Flat mate problems

[cleanic1]

Hi All
My girlfriend and i have a person who rents a room in our flat with no written agreement and after an arguement the other person stated she wanted to hand in her notice which we accpeted and said verbally 4 weeks from the 14th of january 2008 after 7 months of residing with us. The other person paid a deposit of 1 months rent before moving in and a months rent paid in advance to cover staying in the room but has been consistently late in paying the rent money so a decision was made by my girlfriend and i not to return the deposit due to the lateness of paying such rent. the arguement happened as we decided to draw up a contract for the other person living here and she challenged things and wanted it looking over by someone professional. we complained to her that we were sick of the noise she created on a daily basis and this comment sparked off her saying she would give her notice. We rent the property from a private landlord and my girlfriend's name is on the lease agreement. We wrote the other person a letter accepting her verbal notice to quit and granted her until the 1st of february 2008 to leave the property. We received a reply stating that she had consulted a solicitor and that she would only move out with her terms and conditions as the agreement we tried to get her to sign was null and void stating that there indeed was no written agreement between us only a verbal one. Also stating that because no written agreement or rental agreement was signed, then the document has no legal standing whatsoever. she states that she will move out of the property on the 1st of february 2008 if a full refund of outstanding rent paid is returned in full (which amounts to 1 week totalling £62.79)and a full refund of the bond paid of £270 at the start of her living with us. or she will stay the full term of the rental period (until 7th February 200 and full refund of the bond paid. Does she have any rights to stay in the property within the boundaries of the law without a written agreement and only a verbal agreement or can we ask her to leave with immediate effect and if we do are we obliged to return any monies paid by her for rent and bond?
Please help as she is being awful to my girlfriend and now is involving her dad by saying that i got in her face (not true) and he is a monster who will eat me alive

[louis wu]

sounds like a bit of a nightmare.

there is a forum specifically for landlord/tenant problems, here's the link. I suspect you will get more specific advise if you ask the question there

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...tial-lettings/

have a read and then post your question. Hope you get this sorted with the monster getting involved

best of luck

louis

[cleanic1]

Hi All
My girlfriend and i have a person who rents a room in our flat with no written agreement and after an arguement the other person stated she wanted to hand in her notice which we accpeted and said verbally 4 weeks from the 14th of january 2008 after 7 months of residing with us. The other person paid a deposit of 1 months rent before moving in and a months rent paid in advance to cover staying in the room but has been consistently late in paying the rent money so a decision was made by my girlfriend and i not to return the deposit due to the lateness of paying such rent. the arguement happened as we decided to draw up a contract for the other person living here and she challenged things and wanted it looking over by someone professional. we complained to her that we were sick of the noise she created on a daily basis and this comment sparked off her saying she would give her notice. We rent the property from a private landlord and my girlfriend's name is on the lease agreement. We wrote the other person a letter accepting her verbal notice to quit and granted her until the 1st of february 2008 to leave the property. We received a reply stating that she had consulted a solicitor and that she would only move out with her terms and conditions as the agreement we tried to get her to sign was null and void stating that there indeed was no written agreement between us only a verbal one. Also stating that because no written agreement or rental agreement was signed, then the document has no legal standing whatsoever. she states that she will move out of the property on the 1st of february 2008 if a full refund of outstanding rent paid is returned in full (which amounts to 1 week totalling £62.79)and a full refund of the bond paid of £270 at the start of her living with us. or she will stay the full term of the rental period (until 7th February 200 and full refund of the bond paid. Does she have any rights to stay in the property within the boundaries of the law without a written agreement and only a verbal agreement or can we ask her to leave with immediate effect and if we do are we obliged to return any monies paid by her for rent and bond?
Please help as she is being awful to my girlfriend and now is involving her dad by saying that i got in her face (not true) and he is a monster who will eat me alive

[cleanic1]

many thanks for the advice Louis i think i have managed to do what you suggested
Hopefully the monster will stay in his cave
Regards
Lee

[Joa]

Originally Posted by cleanic1

Does she have any rights to stay in the property within the boundaries of the law without a written agreement and only a verbal agreement or can we ask her to leave with immediate effect and if we do are we obliged to return any monies paid by her for rent and bond?
Please help as she is being awful to my girlfriend and now is involving her dad by saying that i got in her face (not true) and he is a monster who will eat me alive

Verbal agreement in such situation may not be a perfect solution (for practical reasons) but it is binding and valid.
You can ask her to leave- she is an exluded occupier - but you need to give a "reasonable" notice.
Shelter: Eviction of excluded occupiers

The lateness of paying the rent is not a valid justification for withholding of the deposit.

An finally, if a monster was going to eat me alive, I would refund the 60 quid pronto, although you do not have to as she is liable for rent until the end of rental period. But do you know what? Get rid of her and find nicer lodger.

[cleanic1]

dziekuje my friend. My girlfriend is polish and saw your logo. i thank you for your reply and will use the link to forward to the other person via email so she can see where the law stands and hopefully will go away as soon as humanly possible.

Regards Lee and Kasia

[demon_x_slash]

Please don't overlook the fact that you have no right whatsover to keep the deposit because of 'late rent payment' - deposits are for damages only, and she should be entitled to a full refund of the deposit if there is no damage in her room. As there is no written agreement, the tenancy shoud be periodic and to be fair on all counts you should really give her one rental period (in this case a month) as notice (someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this point).

[MrShed]

Demon as I read it(although the OPs original block of text is difficult to read!), the person in question is a lodger not a tenant? Hence there is no set notice period. Although it would be considered that one rental period would be a "reasonable" notice.

[Joa]

Lee and Kasia; prosze bardzo. Powodzenia

[demon_x_slash]

Originally Posted by demon_x_slash

to be fair on all counts you should really give her one rental period (in this case a month) as notice (someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this point).

IMO that'd count as reasonable

[MrShed]

Sorry demon, obviously misread your post!!

[MARTIN3030]

2 threads merged.