A --RANT-- plea to all parents of student house-sharers

[Twitterqueen]

Please ensure your sons and daughters pay their flipping bills! My poor DC volunteered to be lead tenant for a house of 8 - and NO-ONE is paying their bills. Which means DC is having to subsidise everyone else. And DC cannot afford it!

It's rude, it's unfair and it's causing a lot of unnecessary stress and hardship. DC has taken on all the utility org - water, electric, gag, ISP, landlord negotiations etc - for no reward. At all. Except abuse and "oh yea, I don't have the money right now." NEITHER DOES DC. PAY WHAT YOU OWE - NOW.

don't know if that's legal though

Dont you think you should know?

It is surely legal for a landlord to withhold deposit due to monies owed?

You say it has nothing to do with the parents. Does that mean the parents have no financial responsibility towards their adult student DC? Because if I'm expected to keep my adult DC and be financially responsible for their fees etc then it damn well is my business if they are effectively stealing from another student. But then I'm the sort of parent who would shop my child to the police for breaking the law even if nobody was hurt and I knew it would ruin their chance of career etc.

I always took issue with my mother supporting my 17yr old brother who got his girlfriend pg. She had to give up her place at university and he got to go with mum's backing and relief that it wasn't her daughter. Personally I would have said he had to stay home and get a job and take responsibility. Not be allowed to swan off to uni, have lots of fun then dare to want involvement later.

CactusAnnie ooch that's a bit harsh. Have you actually got a child at university, because you know, you do still feel for them when things go wrong.

Parenting doesn't end on the 18th birthday. It just reaches a stage where you have to watch from the sidelines and occasionally give help or advice when asked. Oh and many of us are in fact paying the rent or the bills or otherwise giving financial support.

It's a very hard lesson for this youngster to learn and I know my DS would turn to me for advice and I would want to help.

It is surely legal for a landlord to withhold deposit due to monies owed

I dont know if the law is different for HMOs but in normal lettings LL's have to lodge the deposit with a deposit protection scheme and there is a process to go through if they dispute that the deposit should go back to tenants.

SurlyCue, yes, of course deposits should be lodged with the TDS or similar. But at the end of the tenancy the LL can legitimately claim for monies including rent which have not been paid.
When we rented our house out a few years ago our tenant got 2 dogs without permission only noticed on mid tenancy inspection. I claimed for a full pet clean and deinfestation as couldn't be sure it was clean otherwise. I claimed £280 and forwarded receipt. Tenants said they'd been made redundant and offered £100. I refused, it went to dispute and I was of course awarded £280 which I had an invoice for. If you can prove they owe you money relating to their tenancy you can certainly claim it from their deposit.

The landlord only deals with the rent in this case. All the utilities are dealt with by the students themselves so there is no option to withhold rent. I am a guarantor for DC's rent, so if that's not paid then I have to pay that. I'm not a guarantor for any bills.

I'm not actually doing anything for DC other than being a buffer and a sponge for all the angst (and passing on useful advice from here :)). I appreciate it's a lesson for DC in learning how to manage all this stuff, but I don't believe subbing other students is part of that life-lesson. I've brought up my children to have more respect for others.

And no, you don't stop being a parent when they turn 18!

But at the end of the tenancy the LL can legitimately claim for monies including rent which have not been paid

Thanks, i dont need this explaining. I am aware of how it works.

What you have posted above is very different from what you originally asked It is surely legal for a landlord to withhold deposit due to monies owed

The LL cant withold the deposit. The LL isnt in possession of the deposit. They can, as you later stated, claim back their outstanding expenses from the deposit before it is returned to the tenant by the deposit scheme.

Yes I know that. I guess I didn't think to explain in full because it seems entirely obvious. Surely all deposits are now held by the Deposit scheme? And everyone knows this? It's an obvious thing now and you get a certificate. I didn't word it very well but I assumed it was obv what I meant.

I've brought up my children to have more respect for others.

Teach him to have more respect for himself and not to be a mug volunteer to be responsible for all the bills.

And things such as unpaid monies are not subjective like wear and tear. They will almost always be paid back to the LL so going to dispute is s formality in such circs.

I agree that parenting doesn't stop at 18, but that is when big lessons about responsibility start happening. And there are huge lessons for OP's DS to learn here. Taking responsibility for all the bills as well as being lead tenant was naive and foolish.

I really feel for him (I learned this lesson the hard way too). How many is he sharing with? Are they all named on the tenancy? Have they all paid a deposit?

Has your DS changed the WiFi password OP?

Because in my case, it's not really my problem that they'd been made redundant and desperately needed the deposit in full to pay the next deposit. They really should have thought of that before being stupid enough to get 2 bloody dogs. Its fairly black and white when it's unpaid monies relating to contractual obligation. Problem here is that there is no contractual obligation to the op's DC. Withdrawing the broadband needs to be done now.

No argument here M4blues, i was disagreeing with the comment about LL withholding the deposit.

Yes, I just worded it badly.

Why are people blaming the son for having his name on the bills

Because its a really stupid thing to do!

Oh come on!

naive and foolish Exactly. That's all he is guilty of. I really don't get all the snidey comments about this poor lad.

Cactus I too was independent at 16 which is one reason I have a very, very different relationship with my DC than I did with my parents. You will find out when your DC grow up and make mistakes or suffer injustice that you feel their pain just as much as you do when they are little. The difference is that you have to try not to interfere help unless asked.

Honestly Twitter I think splitthebills is the way to go. You can still set it up even after the tenancy has started.

My DS is in a house of 9. I counselled him to make sure they spread the names on bills evenly and actually made sure his name was on the tv license so it was a one off easy to collect payment. I also discussed with him how to budget to pay his share of bills but I'm not actually checking that he does as he's nearly 20!