UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello there,

Have a really wacky situation im struggling to deal with .... had a new lodger move in signed agreement paid rent and 300 desposit .... he left to go on holiday 1 august said he was away for 3.5 weeks, he asked if he had to pay rent for time away and i said of course you do, he did seem a little miffed but paid the 350 rent in advance on the 1st august .... at one point he did message me on the 1st and just said he was leaving his room straight away ,within an hour he messaged me back and said he had been hasty and wanted to keep room on . He then sends me a message on the 27th August when he is back from his holiday,saying simply i havent paid his deposit back ? So i have explained he hadnt given one months written notice as per agreement ... subequently this chap has been rather difficult, was at first telling me all sorts of stuff i have broken the law blah blah blah which is all a load of rubbish and he knows this now, he got a little nasty and then from saying he had given notice to then he was returning to the property by this time i had to get police involved as i was feeling rather threatened by him ... i had to get my locks changed .... the chap has now sent me a letter threatening court action ? And sent a copy of the furst text message saying he was leaving and not the second one which clearly says he was being hasty and wanted to keep room on ....
can anyone offer any advice please .

Reply to his letter with a letter of your own.  Set out all the facts clearly, and make sure you've set out the sequence as well -- write the letter so that a third party, such as a judge, could understand why it was reasonable for you to act as you did.  Include the full text of all his messages with date and timestamps, and explain why you're confident that all the messages came from him.

Follow the advice above,then ignore (but save of course) any further communications.He sounds like a nutter,so I would not take the threat of legal action seriously.Don't hesitate to call the police again if he bothers you.He may well have a record already,have you spoken to previous landlord,if any?   

Thank you for this ..
I have subesquently found out he has been sectioned and suffers from extreme mental health problems ...i didnt take a reference from his last landlady as it was 4 years ago .. he is a contractor who is based up north so only weekday lodger

My God, he had extreme mental health problems, and he lived in your actual house but you didn't know?

This is a splendid opportunity for us all to reflect on the reasons why it's so important to get references.

Yes its all been very socking for me and have previously been very lucky with lodgers and have always taken references,  so cant stress how important it is .... he had in fact been sectioned and only been back in work for a short period ...so yes i was lucky