Updating post from Reddit.
Original post is here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/uklandlords/s/oFuMfisW5Z
I have a young woman as a lodger too. She's 21/22 years old, and she texted me this morning about him punching the walls just because an alarm went off . I didn't hear that but I did hear his voice
He considered this email, and me saying "Hey such and such a person will view your room at such and such a time" to be "unsolicited" when that's a legal requirement and this is me making sure I've got a log with him knowing about it
Thankfully he left this morning and posted his keys through the door which is honestly amazing news for not only my health but that of a younger woman too.
Change the locks as a precaution.
Changing the locks is cheap and can be done yourself in about 10 minutes following a Youtube video.
What the others are saying. Change the locks, ensure they can’t easily be opened and tell her if he shows back up to immediately call 999 and after that to inform you.
Shall do and I've let her know. It's one thing to be mentally abusive to me but it's quite another to be physically threatening to a younger woman when this guy is a fit, healthy man.
Read both posts! Glad you and the other young lady are ok, I hope you both have a better holiday with this selfish jerk gone
Lol. Very true tbf though I don't have any holiday days left until end of March now but I'd like to have one then lol
As suggestion for the next time. You could use a smart lock (ex: Nuki). Lodgers will enter a personal pin code in a keypad in order to enter.
The advantage: You don't need to change locks anymore when you evict a lodger. You only to need to cancel the personal pin code.
You mean to the house? Isn't that an issue RE: my insurance?
Changing your lock does indeed have an impact on insurance - you will need to notify them if you change to a smart lock like that. Changing the barrel on the existing lock is a lot simpler.
Does it? You still have an ordinary/normal lock from outside.
Agreed as said above changing a Euro lock is about 10 mins work!
A mid quality barrel lock with extra keys about £50
I use EVVA ICS - secure, difficult to pick, not very expensive, can’t get unauthorised duplicate keys
It's really NOT advisable to use digital/smart locks in place of 5 lever mortice deadlocks etc. from an insurance POV as this may invalidate your policy.
Recommend looking through your policy documents or contacting the insurance company, especially if you plan on making changes (should always be done just in case you ever need to make a claim)
That's what I thought too, though I have a euro cylinder albeit one that has the kitemark symbol on it
I do have an outdoor door which feeds into a cloak room That door then connects to the living room. So from that pov, I could pop a smart lock on that internal door that connects the cloak room to the living room
Yes, to the house.
In the case of the Nuki. It's a device you put above the normal lock. You can mount/dismount yourself.
From outside, you only see a normal/standard lock. You can put the keypad on the wall (like a doorbell).
Thanks. I guess I do have a cloak room before entering the actual living room. So I could cover myself from an insurance pov by having dumb high security locks, and have smart door locks at the cloak room level
I honestly don't see the insurance concern because you still keep your normal lock. But well, I guess an extra lock wouldn't hurt.
Yeah I guess so tbf
Tbh I think insurance are a bit silly on smart locks anyway given that a burglar would smash the window - It's quieter
Actually, insurance doesn't cover theft from your lodgers. So unless you have visible signs of breaking/entering, they would not cover anyway.
Plus excess, lose your NCD, higher price of renewal, etc... If you don't keep any valuable in your home, it's not really worth it.
Content insurance is a complete scam. I stick with a normal Building insurance.
Sure but I mean an outside burglar, not one from a lodger
It doesn't matter. If you don't have visible signs of breaking/entering. Insurance assumes was from a lodger and refuses to cover it.
Yup, they'll ask who else has access to the property
Yo this escalated from rude behaviour about a cold home to smashing the place up?! Not to play devils avocado but he’s definitely got some mental issues at the very least not condoning the behaviour and deffo glad he’s left but was the boiler the first instance of the aggression?
He wasn't aggressive prior to the boiler. Once the boiler thing happened, he went from 0 to 100
It's always the avocados.
I’m playing devils avocado in future, made me lol 😂
Very well written.
Well done and I would suggest contacting police as well if not a solicitor if you have the money. Because, let's face it, most of the time; cops are useless unless it benefits them in some way.
I have already contacted the police tbf.
He communicated that he wanted his £100 deposit back via email, and I'm thinking "Yeah, no. You caused damage"
Ironically he also said "Please return the deposit immediately. This can be sent today WITHOUT explanation. You DO NOT need to contact me to do this. You can make a transfer and no contact has to be made. "
He both wants a deposit back despite willfully causing damage. I'd actually overlook accidentally damage tbh. Say if the younger girl smashed say a mirror by accident, I'd figure that's by the by and I won't penalise her for it. But when it's deliberate AND he's being a prick? Good luck. Also ironically, I might have given his deposit back if he was still here purely because I wanted him gone by any means necessary even if it meant paying him off despite the damage.
