Housemate refuses to Pay Bills

pimento

When somebody of Facebook sold my son a non-existant festival ticket to the tune of a couple of hundred pounds and then blocked my son when he complained, I hunted for him online. He had an unusual spelling of his christian name which led me to his father's address.
I wrote a letter before action and my son received a cheque for the full amount by return of post.

Comms69

pimento wrote: »

When somebody of Facebook sold my son a non-existant festival ticket to the tune of a couple of hundred pounds and then blocked my son when he complained, I hunted for him online. He had an unusual spelling of his christian name which led me to his father's address.
I wrote a letter before action and my son received a cheque for the full amount by return of post.

That's great I mean a cheque for £100 vs a fraud conviction; bargain of the century.

G_M

Who is the 'lead tenant'? Who will the landlord return the deposit to?


If it is you, you simply deduct her share of the bills from her share of the deposit.


However if the LL divides up the deposit between you or reirns it to her, that won't help.

davemorton

And move gas/leccy to someone that does not charge a standing daily charge if you can.

[Deleted User]

Agreed, my sister is a pain and likes to avoid paying for things.
As soon as my parents find out they force her to pay everything.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Speak to your University housing department for advice; I'm afraid this is quite common.

comedyseeker123

Comms69 wrote: »

Not a guarantor to the OP, just to the landlord.

Yeah I should have clarified.

The parents are either going to feel somewhat responsible or they will be annoyed their child is acting in such a way and will force/pay themselves.

Not something you would perhaps do buy equally it has worked with ,e

comedyseeker123

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

Speak to your University housing department for advice; I'm afraid this is quite common.

Nothing they can do or care about - espically at this time of year.

sal_III

Comms69 wrote: »

How would that help?

Most parents will be appalled by that behaviour and will either force their offspring to pay their bills or pay up themselves.

csgohan4 wrote: »

Or they will just tell you to Jog On, if they're selfish, what do you think the likelihood the parents would be?

It's entirely possible that Chelsea simply doesn't understand how the real world works and that she needs to pay the bills for the whole tenancy, regardless of whether she lived in there or not, and it's not just selfishness. Not far fetched if this is the first time she lived outside her parents home and was responsible for paying her bills.

Bottom line is, there is nothing to lose by contacting the parents.

CarbonImage

I would recommend caution with the 'contact the parents' approach.

A similar situation happened whereby a housemate of mine had a house party when the rest of us were all away for a weekend. We returned to a trashed house, and a radiator had been ripped from the wall. At checkout time the landlord removed the cost of replacing the radiator from our deposit. I returned her deposit to her, sans said cost, which sparked an argument that she shouldn't pay for it as we can't prove it didn't happen for unrelated reasons to her party. I ended up on the receiving end of multiple aggressive phone calls from her father who became increasingly threatening and violent. I am convinced that had he not lived in Ireland at the time I would have had him knocking down my door for the sake of a couple of hundred pounds' deposit money.

The point is, be careful as you don't know how her parents are going to react!

@OP, what are the sums involved here? Unfortunately it is going to prove difficult to reclaim your money whichever route you take, so I would cut my losses unless it was a very large sum of money owed.