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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Renting a room and landlord says no guests

114 replies

Beautywithalittleugly · 21/05/2018 01:12

I've been renting a room for three months now, today landlord asks for house meeting. He told me no one can stay over for the night not even DP or family. When I took the room I said I would have DP and family staying at times, he said it's fine. Now it's no one can stay they can only visit in the daytime.
I've been asking for a contract since I've moved in but I still don't have one.
AIBU to expect hime to stick to his word?
Also, when DP has stayed over there is no noise and we are completely respectful of everyone else in the house. Other house mates are up in arms about this.
I'm so frustrated I had to drop a few lines.

OP posts:
MissCharleyP · 22/05/2018 07:53

OP, I’d suggest looking on spareroom.com for a new place, most people set out the expectations/rules in their initial post. Also, ask specific questions next time, I know it’s difficult if you’ve no experience of lodging. Maybe your LL thought it would be an easy way to make extra money and thought he could handle three extra people in his house, I can understand why he wouldn’t want that to be six on even a semi-regular basis though. However, he should have made this clear from the start.

HopelessWithNumbers · 22/05/2018 07:59

Redirection of post isn’t instant though, it takes 5 working days (assuming you’re in the UK). You might have to make other arrangements for a week or so.

I don’t blame you for getting out.

ivykaty44 · 22/05/2018 15:14

Gwen, it’s not strange to rent a room and stipulate no over night guests. I’ve not got the space for one and I stipulate this at the beginning.

Having rules helps for a calm household as everyone knows what’s tolerated and what’s not.

If people don’t like the set up they don’t have to stay

Jonbb · 22/05/2018 15:27

HarryLovesDraco
Tenancy law overrides contracts. A lodger contract isn't a contract, it's a written agreement of expectations. Not legally binding for either party.

Not true. A contract is an agreement between two parties and is legally binding providing the usual criteria has been met, consideration and so forth. Where there is conflict between the contract and statutory law the statutory law will prevail, as you cannot contract out of your statutory rights or obligations.

Jonbb · 22/05/2018 15:33

It may also help to know that where the landlord lives in the property in which the lodger is also residing, the lodger has a bare license and as people have said, few rights regarding notice or protection from eviction.

Also the OP does have a contract, just not a written one. Therefore the landlord is attempting to unilaterally vary the contract which quite rightly the OP has objected to. As this was mentioned by the OP before she took the room and was obviously important to her so formed part of the contract, she can treat the changing of the terms of the agreement as a 'repudiatory breach' of the contract which basically means he has broken the contract, she isn't happy so is terminating it, usually without consequences to the terminator.

So no, you don't have to give a month's notice or be held to the verbal contract you had agreed, because he broke it first.

Seriousquestion09 · 22/05/2018 15:37

Sorry to hijack but is it unreasonable to charge lodgers small amount extra for overnight guests- a potential lodger wanted to have her boyfriend regularly for two nights a week and I advised as it is regular she would need to pay a small amount extra but not huge. She didn’t like it!

Original poster
Beautywithalittleugly · 22/05/2018 17:55

If i was asked to pay for the night Dp stayed I would have but there was no discussion. He just said no guest over night when I asked why he just said that was his final decision.

OP posts:
Original poster
Beautywithalittleugly · 22/05/2018 17:57

I have officially moved out now Grin. Been getting bombarded with abusive text messages from him.

OP posts:
SomeRandomGuy · 22/05/2018 18:09

This happened to me. An old Indian guy was letting rooms to students. I was a student at the time so I took the room with my girlfriend. But we failed to get any contract. He had us by the balls and he would often manipulate us into doing as he wanted or he would threaten us to leave.

We fought fire with fire though. One day he told us we have to find somewhere else and we had to be out by the morning because we wasn't able to cut the grass the weekend he wanted (was at a wedding).

I knew he hadn't secured our deposit and I knew we wasn't getting it back. There was no contract or proof to show we had the right to live there.

I picked up a macbook pro that belonged to him and took that instead. He didn't know the macbook pro was missing until 2 weeks later. Before he realised I asked for my deposit but every time I tried to contact him he ignored my calls and texts.

The day he realised his laptop was missing he called me and asked me to return it. I asked for my deposit and he insisted he used it to pay for professional cleaning of the whole house because we left it in a state. This was BS.

I explained that he can not call the police because he illegally rented his property and if he wants to go down that route I will gladly tell them all the things he wouldn't want the local university, tax man, or anyone else to know.

