Housemate refuses to Pay Bills

lincroft1710

CarbonImage wrote: »

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.

What is the betting your housemate didn't tell her father the true facts of the matter?

AdaF

G_M wrote: »

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.

Yeah I am the lead tenant! I was considering doing that - but not sure if thats totally in my right? I don't want to stoop down to her level and let her have a claim against me.

AdaF

TBagpuss wrote: »

I am sorry that you have been taken advantage of in this way.
It's too late for the current situation, but in future, if you are sharing a property, it can be useful if you arrange for each person to have a bill in their name, as that way, no one person gets stuck with all the debt if things go wrong (plus if Bill doesn't pay his share of the gas bill, you can off set it against what you owe him for the electricty bill in his name, and so on!)

You can also have a written agreement spearaste to the lease, between the housemates, recording that you will each pay x% of

, - a signed agreement of that kind will make it easier to suceed in making a claim. I think if you an show that there was an agreement (for instnsace, statemtns from the other housemates, bank statemetns showing payments in from Chelsea in the past) then you have a reasonable prospect of suceeeding if you pursue her. one thing you may want to do is tofill in the application and then send her one final letter, telling her you are about to issue and that if you don't get your payment within 7 days you will go ahead - knowing you are serious about recovering the money may push her into paying up.

Thank you for replying!
Yeah annoyingly I trusted her and because no one else wanted responsibility of sorting out bills they're all in my name. We did have a house account where I have proof that she has been paying up until recently - but I'm not sure if thats going to be enough.

AdaF

theartfullodger wrote: »

Who's name are accounts in? They are responsible, possibly modified by any other evidenced (eg written, email...) agreement

Unfortunately they're all in my name because no one else wanted anything to do with them! Learnt my lesson - just never thought she would act like this

AdaF

sal_III wrote: »

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

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.

Thank you all for your replies. I might try contacting her parents - but I think they're just going to react in the same way, they seem a bit like her to be honest! After one message of asking her to contribute to paying the bills she has said that she will seek legal advice if I contact her again - its laughable really.

comedyseeker123

AdaF wrote: »

Thank you all for your replies. I might try contacting her parents - but I think they're just going to react in the same way, they seem a bit like her to be honest! After one message of asking her to contribute to paying the bills she has said that she will seek legal advice if I contact her again - its laughable really.

Yeah they still will be like her as they were in the same environment. However why do you think her parents are like her?

Have you tried to contact the landlord? Say she hasn't paid her part of the bills, you are worried the energy company are going to threaten a meter in. The landlord won't be able to check the electricity/power account but you might as well do whatever you can.

How much does she owe? Have you asked the other tenants to cover her part of the bill?

comedyseeker123

Have you also wrote a letter of demand? That covers you legally.

I hate people who owe others money.

Exodi

You only hear one side of the story and all that so for completeness, when you say:

AdaF wrote: »

She hasn't been living there for a while, choosing to stay with her boyfriend mostly, but has still signed the tenancy agreement for the year and never withdrew from the contract.

It leaves a big grey area that probably needs some clarification as to what not 'living there for a while' means. If, for example, she hadn't step foot in the property for most of the year, I would take her side that it's certainly not reasonable that you expect her to pay 1/X of the electricity/gas/water/internet usage of the people actively using the services.

Then if we disregard the 'moral' aspect and focus on the 'legal' aspect - bluntly, all the bills are in your sole name.

Whether deliberately or not, you've also seemed to miss people asking how much the sum is? It's not single/double digits is it?

EDIT:

Paul_DNAP wrote: »

If her name was on the tenancy that she really ought to be paying up for a fair share of the flat-rate stuff (standing charge, line rentals etc.) - you may have a harder time demonstrating she ought to be sharing the usage portion of the bills.

This is along my line of thinking...

Voyager2002

AdaF wrote: »

Hi, me and my housemates finished Uni in June but the tenancy on our rental house is until the end of August, so we are liable to pay bills until then.
One housemate who I shall call Chelsea is refusing to contribute to any of the remaining bills from June until August with the argument that she hasn't been living there (neither have we!).
She hasn't been living there for a while, choosing to stay with her boyfriend mostly, but has still signed the tenancy agreement for the year and never withdrew from the contract.

I was the one who dealt with the bills and admin over the last 2 years so they are in my name, and because I don't want a bad credit rating I have had to pay it all. What are my chances of winning in Small Claims Court? Usually I wouldn't care about such a small amount of money but Chelsea has turned rather nasty and I want to know if there is anything I can do to claim my money back? (I know there are fees to pay but I want her to know that she can't treat people like this).

After reading the thread, I think your chances of winning in Small Claims are pretty good, particularly if another of your house mates (who HAS been paying his share) could give evidence about the arrangement and what all the tenants agreed with you. On court fees: note that if you have not yet started work and so are receiving benefits or even on a low income then you are exempt from these fees, but only if you start the process at your local court rather than using MoneyClaimOnLine..

AdaF

Exodi wrote: »

You only hear one side of the story and all that so for completeness, when you say:


It leaves a big grey area that probably needs some clarification as to what not 'living there for a while' means. If, for example, she hadn't step foot in the property for most of the year, I would take her side that it's certainly not reasonable that you expect her to pay 1/X of the electricity/gas/water/internet usage of the people actively using the services.

Then if we disregard the 'moral' aspect and focus on the 'legal' aspect - bluntly, all the bills are in your sole name.

Whether deliberately or not, you've also seemed to miss people asking how much the sum is? It's not single/double digits is it?

EDIT:



This is along my line of thinking...

I have also requested that she just contributes to her share of the standing charge which she is also refusing. She has happily paid all the bills this year and has paid Wi-fi costs also - its just the last few months when she has decided to pick and choose what bills she wants to pay. The way she has spoken to me is awful and I just want her to know that she can't act like it.