Troublesome lodger

SerenaGoode

spirit wrote: »

So, I would prefer not to read any more slurs on my character please from people who know nothing about me.

Sorry if it comes across that way, but the great thing about internet forums is that people will give you honest answers...

spirit wrote: »

Debtfreechick and others are right. I asked a series of questions to get people's views for which I have thanked you all. If I didn't care then wouldn't I just have gone ahead and done whatever anyway?

...I don't know. My feeling is that you were looking for validation for your proposal of keeping the deposit, so you were happy to listen to anyone who went along with that, but not with anyone who suggested it was morally (and legally) wrong to do so. Also in the course of defending that proposal you've revealed that you also failed to respect the privacy of your lodger.

I'm not the only one to regard both this and the proposal to keep the deposit to be simply wrong. It's up to you whether you listen to that message or not.

jamesd

SerenaGoode, it's not so much the privacy of the lodger as them having a right to quiet enjoyment of the room they are renting and her breaching that right. Doing so is harassment of the tenant. That's particularly unwise when trying to get rid of a tenant because it gives the tenant grounds to obtain orders to both stop the harassment and the attempted eviction. Harassing tenants you want gone is really bad news for a landlord if the courts get to hear of it.

It'll be a moot point here, unless the tenant is unhappy enough to seek compensation via the courts, which seems unlikely to happen - not worth the bother usually. But if the tenant hadn't found an alternative place, getting the tenant evicted would have become significantly more difficult.

It'll also impact any attempt to get money out of the tenant if that goes to the courts, since the tenant can counter-claim for the harassment.

Harassing of tenants isn't a moral thing of course - simply what the law says is and isn't harassment regardless of whether it's morally right or wrong to act as she has done. The two don't always agree.

SerenaGoode

jamesd wrote: »

Harassing of tenants isn't a moral thing of course - simply what the law says is and isn't harassment regardless of whether it's morally right or wrong to act as she has done. The two don't always agree.

OK, I'd say it's a moral and legal issue. The legal issue is about harrassment and the definition of 'quiet enjoyment'. The moral issue is about privacy. Every place I've shard a living space it has been the explicit or implicit rule that you don't go poking around in other people's rooms, in fact you don't go in at all without an invitation.

happyharry1

I have a lodger who after 10 months of good relations has got nearly 2 months behind on the rent, caused probably by her expensive holiday at Christmas. Keeps saying her 'posh' parents will pay on her behalf, but now I'm behind on the mortgage, her 12 month licence is up, and shes's in denial that anythings wrong.
How much notice do I have to give - sh'es not taking me seriously that I want her to pay up or leave straight away so I can re-let the room.

jamesd

You have to give "reasonable" notice.

If she's paying monthly reasonable would be something like a month's notice given on a rent day, though two months is more certainly reasonable since it is what's required for an assured shorthold tenancy.

itsgototstop

happyharry1 wrote: »

I have a lodger who after 10 months of good relations has got nearly 2 months behind on the rent, caused probably by her expensive holiday at Christmas. Keeps saying her 'posh' parents will pay on her behalf, but now I'm behind on the mortgage, her 12 month licence is up, and shes's in denial that anythings wrong.
How much notice do I have to give - sh'es not taking me seriously that I want her to pay up or leave straight away so I can re-let the room.

If she is a lodger then the notice period is up to you, can you use her deposit as one months rent and give her a weeks notice for failing to pay?.

If you are behind with the mortgage you need her out and a new lodger in IMO.

jamesd

itsgototstop, one week's notice is not going to meet the reasonableness requirement.

It's also unlikely that the lodger could find another place in that time so it's more likely that the lodger would decide to wait to be taken to court for eviction proceedings.

itsgototstop

jamesd wrote: »

itsgototstop, one week's notice is not going to meet the reasonableness requirement.

It's also unlikely that the lodger could find another place in that time so it's more likely that the lodger would decide to wait to be taken to court for eviction proceedings.

But a lodger in your own home does not need to be evicted do they?

speedbird1973

If they have an agreement to say "1 months notice" then if you serve them a months notice and they choose to move before then you can legally expect the rent from them.. whether it's morally agreeable or not isn't my call.

In my mind he's disrepected your wishes, so why on earth shouldn't you poke around his room to see if he's complying with your wishes.. he's the aggressor not you!

I would guess most of the critics on here are either lodgers themselves or at the least they don't own their own lodger.

As for their rights.. it's been covered.. they have none. Eviction proceedings aren't required.. turf them out on the street and change the locks.. job done.]

(ok ok I'm exaggerating) but i have a lodger.. he has no respect for my rules, and they're not very taxing.. not enough to warrant turfing him out, but i do sympathise.

itsgototstop

Yes I too have a lodger but touch wood she is fine, I don't go in her room but if she was smoking in there after being told it was a non smoking house I don't know what I would do...

After 2 months no rent I would be quite brassed off to be honet