Sister stole her flatmate’s deposit

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4926411-my-previous-housemate-has-blocked-me-i-have-reason-to-believe-its-because-she-has-my-deposit

I just read all your posts. Your sister is using excuses to feel entitled to all the money. That is wrong.

@thesummerIturnedtoredbull Nonsense. I'm also foreign with English as a second language and am certainly not being xenophobic. It's the OP who has been very defensive, dismissive, and crying racism just because people are confused about exactly what amount of money she's talking about.

In fact, if anyone is being xenophobic it's the OP. She's contemptuous of the flatmate struggling with the taps, but taps do actually work differently in different countries. I was so confused the first time I came across the two separate hot and cold taps in an English BnB.

Yes she has
She lied to the landlord and told him the girl had shut down her bank account and the landlord transferred both deposits in FULL to OP sister.

Drip feed was sister getting 2400 from LL.

No you absolutely don't. This is ALL on your sister. Do not be drawn in.

At the end of the day, no one can make your sister do anything, except a court of law. All you can do is tell her "look sis, I think you did the wrong thing, it's stealing, you should do the right thing and give the money back". Either she takes your advice or she doesn't, but that's your job done. I'm not talking about moral responsibility here, I'm talking about what is physically possible. It is not physically possible to force your sister to do anything, so stop trying. You will have more peace when you do. The same goes for your parents.

To be quite honest, if she was my sister, I think I'd be telling her well done, because morally the money is hers, since her flatmate cost her money from the damage the flatmate caused to the house. But whatever, I realise a lot of people's sense of morality is more tied to the letter of the law, which is fair enough, so my initial point still stands. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

The flatmate could take your sister to court. But it sounds like she probably won't. Maybe your sister could defend herself with the fact that the flatmate caused her a financial loss, idk, I'm not a lawyer. But either way, it's her problem to deal with.

Block her. It’s nothing to do with you.

Don’t be silly, a university student in the UK is required to speak English to a certain level, except for language courses, I would assume.

OP, has already posted her sister believes the flatmate is not organised enough to pursue this herself, and it is the PARENTS of said flatmate who speak only Mandarin.

It’s also pretty common for those learning a language to be taught the rudest words first, especially for young students.

The lack of reading comprehension in this thread is one thing, but the rudeness and patronisation from those who barely understand written English themselves, is at once amusing and cringe worthy.

I would send flatmate one message- this is nothing to do with me contact my sister, then block. I would tell your parents also, this is nothing to do with me, I have told her she’s in the wrong, there’s nothing more I can do. You don’t have a moral obligation because of someone else’s behaviour. Don’t allow people to triangulate you.

She did steal it. The full deposit was returned. Nothing was kept back for the damage.

Your sisters a thief
The flatmates a pig
It's none of your business, block the flat mate, never trust your sister with money.

She didn't steal it. The deposit covered damage the other flatmate did to the flat. Your sister is entitled to keep the remainder.

You do realise that if flatmates parents were rich enough to send her to study in the UK, they're rich enough to pay English speaking lawyers to sort the mess out?
I'm sure the girl speaks English otherwise how did she study here? Did you sister go to some sort of degree mill?
However it would still cost more than the 1.2K.
Tell your parents there's nothing you can do. End of story.

Has she really stolen money? The other girl kept her room in a condition, it required carpet changing, etc.

Stay out of it.

Or your inability to give the full facts until your 8th post after initially mentioning an irrelevant £400

If the girl only speaks mandarin, “cum towel” was an impressive colloquialism to have picked up.

Do nothing. Not your problem.

Then you're done.

You can't have a moral obligation to do something whilst also not having the power to do it. Giving your sister your opinion, which she is free to ignore, is as much as she can do here.

By the way, if girl only speaks Mandarin how did she navigate UK and how is she sending you messages?

@GingerScallop I was confused by this also.

@saraclara I’m aware of that.

But in the end, your sister wasn't out-of-pocket for the mess the flatmate left behind. However horrible the shared tenancy business was, in the end both deposits were returned.
So yes, she absolutely should have returned the £1200 and had absolutely no business donating that money to someone else, masquerading as some sort of benevolent angel, when the money wasn't hers to give.

No, you don't