The Lodger From Hell (warning: grossness within)

[MrDust]

Hi all

 

Have recently found myself in a situation that I can't quite believe...

 

At the beginning of 2012, my lodger moved in. He lived here 11 months and moved out on the 1 Dec 2012. At least, he officially moved out, the fact is, he only took a couple of car loads of stuff and then said he'd back for the rest of his stuff. Apart from a couple of phone calls, I've not heard from him at all and, he never turned up at the agreed times. Funnily enough though, he forgot to cancel his Standing Order so I got another months rent out of him for December that I was more than happy to keep. His room remained in the disgusting state he left it in (particularly with the hundreds of beer cans he left behind) and I just kept the door shut and didn't go in there as I had a trillion other things on my mind...

 

Now, a few things about him. He was an old mate of mine from college from 20+ years ago but, I never really knew him that well but I found out very rapidly once he moved in that he was quite obviously an alcoholic. Always drinking cans of lager from the moment he got home from work until he'd go to bed at whatoever-o-clock (I'd hear the cans cracking open as I was trying to sleep). What was seemingly a less-pleasant side-effect was that I'd occasionally find literal human-excrement around the house! On the bathroom floor (far away from the toilet, christ knows how he got it there), little $h!t-smears on the settee (so I had to have the sofa-shampoo at the ready...). It was pretty gross. I broached the subject with him a few months back once after I found the latest, erm, deposit on the bathroom floor and he scrubbed it and apologised and said he had stomach problems. It never happened again after that and I was glad to forget it had ever happened.

 

Anyway, as I said, he left this house finally a month ago and I was, quite frankly, glad to see the back of him. I found him a pain to live with anyway (not just because of what I've described, but other things too that aren't really relevant right now so will leave to one side).

 

So, last week, on the 1 January 2013... New year, new start. I figured it was time to get stuck into clearing his room out as much as I could so thought I'd go make a start on clearing up all the beer cans. And, oh my god, i found out they were all full of his own urine and occasional fag butts. Hundreds of them. What I thought would be a quick job of swilling out stale beer cans and chucking them in the recycle box became a lengthy process of emptying his stinky p!$$ into the loo and then swilling them out and only then getting them out of the house. It was disgusting. As I cleared one section of the room, it opened up to another section, and another section. There were about 50 cans under the bed alone that took a good 2 hours to clear, some of them had fallen over so the result was long-dried urine in the carpet...

 

Anyway, that wasn't the worst of it... The next day, I got to the corner of the room and found a pedal bin that was full to the brim too. And, in front of that was a homemade chemical toilet full of a brown-looking liquid that was quite obviously his own excrement. Absolutely disgusting. It's only today, after a week (and with the help of my poor elderly father who hired special plastic containers and a pump) that the job of clearing all the revolting contents of the room has been completed. I've had to rip up the carpet and throw it away, along with the mattress, bed and some other bits of furniture that were no longer fit for any human to use.

 

So, I currently have a shell of a room that's full of the rest of his belongings. Does anyone out there have any thoughts/idea what I can do legally about this? I'd ideally like to sue the pants of him and, at the very least, get him to pay to replace the bed, carpet and furniture. At the moment, *no one* is going to be living in there and providing me with an income...

 

Any advice appreciated

 

(Apologies if I've just put anyone off their dinner)

[MrHat]

Did you take photos?

[LaughingGirl]

Before you do anything, does he have any money to be sued for? Do you have a forwarding address, or could you obtain one for wherever he is now?

[MrDust]

Did you take photos?

 

Yes, have documented the whole process of removing everything in both photo and video form (including some heartbreaking footage taken today of my poor dad quite-literally nearly passing out while pouring the contents of the even-more-unpleasant homemade toilet into the drain as the smell was so disgusting)...

[MrDust]

Before you do anything, does he have any money to be sued for? Do you have a forwarding address, or could you obtain one for wherever he is now?

 

He has a full-time job that he manages to get to every day so, yes, I'd say he does. I know where he lives now too.

[citizenB]

Yuk indeed, did you take photographs or have independant witnesses to the state of the room before you cleaned it up ?

 

I rather suspect you would find suing him quite difficult without proof.

 

How much stuff has he left behind - I think you are fully entitled to box it up, contact him and give him a date by which the items are to be removed and advise that if they arent then you will dispose of them. Do you have a shed/garage that you could store the items until such times as they are collected ?

 

At the same time you could say how disappointed you are at the disgraceful state he left your home and you fully expect him to contribute to the replacement of items that you have had to destroy because of his digusting habits.

[MrDust]

Yuk indeed, did you take photographs or have independant witnesses to the state of the room before you cleaned it up ?

 

Yes, a few people had a look (and smell) before rapidly exiting!

 

How much stuff has he left behind - I think you are fully entitled to box it up, contact him and give him a date by which the items are to be removed and advise that if they arent then you will dispose of them. Do you have a shed/garage that you could store the items until such times as they are collected ?

 

He's left an absolute ton of clothes, quite a few pieces of musical and electrical equipment and a stack of other miscellaneous personal items. Yes I could store it if necessary but, want shot of it all as soon as possible (and would be reluctant to sell any of it as it's all probably so contaminated, any recipients would keel over... )

[LaughingGirl]

He has a full-time job that he manages to get to every day so, yes, I'd say he does. I know where he lives now too.

 

Well you have the very basics needed to take him to small claims, if going down that path is required. I'd go with Citizen B's suggestion right off the bat, and if no offer of payment is forthcoming then a letter before action followed by a claim.

[MrHat]

What exactly are you wanting to claim though? i.e. how much (on top of the extra month's rent which you already have)? Perhaps you could try and get an informal agreement that he pays you a sum (but still make sure it is agreed in writing). If he can't pay a lump sum, try and agree installments. If he then stops paying or doesn't pay up as agreed, at least you have a written admission of liability (of sorts). If he is not prepared, THEN go for LBA followed by court perhaps. IMO

[magickat]

Sounds worryingly like my lodger who I am in the process of evicting....keeps a jug of his own pee by his bedroom door

[LaughingGirl]

I've never been a landlord, but I did have the misfortune to have a similarly disgusting house mate when I was a student. Needless to say, in order to get our deposit back, I had a very similar experience to the op and his Dad. I promise you, there weren't enough showers in the world to make me feel clean again. He had kept all his half eaten take aways under his bed, as well as peeing in his empty vodka bottles. Amongst other things I won't go into.

[wicko27]

I'm no expert on this but it might be worth considering how much you want against what he has already paid (i.e. the extra months rent) and then thinking about how much effort you want to put into chasing it.

 

As awful as that experience sounds (the guy clearly has mental issues), it might be worth making a clean a break as possible from him.

 

Edit: Also, might be worth telling his new landlord about your experience - don't think it's fair for people to go through that.