Should I Contact My Landlord About New Tenants Behaviour?

max life

GMI101 wrote: »

Double bed but advertised and rented for single occupancy.

Have you mentioned to her about him staying over? Is the other tenant that shares with you thinking about moving out as well?

Pkiernan

Pkiernan wrote: »

Here come the reducto ad absurdium posts.

Of course the boyfriend can be told to gtfo

please do tell how he can be kicked out when he remains an invited guest of one of the legal tenants? A tenant that enjoys equal posession?

and what action should be taken when he refuses?

GMI101

So, as I suspected, the landlord seems to have just kicked the can down the road with this house rules business. He's more or less confirmed he's not considering looking at an eviction now.

I managed to put in a few additional pieces about overnight guests and observing COVID-19 restrictions, but in reality I can't see anything changing nor the landlord taking action on it. From what I can see he's basically just washed his hands of it now.

So basically it looks like I'm going to have to find a new place to live now. I'm not even sure how to go about that in level 5. Is moving house deemed essential? It doesn't appear to be covered on the list of travel restriction exemptions.

mel123

Its absolutely sucks OP, i wouldnt go back sharing even if it was free, ive had my time! But this is what can happen with house shares. Sometimes you land on your feet with house mates, and sometimes you don't. Surprised the landlord doesn't mind people smoking in their house or the ware and tear to the house of the extra house guest for no extra income.

FYI, moving house is essential, however im not sure about viewings at the moment.

GMI101

mel123 wrote: »

Its absolutely sucks OP, i wouldnt go back sharing even if it was free, ive had my time! But this is what can happen with house shares. Sometimes you land on your feet with house mates, and sometimes you don't. Surprised the landlord doesn't mind people smoking in their house or the ware and tear to the house of the extra house guest for no extra income.

FYI, moving house is essential, however im not sure about viewings at the moment.

Very disappointing but that's life I suppose. I guess I've been pretty fortunate over the past few years having had good housemates up until this point.

Also disappointing is there seems to be very little available at the moment that would suit (I kinda need a decent sized bedroom as I work from home 50% of the time, but also somewhere relatively close to work so I can be onsite when I'm called in the other 50%). Even one bed apartments/bedsits are like hens teeth and the ones I've seen online charge a small fortune for very very little.

max life

Is your other flatmate looking to move out as well?

fatbhoy

That's an awful situation to be in, OPer. On the plus side, it might be easy to find somewhere else, because from what I hear regarding the house-share market, there are a lot of vacancies, and they're difficult to fill. Good luck with whatever path you take.

Pkiernan

Pay 1/3rd less rent and see how your landlord responds.

Landlords can't even serve notices of eviction until 5 weeks from now, and it could take hime a year to get you out.

The landlord has unilaterally changes the tenancy by allowing an additional tenant so I wouldn't put up with it.

GMI101

max life wrote: »

Is your other flatmate looking to move out as well?

Not sure - he had mentioned it before but that may have been before he thought it was actually a real possibility!!!!

GMI101

fatbhoy wrote: »

That's an awful situation to be in, OPer. On the plus side, it might be easy to find somewhere else, because from what I hear regarding the house-share market, there are a lot of vacancies, and they're difficult to fill. Good luck with whatever path you take.

Thank you but from looking at daft for the past couple of days there's a lot of decent maybes but nothing that fully suits. It appears if I want something similar to what I have now, I'm gonna have to pay a lot more for it.

GMI101

Pkiernan wrote: »

Pay 1/3rd less rent and see how your landlord responds.

Landlords can't even serve notices of eviction until 5 weeks from now, and it could take hime a year to get you out.

The landlord has unilaterally changes the tenancy by allowing an additional tenant so I wouldn't put up with it.

I don't think the end result would be worth it really. At best I'll just end up losing a reference for a place I've been in for over three years. It's a little heartbreaking but I think the only option is to pack up and leave.

... though I'll consider loosening the u-bend under the sink in the kitchen before I leave as one last act of pettiness!!