But yes, this is true. Tbh a lot of it is also the fact that he's willing to physically threaten a younger girl and pretend that I'm making up something against him when I heard him this morning, and she told me what happened (and yknow the evidence on the wall)
I think the girl has technically been a bit louder than she should have at 6am before (by dropping something) however even though that's technically out of the quiet hours, the police aren't going to do much about a 6 am disturbance vs say a 2-3am disturbance, especially one done by accident. He was up anyway too and was just being a prick
He's also told her when he called her childish, telling her if she doesn't want to be an adult I should go back to primary school and telling her to pack and leave the house. This is in relation to merely accidental drops in the morning (nothing on purpose, unlike him)
I mean if you’re close enough, I’ll pop round and change the locks for you 🤷♂️ depending on the door haha
I'm in Manchester lol
I think a 3 hours drive there and then 3 back is a little much 😂. Is it a upvc door?
Loool. Very true indeed and it is
Though another person raises a somewhat fair point about the Nuki locks. Technically your weak spot isn't the actual lock. It's your windows given they can simply be smashed but that's now how insurance companies see it
Given I'm lucky enough to have a cloak room before I enter the living room, I could have a smart lock on the cloak room door. That way, it does give additional security but the outdoor locks would remain to be dumb ones
Yeah that is all very true. But, to change the locks, to make it at least noisier (think I spelled that right) to get in, is actually really simple on those doors. Buy said lock (can be pricey but you’ll find decent ones on Amazon and the like) then you simply open the door, there will be a Philips screw, take that out and the lock just slides out. Slide new one in, put screw back and it’s new locks. Sorry if I’m explaining something you already knew. Seems like such a horrendous thing to have to be going through!
Tbh I don't have a clue about DIY stuff and that's some decent instructions even if just via text
Also tbh I'd have got smart external locks if it wasn't for insurance caring more given they apparently aren't aware about the existence of windows which cause less noise for a burglar, than hammering a door lock
But because I have a cloak room before entering the living room, that's a potentially good thing anyway ie: it doesn't in theory matter if I've got a bad lodger who wants to gain access through the front door if they can't get access via the cloak room
The most they could also steal is shoes or maybe a small Amazon parcel
I did find it funny that this person sent me an email though asking for their deposit back (with no bank details) but also saying I can't contact them, even though they visibly made this hole
So I think screw em. Tbh I wanted to knock £20 off their deposit anyway given they are responsible for the other lodger's dog eating £15 of my "barfi" which was meant for the whole house not just the dog as much as I love that dog and as much as she actually lives here rent free given I decided months ago that I no longer care about any damage she might cause. She's too lovable
I specifically requested for him to leave the door closed so she doesn't go in, and he refused. He also left the oven on overnight once, and then denied it the next day. Oh and using my detergent in the washing machine which was used daily which is also a plain.
See I’m male so despite be wildly untrained I just throw a YouTube video on and suddenly I’m an expert 😂. Small jobs I’ll try because why not! And locks just happen to be relatively easy to change as long as you have the key haha.
Small Amazon packages are the best Amazon packages though! Haha.
Sounds crappy! Apart from the dog. Dogs are amazing 😂
I mean I'm also a guy tbf
But yeah. My sister says she's actually my landlord. This is the first person I've had who won't be getting their deposit back too given yknow him punching the wall
To be honest I didn’t assume you weren’t a guy. I meant I’m a male who despite being… 😂
I mean to be fair if I went around punching holes in my walls I’d be shocked at myself for asking for the deposit back haha
Yeah. I thought that was funny but not in a haha way. I did however think it's funny in a haha way that he wanted his deposit back but he didn't give me his bank details and he's requested I shouldn't contact him either way.
So even if I wanted to, I'm abiding by his wishes to not contact him
Just hope that he didn't make a copy - change the locks to be certain.
Sounds like an unstable person but this is the inevitable consequence of having multiple unrelated adults forced to live in bedrooms next to one another while you maximise the amount of rent you can extract from them lol. You are to blame for this situation.
Being a lodger is shit when you find out how much profit the landlord is making, mortgage was £400 a month and landlord was taking in at least £1500.
Mind you we were friends but that went downhill when I realised everything became transactional so I left.
Even a HMO is better because you're not living with the person robbing you blind