I didn't hear from him again.

SomeRandomGuy · 22/05/2018 18:10

FWIW I would have gave him the laptop back if he returned the deposit. The laptop was worth more than the deposit so I'm not sure why he didn't just do that in the first place.

pollymere · 22/05/2018 18:27

I truly hope you didn't leave him a cheque btw.

Winenot78 · 22/05/2018 18:48

This happened to me not long after I met my, now, Fiance. My landlady was fine at first with my DP coming round and, like you, we were always very respectful of the others and quiet, but after a few weeks she declared he couldn't stay the night anymore! When I complained she relented a little and said he could stay over night as long as it was no more than 3 nights a week (which it usually wasn't anyway) and we had to pay £7.50 per night for the privilege. I did have a contract and there was nothing in it about having no guests to stay so she wasn;t really able to enforce it.

Needless to say we didn't put up with her for long and we soon moved out and found a lovely flat to ourselves after finding out I was pregnant.

Without a contract unfortuantely there's little recourse as it's your word against his as to what was said when you moved in and, ultimately, it is his place. I'd try to find somewhere else if I were you x

ChocEggNoThanks · 22/05/2018 19:13

Hope you didn't leave him money for the full week. Also hope all his tenants move out on him this week. It might temper his greed.

Landlords like this get landlords a bad name. He sounds greedy and inexperienced. He will hopefully learn to be upfront with tenants and reasonable in his expectations.

For what it's worth I do think a live-in landlord has a right to request no overnight guests in their home but they need to be upfront and willing to be flexible for a long-term tenant.

manicmij · 22/05/2018 19:29

If you receive meals and the landlord also lives in the house you are a lodger. If no meals supplied you are probably in a house of multiple occupation. You should have a formal agreement if in a HIM. Your landlord is breaking the law if no agreement. If you have paid a deposit , and have a receipt you can basically walk away with no notice. May be a bit of hassle to get deposit back but landlord doesn't have a leg to stand on. This is based on being HOM.

Original poster
Beautywithalittleugly · 22/05/2018 19:37

I only left him what I owed for the amount of time I stayed.
No meals were supplied, he was eating everyone else's food without permission.
The other housemates will be out by next week, his gonna have a fit.

OP posts:
Treacletoots · 22/05/2018 20:31

Wow. What a complete fuckwit. You've done the right thing moving out quietly!

I used to rent a room out to help pay my mortgage during the divorce years. I had one great lodger and one not so great but I never really had an exception to occasional known guests, provided they behaved.

Glad you're out of the situation. Block the texting idiot

moreginrequired · 22/05/2018 20:41

I’d be texting him back informing him I’d be sending screenshot of his abusive messages to inland revenue as proof of renting 3+ rooms and likely contacting council as it seems he’s unlikely to be registered as a landlord. What a tool. Glad you’re out of there and and hope you find something lovely very soon Wine

Original poster
Beautywithalittleugly · 22/05/2018 21:29

DP messaged him back but in the end I blocked him. He said I was dirty b and I owe him his comp for not staying for the rest of the month.

OP posts:
sleep5 · 22/05/2018 21:32

Re inland revenue - you can receive £7500/year tax free from renting room(s) in your home under the rent a room scheme.

He sounds like an absolutely dire landlord.

angelfacecuti75 · 22/05/2018 22:30

I thought drop a few lines meant give him a piece of her mind... oh how naive I am !

ToftyAC · 22/05/2018 23:00

No contract? Get packed & gone. He’ll turn into the landlord from hell if he’s reneging already.

Original poster
Beautywithalittleugly · 22/05/2018 23:10

When I said drop a few lines, I meant express myself on here. Grin
No drug taking (that would be do some lines).

OP posts:
Original poster
Beautywithalittleugly · 22/05/2018 23:12

Anyway thanks a lot for the support and giving me other perspectives to take into account.

OP posts:
GabsAlot · 23/05/2018 00:16

my dsis moved in with a friend as a lodger-i know big mistake-she got funny about her partner coming over even though she already knew him kept changing rules turned off lights constantly said coldnt have washing on as it cost too muc

when my dsis gave her a months notice she went batshit saying it was 3 months-no contracts no agreement to notice

i told her to just leave and not pay but she did for the month then her friend badmouthed her all over sm

Justaboy · 23/05/2018 00:24

Its prat's like him who get most landlords a very bad name!.

Start looking for somewhere else if i were you. I'd never treat any of my tenants like that!.

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