Any advice please

[Munkeyktm]

Hi,

My husband and I rent a 2 bed flat in london.

3 years ago we took in friend from work as a lodger with no contract.

Our landlord knew we were renting him the room.

My husband and I have now given our landlord notice as we are moving to another property.

The lodger has also been given more than 30 days notice.

Lodger owes us 2 months rent but told him we would write that off.

Problem is lodger has become very mentally unwell. Think severe depression. Suspect he is burying his head in the sand. Now he doesn't really leave his room. Stopped working.

We are worried that when we give up the tenancy he won't leave.

We just want him to leave so we can move to our new flat.

The stress us killing us.

Any advise would be really gratefully received.

Thanks

[JK0]

Go & buy a set of new lock cylinders now, and keep them handy at home. You might want to practice changing them when the guy is out. When lodger's notice is up, wait for him to go out for cigarettes or a paper, and change the locks.

Don't let him in to pack. You go and pack up his things and leave them in the common area.

[Munkeyktm]

Can will still do this even if he is vulnerable and mentally unwell?

We feel terrible but we have to leave and get on with our lives.

He has no friends/support and his family are abroad.

Is it a problem that we didn't give him a contract?
also the notice i gave him was via text as he was abroad at the time?

Thank you so much

[JK0]

It's up to you. Either do what I suggest, or have court costs & a bailiff's bill from your landlord when he has to evict him. Possibly interim rent bill also.

BTW, weren't you rather silly not to change the locks while your lodger was abroad? He can't be that depressed if he manages foreign travel.

[Munkeyktm]

He has mentally gone down hill over the last month.

Off to by replacement cylinders now.

Thanks for your help.

[KeepTheFaith]

You may not have any legal responsibility to look out for him, but as a fellow human being obviously unwell might it not be too much trouble for you to give a call to social services and see if they can help him???

[Hudson01]

Agree with above, give social services a call and explain, he may already be on their radar by the sound of it, the end result is that he is not your responsibility, you need to do this or it will cost you a lot of money and in the end he will be out of the property anyway.