Purple Mountain

OP, forgive my harshness but you need to man up here.
You and the other tenant have been there long term and seem to be happy there before she came along.
Is this how you deal with conflict normally? Run away from it?
Call a house meeting (with the 3 who pay rent, not the bf).
Tell her that she's in breach of what she signed up for ie. single occupancy and say that you and housemate are willing to accept bf stays X number of nights per week. And the same applies to you and other housemate should you get a partner.
She seems to have made an effort with the smoking and having visitors so why can't you address this with her?
You don't have to disclose that you spoke with ll already so if you lay it out to her that she's in breach of what she agreed with the ll she might worry you'll get in touch with him.
Explain that it's a single occupancy room, bills are split 3 way and if she wants the bf to live there, she'd have to contact the ll, he'd have to pay rent and bills.
Tell her you appreciate that she stopped smoking in the house and apologised for moving your stuff and you'd like a guarantee that none of the 3 of you will have visitors under current lockdown.
You're really jumping the gun with looking to move out and you'll come across conflict with other house mates or work colleagues so best to try deal with a situation now to get experience for next time!

kravmaga

OP, you have been given very good advice on how to handle the situation.

However you appear to be taking the easy route by leaving.

You need to deal with this head on.

If you dont , then that means your new flatmate and her boyfriend have won and totally taking the p1ss.

We all have battles to take on in life, you may not win them all, this is one you need to face and deal with.

Good luck..

max life

I think your landlord is being unfair by not dealing with this. It's in his interests as well as yours to sort out the issues

GMI101

GMI101 wrote: »

Not sure - he had mentioned it before but that may have been before he thought it was actually a real possibility!!!!

Could you ask your current housemate that you've shared with for some time, if they'd consider the two of you leaving and renting a 2 bed place between you?

It might be a bit more expensive, but at least you know you'll get on.

That might shake up your current landlord, too, if he is losing two long term tenants because he won't deal with one new one.

Dial Hard

All of Purple Mountain's advice is excellent, the only thing I'd say is don't even put the option of him paying rent or a share of the bills on the table, all that does is legitimises his position if they accept. He moves out, end of.

Seriously, OP, it's time to grow a spine and for you and the other tenant to put on a united front. I genuinely have no idea why you would consider moving out before you've both even spoken properly to the woman.

Chrisam

GMI101 wrote: »

Very disappointing but that's life I suppose. I guess I've been pretty fortunate over the past few years having had good housemates up until this point.

Also disappointing is there seems to be very little available at the moment that would suit (I kinda need a decent sized bedroom as I work from home 50% of the time, but also somewhere relatively close to work so I can be onsite when I'm called in the other 50%). Even one bed apartments/bedsits are like hens teeth and the ones I've seen online charge a small fortune for very very little.

I'm really surprised that you've gone from wanting the new tenant to go/change, to considering moving yourself. It would appear from the thread that you've been happy in your home up til now. What does your existing flatmate think of it all? Is there a way to make the new tenant fit better (ground rules sound like a good start)? A week is no time to have thrown in the towel yourself!

JoChervil

Dial Hard wrote: »

All of Purple Mountain's advice is excellent, the only thing I'd say is don't even put the option of him paying rent or a share of the bills on the table, all that does is legitimises his position if they accept. He moves out, end of.

Seriously, OP, it's time to grow a spine and for you and the other tenant to put on a united front. I genuinely have no idea why you would consider moving out before you've both even spoken properly to the woman.

I fully agree with it. As you've mentioned before there is one free bedroom now. So he can take this room, pay rent and bills. Because otherwise you will end up with 5 people living in the house with 1 bathroom instead of 4.

Leaving is the last option, which will stay open for you. I would keep an eye on Daft in case you will have to move out eventually. But then you will well know, what is available out there. So you will easier choose.

If you leave without a fight, you will feel defeated. It is not worth it. Give it a good try first.

riclad

You should look at your tenancy agreement,
Is there not a rule against subletting,
Eg that woman maybe a tenant she has No
right to move in a boyfriend unless he, s on the tenancy agreement and she has permission from the landlord especially in the time of covid.
Does the landlord care or know how bad it is
in the house,
I would say he can stay x no of days a week, keep the noise down,
No random friends or visitors allowed

JustAThought

OP - it seems that you gave an ultimatum thinking your LL would evict the new flatmates and have convinced yourself that as you have ‘lost’ you are now going to move despite whatever inconvenience to yourself and your comfort. You will have these problems to a greater or lesser degree anywhere you share - only with possibly less financial convenience and comfort to yourself. If the teething problems with noise and smoking have been ironed out then perhaps you could consider drawing your horns in and accepting the change and the inconvenience of compromise. Your initial posts demanding that the be evicted and wanting the details of how you could throw these new people out on the street without a confab or house meeting were really shocking. I’m sure you wouldn’t like to be treated this way yourself when you move in somewhere new and bang around a bit and have a few people over to help you carry stuff and make you feel welcome. How would you like it ? It dosn’t speak well for kindness or negotiation or communication or basic compassion.

