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.

From that conversation it sounds like you want to keep her deposit. As this is an informal arrangement I think you’re being quite aggressive. I feel sorry for her tbh.

She sounds intimidated and upset and you are basically bullying her for money when she’s moving out anyway.

I dont think your energy supplier is wrong!
keep the deposit.

😂

But you want peace.lodher leaves you have peace.

They rule the roost..
You tell them you need rent and will return deposit after they've buggered off.

Change the locks out of her deposit. She's an absolute chancer. Are you telling me she agreed to share bills then refused to pay her share?

ya

Tell her to leave this week. Infact id change locks and dump her stuff on the step. Use deposit to pay the bill

Assuming 10p per kWh for heating oil, and running the boiler at 20kW (around double the power of an instant electric shower), £500 would get you more than 8 hours of showering per day. Is that what he was doing?

No you use oil to heat hot water tank then use that for the shower. Same as immersion but oil powered

That’s rubbish. No domestic electric shower can use anywhere near £2.55 of electricity in 10 minutes.

Whether being heated on demand with a combi boiler, or drawn from a hot water cylinder, the energy consumed is much the same, for a given amount of hot water. So, £500 would still get you many hours of showering per day.

Google AI overviews are notoriously misinformative

In that case, email her now letting her know that for not paying rent she moves out tomorrow. Keep the deposit to pay her share of the unpaid bills (keep evidence). For her to try get this back she will have to take you to small claims court, if you can evidence that she hasn’t paid the rent/sent the bill money this justifies the keeping of the deposit. Stay home tomorrow or ask someone to house sit, get a new barrel for the door so that after 5pm or whatever time you give her until you can change the lock. I had to terminate a contract with a lodger in similar circumstances, she contacted me for the deposit and I replied with a breakdown of costs and refunded the difference, she told me she would take me to court and who her lawyer/solicitor was but nothing ever came of it. I looked and they are no win no fee so I’m assuming realised she was in the wrong.

It does read like you don't intend to give her the deposit back because of a utility bill that you simultaneously can't explain yet also blame your lodger for entirely.

Deposits are returned after the lodger leaves incase of any losses…. She hasn’t left yet but there are already losses!

I can’t check the calculation myself, but our boiler is iver 20 years old and at that time the oil was well over £1 per litre which would obviously have affected the cost. .

The lodger hasn't paid the last month's rent, so of course OP will be keeping the deposit in lieu of rent. The problem is the Lodger has refused to pay for her share of the bills, as agreed at move in. So now the OP has no deposit to use to pay her share of the bills.

OP absolutely is not being aggressive here, nor is she bullying the Lodger for money, she's clearly asking the Lodger to pay her rent and the bills owed which the Lodger is refusing to do.

Thankfully OP has had the sense to tell her to leave tomorrow. And hopefully OP will have the sense not to return any deposit as it will pay towards her bills that she refuses to pay. Good riddance!

It sounds like she knows you’re keeping the deposit so she’s possibly attempting to be clever and save herself some money on the rent.

If you live under the same roof surely you are aware already if there is any damage to date which would lose her the deposit? Or are you worried she will trash the place on her last day?

The bill issue unfortunately sounds like bad management on your part and should have been nipped in the bud way before her leaving date.

Google suggests that you need to issue 28 days notice for her to move out if she has no contract so no point doing this if she has agreed to leave on 20th.

It sounds as tho she has no money to pay anymore rent (or at least this is her story) so she might just stop paying you in which case she is going to get her own way as you will end up keeping the deposit to cover it and in the meantime you are unlikely to get a court order to evict her before she leaves.

Does she have any other asset she can use to cover the rent i.e: a TV etc?

Exactly! You sound pretty chaotic @ForOliveTiger so unfortunately some of this is of your own making.

How could this person have the heating on all night and you not know? It’s quite clear that even an “hour long” shower wouldn’t add a full £1k over 6 months to a small property. I doubt she was really showering for an hour either.

Get her out tomorrow by all means but refund the deposit if no damage less a reasonable amount for bills.

Then properly sort out a contract, a smart meter and some boundaries before you get another lodger.

no offence but can only landlords give direct advice because i dont have to give any notice xx

Oil is extremely inefficient and so are the boilers that use it, especially the older ones. That's why most people who are able to be connected to the gas pipeline upgraded to gas decades ago.

I think you're taking the piss tbh.

Most lodgers have bills included. Why are you monitoring her shower times?

Why are you saying you have a heart when you plan on sending your partner around to intimidate her?

If you're going to be a landlord at least have the balls to deal with your own lodgers properly

😂

I’m confused she’s your lodger so I guess you live there? How do you not know if she had the heating on overnight ?

Re showering costs, there are 7 people in our home. 7x 10 min showers a day, is more than your lodger is using.
Our bill is £350 a month including all other gas and electric costs.