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.

I would massively disagree, I put up with a lot of crap and a lot of damage because I needed the money to pay the bills. By the time they left the room was unusable and it took me months to save to fix it.

There's nothing in this thread that suggests you've any reason to be scared of her.

i guess anxious is the better word. not scared x

Your request to leave was flawed as it ended with a question mark. So it isn’t an explicit instruction.

You could have downsized then

thanks ill downsize my 1 up 1 down 30sqm house. genius

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/lodging-and-subletting/lodging-subletting/landlords-of-lodgers/if-you-want-your-lodger-to-move-out/

You can't give her one day notice. That's not reasonable.

I don't blame her for not wanting to pay towards a bill that you are disputing. If it's an error, then she'll not be getting the refund, you will.

My comment wasnt addressed to you. But now that you've said that, it makes me think: WTF? You are charging her £650 a month to share a 30sqm house, plus bills on top of that? Where do you live, Canary Wharf?

My electricity went up massive when I had a lodger. I couldn’t fathom out how one other person in the home apart from me could raise it so much. Especially as he worked. I found out a few weeks later. He had put an electric fan heater in there which he had been using constantly. Even leaving it on whilst out at work. This was against what I had stipulated in our loger agreement. Please check the room for similar Op

I am a landlord with lodgers. I always have a lodger agreement in place, setting out when they will receive their damage deposit - 7 days after vacating. Also, if they are more than 3 days late with rent, I can evict them with one week’s notice.
Have a lodger agreement - lesson learned

not going to be engaging with you any further xx

lesson learned indeed

Could I? I have a 2 bedroom house on the help to buy scheme, I moved into the box room to rent my bedroom out after my house was valued at less than I bought it for (and therefore would be in negative equity). How would selling my house and losing the deposit I had put into it help my situation? The help to buy scheme made the mortgage here less than buying a one bedroom flat.

I'm not a landlord but she sounds fucking weird,very weird and I'd be incredibly uncomfortable with that in my home. The language is highly manipulative. You are not a bully. She's testing you and acting in a way that says to me she's not to be trusted. Yuk.

Good luck getting rid.

You can buy a contract on the spare room website, I think it’s about £20 but once you have it you can edit it in future for different tenants.

im actually in a very similiar situation, i have many sympathies. dont keep responding to that poster though xx

I had a few lodgers in my previous home.
One had to be evicted for non payment of rent.

Clearly send a simple text "Dear Lodger, your rent of £? is overdue.

Please make payment within 24 hours of the time of this text.
If you do not make payment in full as requested, by (insert date and time) you must vacate the property at that time.

Sincerely Landlady.

Just do it. If she pesters you, just copy and paste the message and repeat.

She already owes you a few hundred pounds...why risk the increase?

Out of sheer nosiness, have you been into 'her' rooms recently? How are they looking?

THANK YOU. I feel so bullied! A normal person would have just accepted it and moved on!

I'm highly creeped out by the conversation exchange tbh

IDK but her defensiveness is really frightening I reckon there is eomthing she doesnt want me to see.

....on my behalf or hers?

I believe your instincts are going off about something.

The conversation exchange is creepy as fuck. I am a pretty open live and let live person where I can be. And I'm creeped out. It's weird, it's almost testing you out.

I can't help with legalities but I'd want her out sooner rather than later according to whatever legal rights she has.

On your behalf. I find her Comms creepy.

I’m through the other side now, house value eventually matched what I bought it for, I’ve since sold it and bought with my partner what I’m hoping will be our forever home. Initially the last house I could comfortably afford but after some bad luck with work and an abusive ex I ended up in a bad situation. I think on here people assume “landlords” are all greedy and living a luxurious life on other peoples hard earned money, in reality I was eating ramen noodles every day to fight to stop my house from being repossessed and having nowhere to go.

Yeah like would she really not just pay £400 to ensure the security of her living situation for another month, its absurd. I think she really just can't afford to pay. I am so uncomfortable and I've told her to pay or leave tomorrow but even if she pays I don't want her here.