Lodger freakout deposit IDKif i can do this anymore

[ForOliveTiger]

Lodger is insisting on deducting her deposit from this months rent before leaving the house. It's now incredibly awkward and I have to live with her for another 3-4 weeks.

We have been going round in circles for hours. She has run up a £1,000 British Gas bill by having 1 hour shower every night. I feel like she's trying to bully and intimidate me and I really don't feel comfortable with her in my home anymore. The fact she is so insistent makes me think there IS damage she doesn't want me to know about.

I have unreservedly reassured her I will refund her deposit but she won't have it.

Even if you can give a lodger one day's notice... Who does that?

In other European countries its a month, and rightly so.

You know owning a property and being a landlord isnt like running a hotel, right?

This is somebody's home we're talking about here.

You are making a person homeless.

Its disgusting.

This country needs massive law changes to protect tenants and lodgers from people who buy properties they cant afford and then exploit people even worse off than themselves to amass capital.

Read the full thread please

Confession time here but as a young person 20 years ago when I was stupid and immature I left my straighteners on and burned a mark in the carpet in my rented room which I covered up with a rug. LL offered to offset the deposit off the last months rent of course i said yes took the money and ran.
So never give the deposit back early LLs!

That’s abhorrent. You sound almost proud. Your age at the time doesn’t excuse you. Karma will make you pay it back in other ways.

😂

Pretty much as expected from someone like you. ‘I was young’, yeah right.

You sound angry.
I would suggest a nice cup of camomile tea.

How original. Someone who doesn’t give you the ‘lolz, go you’ response you were expecting isn’t automatically angry.

Which is it OP, you're giving back the deposit once she has moved out as per your assurances to her...or you're keeping it to cover the bill as per your messages here?

How do you have a lodger in a 1 up 1 down? Who sleeps where?

OP, do you actually have a written agreement, signed by you both, regarding the terms and conditions of this lodger living in your property and clearly defining the return or retainment of full or part of the deposit?

You've got a gas boiler from the sounds of it OP is purely electric. Electric boilers are a lot more expensive to run.

So you have a one up one down micro house that she’s paying over £600 plus bills a month to squash in with you? You’ve done well enough out of her to give her back her deposit regardless of the energy bill.

As others have said, the bill sounds insane so continue your dispute and you will hopefully get a refund soon.

Out of interest, have you checked if the lodger has the right to rent?

You don’t HAVE to do anything. I’ve had lodgers; they have ZERO rights.

Of course, it’s nice to be reasonable. But legally, you tell them to leave whenever you like.

Then don’t complain.

Its not "nice" to be reasonable, its basic human decency

Afraid not. She’s a lodger; not a tenant.

You need to probably email her rather than text her. As a lodger and without a contract there's no formal notice period.
You should attempt to be somewhat reasonable ie I dont think you can evict her on a same day basis.
I'd be writing with very clear simple instructions and do not get into back and forth conversation. I think a PP gave a good example but on the lines of "you owe me £500 for your share if the bills and £xxx for rent for this month. Please pay this by 4th of July. If it is not paid then you will need to leave the property on the 5th July. I will refund any remaining monies from your deposit."

If she replies just restate the same thing. You may need to accept that you will be out of pocket here as you will likely need to change the locks. And she may pursue you for the deposit, which is obviously not really a deposit as you've no formal agreement and therefore no agreement around sharing bills etc.
Personally I'd just be handing over most of the deposit back to her to get rid of the problem.

Maybe read the the bit about her being a lodger not a tenant so no deposit protection scheme required. No rights either.
If only the pp giving arsey answers could actually comprehend what they're reading instead of picking holes in every comment.

Dude - this is a lodger situation, not a house rental situation - they work entirely differently, you don't know what you are talking about.

A lodger living with you in your own house has pretty much no rights - no deposit scheme, they can be asked to leave at any time - it's more like a hotel situation, nothing like renting a whole home with all the tenant rules.

What's that meant to mean? She's intimidating you in your own home and you're letting it happen because you have a "heart"?

But…you are lying to her? You are saying you’ll return the deposit if there is no damage? But instead you intend to keep it to pay the bill? At the same time you’ve said on this very thread that you don’t believe the bill is accurate?
She clearly doesn’t trust you to be fair with her money and I can see why.

Perfectly reasonable. She's obviously not going to pay you the rest of the rent and is trying to pressure you into backing down. Change the locks when she leaves the house on the 10th and arrange to leave her stuff with her partner or somewhere.

It’s horrible for you OP and she sounds hard to deal with. But. Part of the problem is the muddle about the size of the bill and you aren’t in a strong position for keeping some of her deposit to cover half of it when the bill is being disputed. This isn’t her fault so it’s unsurprising that she’s scared and angry about losing her whole deposit.
In your position I would accept using the deposit as final rent payment an ask her for a modest contribution to the gas bill. You can’t make her pay more.

If you do not pay your rent for your final month on time in full, you will not be allowed to stay for that month. If you do not pay rent you are no longer a lodger. Your deposit is not rent and cannot be used for rent. It will be returned to you in full after you have moved out, unless there has been damage beyond nornal wear and tear. It is ridiculous to expect me to effectively give you back your deposit a month before you move out, when it is entirely possible you coukd cause damage during the process of moving out. Pay your rent or you will find yourself locked out of the house until rent is paid.

On the face of it, without further context, your position is reasonable.

But with more info, I can understand why she doesn't trust you:

1. You seem to have intentionally lied about returning her the deposit if the room is ok. You state in the thread that you actually intend to keep the deposit to pay for the bill.

1. The bill itself is in dispute, and if refunded, you'll keep the profit rather than return it to her.

1. You also say you'll return the deposit if the room is "immaculate" which is an impossible standard, which could be why she talks about usual wear and tear.