Problem With Housemate - What Can We Do?

dodgystuff

Myself and one of my friends (23 & 24 year olds, 1 male, 1 female) moved in to a house recently. It's a house share in a four bedroom house so we knew we wouldn't know who we were going to be living with.

There was already one tenant before we moved in, a guy around our age, early to mid 20s, he's rarely there but we get on fine with him and it turns out we have mutual friends.

This meant there was still one spare room. People were viewing it and they all seemed our age and all seemed friendly.

I was at home last week and the woman who had shown us around the house arrived saying she was dropping off a key for a guy who was renting the last room.

He walks in and it turns out he owns the Kebab place across the road, looks about late 30's - early 40's. Immediately I was questioning it a bit, mainly because of the obvious age gap between him and the rest of us in the house. I took it with a pinch of salt and said we'd get used to it.

On the Saturday morning, after his first night staying there, this new guy and his girlfriend were having extremely loud sex. I'm no prude but there was little to no consideration for other people in the house, with one of the guys who's in the room across from them getting out of the house for a while.

Later on that day, he was working in his take away but his girlfriend was freely walking in and out of the house to do washing and bits and pieces as if she was living there. (The ad for the rooms stated no couples.)

A couple of days ago I was at home on my own and heard the girlfriend come in and go upstairs with what sounded like another person. A few minutes later she came down and asked me for the WiFi password and went back upstairs. A few minutes later there was a knock on the kitchen door, I opened it and a little girl who looked about 6 or 7 was standing there saying her mommy's game doesn't work on the iPad because she can't connect to the WiFi. I fixed it for her as she's innocent in this situation and she ran back upstairs. They stayed between the room and the take away until about 12:30-1am and left.

Last night I was in my room and heard the girlfriend come in with her daughter again, this time the daughter was screaming the house down and the girlfriend was shouting back at her. This continued for a while in their room. Soon after I heard someone come downstairs and the door closing. I looked out the window and saw the girlfriend walking into the take away on her own to the guy who's renting the room and continued to work in the take away meaning she's leaving the little girl upstairs in the room on her own.

God forbid there was a fire in the house and none of the rest of us knew the child was upstairs or if anything happened to her while she was on her own, we would be responsible for the child.

The girlfriend came back about 1am and stayed there with the daughter last night without the guy who is meant to be the one renting the room.

We're on the verge of calling our landlord but we've never dealt with this kind of situation before so we're wondering what can we say to the landlord and what can the landlord do in this case?

Sorry about the long-winded story! Any advice would be great! Thanks in advance.

tinkerbell

Call the landlord.

jon1981

Man, that's an unreal situation. Landlord, ASAP!!!

Easy choice for he/she, look for 1 tenant or 3 (when you all move out) and good luck trying to get anyone willing to move into the house under those circumstances. Effectively you have 2 freeloaders staying there (no disrespect to the kid).

Mrs OBumble

Yes, call the landlord.

But also, as a citizen, if you become aware of a situation where a child has been left home-alone, aren't you supposed to call the guards?

spaceHopper

The obviously have somewhere else to live and are using it as a place to say / keep the kid close so they can both work. Has he moved in much clothes....

Call the landlord and tell them to sort it, if they don't tell him that you aren't going to baby sit for him and that as x's sister works in social services you won't be able to keep it from them... or just tell him you'll call social services your self.

Mrs OBumble

I'd also be confronting the the housemate about it as it would annoy me too much not to bring it up with them.

I'd be telling them that no one can enter the house without him being present and that visitors should not be staying there regularly as the room is for one person and it's a 4 person house not a 5 or 6 person house. I'd also tell him that visitors should not be using facilities in the house such as the washing machine, cooker etc and I'd change the internet code and refuse to give it to the woman or child.

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

But also, as a citizen, if you become aware of a situation where a child has been left home-alone, aren't you supposed to call the guards?

Wonder does it count as being home alone though when other people are in the house?

conorhal

The 3 golden rules about flatmates with partners or visitors needs to be impressed on the guy.

1) If you're not there, they're not there.
2) Nobody who's name is not on the lease should have a key, no exceptions.
3) Visitors are like fish, after 3 days they begin to stink and need to be thrown out.

Mrs OBumble

Mikayla Low Hockey wrote: »

Wonder does it count as being home alone though when other people are in the house?

That's for the child-protection experts to work out.

Actually, whether it's a problem or not is for the experts to work out (depends on the age of the kid).

As a citizen, simply make the call if you're in doubt, and let the experts do the rest. Same as for any other potential crime that you think you're seeing.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Yeah you'd want to be a bit careful with children on their own in a house, particularly if you are the only adult there at certain times. Potentially leaving yourself open for all kinds of allegations. I know maybe a bit alarmist but you can't be too cautious here.

Wheelsonthebus

Wait til they are both over working in the kebab place.

Call in an order of a donor kebab & chips to be delivered over to the child.

Larbre34

Immediate phone call to the LL, followed immediately after by a written notification of what is taking place, signed by everyone else, email or letter as necessary.

You are not required to put up with this a day longer.

Mezamo

Inform the landlord/letting agency of the situation and don't as some previous posters have suggested confront the guy yourself, let the landlord deal with it. I was in a similar situation to you years ago and confronted the person which resulted in a physical row so take it from me don't get involved directly!

Mezamo

Mezamo wrote: »

Inform the landlord/letting agency of the situation and don't as some previous posters have suggested confront the guy yourself, let the landlord deal with it. I was in a similar situation to you years ago and confronted the person which resulted in a physical row so take it from me don't get involved directly!

I just couldn't let it slide without letting the person know how out of order they are, even if it resulted in a physical row.

tipptom

Mikayla Low Hockey wrote: »

I just couldn't let it slide without letting the person know how out of order they are, even if it resulted in a physical row.

MM,they use big sharp knives for slicing them kebabs you know.

charlietheminxx

I just don't understand how people can carry on like yer man, it's so disrespectful! Hopefully you'll get a nice new housemate soon OP.

dodgystuff

Good news! He's been kicked out!

Myself and another housemate got on to our landlord. Turns out my housemate went to go take a shower the other day, walked into the bathroom and the little girl was sitting on the toilet, so that was the last straw for him. Crazy stuff!

Hopefully the next person will be normal haha!