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.

Can you airbnb a kitchen?

The other threads (assuming it's the same woman) make no sense.

She's apparently living in a lovely semi detached house which seemingly is also 1 bed and tiny. She's a teacher, obsessed with designer shoes and has been single for a long time (but was considering buying a wedding dress). It's hard to see how the sad event of a stillbirth fits into this, though obviously single doesn't necessarily mean celibate.

I think there's a lot more going on here. I'm just not sure what

Either way, this living arrangement was awful, potentially exploitative (on the lodger!) and everyone involved seems a bit bonkers if I'm honest.

I don't understand the texting either. Op also said regarding the energy bill 'maybe she left the heating on all night', how would the op not know that's what she was doing if they live in the same home? There's something not right.

Because she's asleep upstairs and electric heaters are silent?

With regards to electric showers, 10kW is a fairly standard output. That would cost £2.64 an hour to run on my standard variable tariff, So £75 per month or £300 per quarter based upon hour long showers every day.

If the bill has jumped from £700 per quarter to £1000 per quarter, that could be the culprit.

OP said it was the gas bill.

Well done finding this - I actually remember so many of these threads from OP as they were so utterly bizarre.

This poor lodger. No one should be forced to live like this (as described in previous post from OP) and be blackmailed into paying extortionate lodger fees to sleep in a kitchen. A small kitchen.

and the consistencies in the OPs story show how vulnerable this lodger is - in my mind, it is effectively stealing to keep a deposit for an unknown bill (electric? Gas? OP has continually changed her mind) that is in dispute and with no evidence it was related to lodger.

OP has clearly benefitted from the lack of formal agreement (tax evasion? Avoidance of losing council tax single occupancy reduction?) who knows…

The very bizarre stories across all her posts making little sense (looking at wedding dresses whilst ‘eternally single, being a teacher yet judging a child in ikea, being a landlord on multiple properties ….

Overall very much seems to be taking advantage of a foreign lady… shocking. And far from the picture she tried to make out in her first posts.

The lodger is being intimidated (male coming over, saying deposit will be returned by saying on here it won’t be etc) and that can never be ok.

poor poor lodger. I do hope she is able to get her money back (previous post from OP says bills included in the insane rates - saying that as a Londoner..).

(for what it’s worth, I am not an ‘anti landlord’ person and have zero skin in this game….. just do not believe vulnerable people should be taken advantage of.

I couldn't agree more. It's someone's home. If you have decided to go the "lodger route". Have a disagreement on utilities and then argue with both the utility company and the lodger then decide 24-48 notice is appalling.

I think you can air b and b any room, you might get more with a kitchen though

But then your sharing a kitchen with someone you don’t know.

That's not what a deposit is for. She can wait. Don't give in as she may be trying to escape for paying for something.

Something needs to change in this country. It cannot be right that you can kick someone out with just 24h notice, while also retaining their deposit for a while after.
Landlords essentially have the power to make somebody homeless and to me that is ethically wrong.
If the deposit is one month, then the notice should be one month.

You'd share the kitchen and bathroom while the person/couple stayed but my point was that it can be short term and occasional, not like having a lodger who has moved in permanently. An air b'n'b guest would normally be there having a holiday so would only be using the facilities night and morning and be out and about during the day. It wouldn't be all the time, just enough to make some cash to help with the bills and the payment is guaranteed. Lots of people do that.

It was just a thought, largely depends on where the op lives of course. If, for example, she is in the London area close to good transport links it would be easy, and quite lucrative. Easy to stop doing it too, no hassle with getting rid of an unwanted lodger.

The other possibility is Mon-Friday lodgings for someone working on contract in the area.

I've now read the original thread and it is more bizarre than ever.

The house is unsuitable for a permanent lodger.

The op is not comfortable living alone but that really needs to be worked on, there are times when everyone will be alone, it's life.

Gas!

A lot of people have joint gas and electricity bills. I did before moving, with EDF - and they got it wrong! I had to have a new meter and received a refund - then that was wrong. I moved over a year ago and EDF are still sorting it out :-).

I'm interested to know how the op is getting on, if the lodger has gone and what is happening but have a feeling she won't be back. It certainly was a bizarre story.

🤣

So on this thread a lot of posters keep saying electric instead of gas. On another thread (landlady) everyone is saying gas when it’s only electric.

Freaking bizarro place!

There was a since deleted update thread. No idea if it was real, might all be bullshit (probably is). But apparently op changed the locks lodger was escorted away by police and OP was enlisting the help of several friends to move her hoard of designer clothes from the kitchen bedroom.

Yep, sounds like bullshit to me.

She’s on Reddit too with the same thread.

I immediately went to look 😂 she's also posted about her mum apparently racking up a £10k energy debt in her name. A little flexible with the truth at best I think... op seems nuts with an aversion to utility bills.

Is it an attention seeking thing?

Ah, is this the same poster where Octopus had her mums name owing £1000s on an account at her address? I couldn’t fathom the whys & wherefores on that one and thread has since been deleted (but can’t see why).

It could be a British Gas bill for electric.

Oh do share the link.