Lodger not paying rent

[mommydragon]

Hello... I have a lodger who has just moved in on 1st of this month... he was informed verbally and via lodger agreement that rent for any month is due by 3rd of same month. But he is now insisting on paying end of the month as that is when he gets paid. We have taken a deposit just for half a month rent and that too just to cover any damages. In the lodger agreement, we have put minimum term 6 months. We are not happy to keep him on especially as over last two days he has been going on about his poor financial situation and also with no offer to top up rent end of this month to actually come closer to covering 2 months rent. I am worried if we take his word, he will start to default in payments end of this month or disappear one month on the last day without paying. What are our options here? Can we ask him to leave by 14th of this month? Would we be within our rights to do so?

@mommydragon let us know how it went

Hello... the lodger left yesterday with all his belongings and friend at 6:00 pm... no issues whatsoever. He did try to plead with me in the morning to allow him to stay saying that he was genuinely mistaken that rent was due end of every month and his family didn't have enough money to help him out. He then dwelled into his and his family financial difficulties. But I told him that given his circumstances, I was sure that come end of month he would default in rent payment saying that he needs to help his family out etc.

I do understand people face financial difficulties, but I didn't appreciate his sense of entitlement based on the deposit he gave me and his rude comments regarding our house rules regarding diet. Good lesson I have learned. He has texted me twice already chasing up on the balance deposit amount.

Good for you. Do you need to keep any of the deposit back?

No damage was done so I will just return balance after deducting charge for number of days he stayed and locks.

I meant to start a new thread. How do I report this? Apologies

You shouldn't charge him for the change of locks unless he didn't return your keys (I.e lost your property)

Happy it went well. I do think its not fair to charge him for locks though. Are you always going to charge every lodger for locks when they leave?

I had a lodger who was late with rent then hounding me for a deposit! I was out the day she left and said I’d send it in the evening, she said she had things to pay for. I reminded her that I did too when her rent was late and I wasn’t withholding it but needed a laptop/desktop to access my online banking, unless she wanted a cheque

No we don't charge for change of locks to any lodger... ideally the next time I would have had to change locks next would've been 6 months- a year or longer... when this lodger had left and at my expense. In this case I have to change a lock for the sake of 7 days because he has defaulted.

I think that you are quite right in charging him for changing the locks if you only changed them 7 days ago.

I'm relieved for you it's all sorted. Did you make clear from the outset you charge for change of locks from the deposit? That seems a bit unfair to me, and a business cost you have to absorb, like advertising, changeover cleaning etc.

He was a pisstaking chancer. I'm glad you got rid.

You should not charge for changing the locks providing he returned the keys to you. That really is very unfair.

You're not very good at this op are you? Deposit plus rent before you hand over the keys is standard!

Although the non-paying lodger was down to him, you did make life hard for yourself by not getting rent upfront and not adjusting the rent payment date in the lodger agreement.

As I've said there's no way you should charge for the change of locks. It's up to you whether you want to change them he doesn't owe you that charge. You might even end up causing yourself issues in the long run.

Thanks RLOU... noted.

I don't regret the timing of this incident. Today I found the email that I had sent to him regarding monthly rent payable by max 3 rd of same month. Plus same was mentioned on draft agreement I had emailed to him 2 weeks before he moved in and same mentioned on final copy that we signed. He kept insisting that I had told him rent was due end of every month. His intention was always to not pay... even if he had paid a month in advance, he would've defaulted following month and we would've been at this point again... glad he is out sooner rather than later.

In the future take the first months rent with the deposit, no rent no keys! It doesn't stop them defaulting in month 2 but it stops this situation