MrsBean

Completely unreasonable to infer that OP came on here 'demanding they be evicted'. OP came on here looking for advice about the situation, asking if she was within her rights to approach the LL about terminating the tenancy and nearly every other poster replied with 'get rid of her' or something to that effect.

Let's be clear, the new housemate was in the wrong here, and having a go at OP does not help her.

OP, I can understand you're probably feeling a bit defeated with the situation. Best case scenario for you I guess was the LL was going to take everything you said at face value and just tell the new housemate to pack her things? But that was never really going to happen, eviction ban and all that. Even though she's in the wrong, she still needs the opportunity to rectify the situation, and she can only do that if she has been informed of what's expected of her as a tenant in the household. I think both you, your other housemate and the LL all have some level of responsibility to do that. Some of that has already happened, but the full extent of the issues have not been disclosed to her.

By all means, have a look at what your options for moving are, maybe you'll find somewhere that suits. It's tough in the rental market but you do find some gems if you look hard enough. This isn't a matter of life or death so you have time to see what's available and make your mind up.

In the meantime, you will still need to have a frank conversation with your housemates so that you can live in relative harmony. I get it, I've house shared with my fair share of inconsiderate people before, and she came in like a bull in a china shop and it's after upsetting your home environment. All the things you've mentioned I've also experienced; smoking in non smoking gaff, unannounced guests overstaying their non-existent welcomes, moving my bike out the back, moving my kitchen stuff off the counter and putting it in the press!! I've also had to be the one to force everyone to sit down and have that uncomfortable conversation about what is and isn't acceptable in a shared living space. If it's not done, or people aren't gently reminded when they're being a bit inconsiderate, resentments build and your home life becomes poisoned by toxicity, which is ultimately more stressful.

MrsBean

On second thought, just show her this thread. :pac:

JustAThought

MrsBean wrote: »

On second thought, just show her this thread. :pac:

Y - and the can count the amount of times in the forst few questions asked by the OP n how she can quickly have them evicted,
see the OP’s disappointment at learning they will have 29 days before she can have them thrown out, and read on and on about how she tried to deal them a bad hand behind their backs while they were cleaning the house, hoovering the common areas, buying logs and briquettes for the fires in the common rooms, apologising for moving her bike from the hall and generally making an effort. They’ll have a fair idea of what they are sharing with then and the sneeky militant
mindset where share is the last thing on the agenda. I hope noone ever
treats her as badly as she tried to treat
them. Agreed they shouldn’t smoke - or make noise at night - but when someone moves in there is always a disruption phase and negotiating or explaining the house rules - not bitching about them behind their backs to the ll without even speaking on the issues to them and ferreting about trying to have them summarily thrown out.
Nasty.

JustAThought

JustAThought wrote: »

OP - it seems that you gave an ultimatum thinking your LL would evict the new flatmates and have convinced yourself that as you have ‘lost’ you are now going to move despite whatever inconvenience to yourself and your comfort.

Not new flatmates.

One new flatmate - singular - who has had her freeloading boyfriend stay overnight every night since she moved in.

He is not an official flatmate.

riclad

This is a common problem, woman moves in, as a tenant, her boyfriend moves in as an flatmate who pays no rent,
That's why most tenancy agreements have a clause no subletting no person can live in the house apart from the person's named on the agreement
There's no easy solution here
It sounds as if you will find it hard to find a new place
for the same price as where you live now that's close to where you work

max life

Is there any update OP?

TCP/IP_King

1 - send a (written) letter to your LL to say there is a sublet
2 - offer your opinion there is a risk due to the additional unauthorised sublet
3 - state that you are taking no responsibility for the sublet in the event of an insurance claim
4 - post a copy of the letter to the PRTB