Lodger moved out owing rent and now unreachable

Thrugelmir

expl0rer wrote: »

The lodger stopped paying while I was away. He said he had lost his job and that he'd move out if he didn't find another one by a specified date.

He found one, but decided to move out anyway. He promised to pay his arrears by date X by which he would have received his first wages from the new job.
Date X has passed and I haven't received the money. I've tried calling him, but he's changed his number. I've emailed him and he hasn't responded.

Someone has worked out how to perform a neat scam. You are unlikely to be the only person out of pocket.

Honeylife

OP you haven't answered the question Did you take a Deposit?

I am suspecting that you didn't take a Deposit

This is why people ask for a Deposit. It is for possible Damages to items in room and/or possible Non Payment of Rent and a possible failure to leave the room in good order thus requiring the landlord to employ professional cleaners.

If the lodger does a midnight flit, then they loose the Deposit!

Also not a good idea to use the Deposit for the last months rent, as you still need monetary cover for those possibilities mentioned above.

Comms69

Angalfaria wrote: »

You must contact the police so that they can take a legal step to help you.

No, this is a civil issue.


The police cannot help. (and shouldn't help)

expl0rer

I did take a deposit, but not enough to cover for the period he stayed at the house without paying as I was away for longer and he tricked me into allowing me to stay longer (he told me he'd found a job and would pay).

Thank you all for your input.

Honeylife

expl0rer wrote: »

I did take a deposit, but not enough to cover for the period he stayed at the house without paying as I was away for longer and he tricked me into allowing me to stay longer (he told me he'd found a job and would pay).

Thank you all for your input.

Then that is indeed very unfortunate. Take up references from more places with your next lodger and perhaps consider six weeks deposit. Sounds like a lot but that would give you some peace of mind.

coffeehound

expl0rer wrote: »

I have a copy of his passport

What nationality is he?

worried_jim

coffeehound wrote: »

What nationality is he?

Why?

OP- The money is gone, you have no chance of recovering it with out spending more money which you will probably never recover.

I rented a room for 14 years and only happened once to me, although after two months he popped up with some !!!! and bull story about going into hiding (he worked the doors and booted a dealer out) and paid me.

Comms69

Angalfaria wrote: »

OK, so the matter will be dismissed by conversation but now he is unreachable. So you want to leave this matter or want to do something so that it doesn't happen again to with you.

I suggest you look at how forums work. I am not the original poster.


I have told the OP all the info possible about the recovery process (and the frankly the chances of doing so being not so good)


You are adding what to this? Because telling the OP to go to the police is fundamentally wrong. Now if you are here to learn about debt, debt recovery and so forth that's great.


The person is not unreachable. But the cost of recovering the money is greater than the debt owed. For example let's say I owe you £50. I live in Scotland, you live in London.


You can come collect the money whenever you want, but the cost of coming up to Scotland to do so will be greater than the money recovered. So there's little point in doing so.

bigisi

Comms69 wrote: »

I suggest you look at how forums work. I am not the original poster.


I have told the OP all the info possible about the recovery process (and the frankly the chances of doing so being not so good)


You are adding what to this? Because telling the OP to go to the police is fundamentally wrong. Now if you are here to learn about debt, debt recovery and so forth that's great.


The person is not unreachable. But the cost of recovering the money is greater than the debt owed. For example let's say I owe you £50. I live in Scotland, you live in London.


You can come collect the money whenever you want, but the cost of coming up to Scotland to do so will be greater than the money recovered. So there's little point in doing so.

It's obviously an illiterate (in English anyway) post builder. I've reported all it's posts, pointless replying to it now.

Comms69

bigisi wrote: »

It's obviously an illiterate (in English anyway) post builder. I've reported all it's posts, pointless replying to it now.

I did consider that. Just typically they reply once to lots of threads, rather than lots of times on one thread.


But I think you're right