idea.

bobwilson

ThemeOne wrote: »

I'm so glad I took a full month's rent as deposit - I needed most of it to make good the damage he'd caused.

Now lining up lodger number 4. In my glass half full moments I figure he can't be as bad as No 3.

I guess there are few easy ways to make money in this world, and having a lodger is definitely not one of them in my experience. If no 4 doesn't work out I may just give up on the idea.

Your honesty is appreciated! I feel for you. What happened when you took most of Lodger 3's deposit? How did you word the 'text message' or email to him to explain it... did he react? :rotfl:

ThemeOne

bobwilson wrote: »

Your honesty is appreciated! I feel for you. What happened when you took most of Lodger 3's deposit? How did you word the 'text message' or email to him to explain it... did he react? :rotfl:

He left without giving me any means to repay the deposit - no forwarding address or bank details, even though I requested them, so the ball is still in his court on that. Perhaps he realised there would be very little of it to come back, and hence not bothered.