Lodgers irritating me

The insane heating! It is warm. There is cost of living crisis. You cannot have the heating at 25degrees!

Zombie ZOMBIE ZOMBIE.
Oh, FFS. Damn the ‘similar threads’ feature.
Zombie ZOMBIE ZOMBIE.

OK, well if they ‘appealed’ to you to move in because they couldn’t find another let, then you do have bargaining power.

I would explain that you set the price with the spring / summer weather in mind and a usual UK heating temperature of 21’, and that while you understand they like high heat, you will need to charge them a supplement if they put it higher.

I think you will have to grin and bear the rest of it.

AARGH!!! I fucking HATE MN for not locking threads over a year old!!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE will you finally lock threads that are over a year old?

Unless they are growing marijuana, there is no need for them to have the heating up at 26/27 degrees at the moment.

Have a word with them and perhaps mention that if your next electricity bill is higher than a similar period, you will be expecting them to contribute to these costs as they are the ones increasing the temperature not you.

Well, as this thread is over a year old, I'd imagine they're long gone by now 🤣

1- If you have the combi boiler then you can change the settings on the boiler to reduce the heating temperature and it wont go up than that no matter how much they try.
2- For the fish, ask them to ventilate the kitchen as the house is stinking up because of cooking. Nothing wrong in asking that. They know they live in a shared space and should be considerate.
3- Use your kitchen as you like. Kids need to get used to noises around them. I am a parent too and I believe that kids should adapt to our lives and not the other way round. We already make a lot of concessions for kids, doesn't mean we should tip toe around them.

If they kept the kitchen door closed the cooking smells wouldn't waft upstairs.

I completely get the heating thing, that's not acceptable. However telling people what they can and can't eat/ cook is not fair.

The only issue I see is the heating, everything else is just how they live and you can’t dictate what someone eats.

I’d talk to them about the heating, when I lived in a cold house I had it set at 23 (it never reached that as it wasn’t well insulated) but if you live in a fairly modern built house then I don’t see the need for the heating to even be on this time of year.

Explain to them that it’s too expensive and it needs to stay at 21 degrees or maybe meet in the middle at 23.

I have a three storey townhouse that sounds rather similar to yours in layout.

I have had lodgers on the ground floor as its its own self contained area. It also has the heating dial in the hallway near the front door so have had the same issue.

It's always much much cooler on the ground floor, even in summer, as the main staircase allows any heat to escape upwards. To actually get it warm on the bottom floor you have to have the heating quite high. Conversely, on the top floor it's hotter than the sun as all the heat that's being generated to try and warm up the bottom floor gathers in the hall and bedrooms at the top of the stairs.

We agreed the dial was off limits - I bought oil filled radiators for the ground floor and we also agreed when they were on the door to that room remained shut to keep the heat in situ.

I appreciate that this is not going to be a way forward for you as you only have a further 6 weeks but it may explain why they keep putting the heating up.

Are these lodgers from overseas? Because 27 degrees sounds cold to me because I live somewhere where 40+ is the norm! But if they are from UK, then from what I remember, 21 degrees, after the winter always felt pretty good! And the heating shouldn't be on that high anyway. You should definitely say something.

Regarding the fish, I'm not sure if you really can say anything, if you didn't tell them beforehand not to cook fish. But you should use your kitchen whenever you want! They need to understand* *that just as there are things that inconvenience you about sharing a house, they too will have to put up with inconveniences.

There won't be any money for her to spend MrsTerryPratchett if they keep use fuel like that!

To those saying Op should just use her kitchen, I don't think they've asked her not to, she just can't because then their LO wakes up and there's even more crying which she doesn't want.

The heating shouldn't be on in the middle of May anyway. WTF!

Our heating works by the temperature, not the calendar.

Ask them nicely if they could stop turning up the heating and cooking smelly food.

As for hiding in your room and not going in the kitchen at night, stop doing it and just carry on living your life. If they don’t like it they can go.

A cautionary tale about 'lodgers'. Check your house insurance covers tenants. If they are inconsiderate with the cooking and heating, they could also be less than careful in matters of locking doors or turning off the stove. My neighbour got into trouble with the local authority council tax department when she let a couple rent an upstairs portion of the house years ago. It had a bathroom and separate cooking area (mini-kitchen), but no locked front door defining it as a flat in my eyes. They were noisy awful tenants and they quietly applied for housing benefit at the address. A council tax inspector turned up asking questions, and somehow the house was deemed to be separate flats (even though it had a communal entrance). The tenants left owing loads of rent, and my neighbour is lumbered with two council tax bills.

You need to print off what this previous poster said and take it with you when you talk to them:

please keep the heating at 21 degrees, and wear jumpers if you are cold
please open your kitchen window if you are cooking fish
I will need to use my kitchen at these hours. I will be as quiet as possible, but I cannot live my life by your toddler's crying

Those are not unreasonable requests.
The heating shouldn't be on in the middle of May anyway. WTF!

Everyone saying "turn the boiler off" clearly doesn't have a combi boiler. You turn the boiler off, you have no hot water either

Yes, the same thought occurred to me

But after what OP's said I'm more interested in how they came to be there in the first place

Some people shouldn't be landlords. It's very difficult to share your space as well. People live their lives differently to each other. You only have to read a 'heating temperature' thread on here to see that.

If you never use the ground floor, do you know how cold it is typically? Because the bottom of my place is BITTER and I'm a person who likes windows open and fans on at night in the winter.

Suck it up and stop seeing it as a favour. You are being paid. Plan to spend the money on something nice for yourself.

You need to sit down and talk to them about all those things except the child crying which I am sure they would have stopped if they could. It sounds like you are being more considerate than they are which is always going to lead to resentment.

This. And you need to say:

• please keep the heating at 21 degrees, and wear jumpers if you are cold


• please open your kitchen window if you are cooking fish


• I will need to use my kitchen at these hours. I will be as quiet as possible, but I cannot live my life by your toddler's crying.

Are they paying a lodger's rent or a market rent? They may feel that because they are paying, they have the right to dictate your activities ...

Everyone saying "turn the boiler off" clearly doesn't have a combi boiler. You turn the boiler off, you have no hot water either.

But agree that 26/7 degrees is ridiculous, especially in May. That needs to be raised. Raise the heat with them, but the fish etc I think you're going to have to live with.

Get a calendar and cross off each day. Plan to clean and reclaim your house when they have gone. The heating needs to be mentioned . Sadly the fish thing is just other people's eating habits and you can't really police that.