Resident landlord's difficult new lodger/tenant

[Bel]

You say you are a live in landlord. Do you share facilities with this tenant....eg bathroom, kitchen, i.e she is a lodger in your house?,

or do you keep to your own set of rooms?

If it is the former, it will be a lot easier to ask her to leave.

You say you gave her a 6 month agreement.

What kind of agreement have you signed? What does it say about bad behaviour?

If you are a resident landlord (and its your main home) you do not have to offer such a long term, as you do not have to wait 6 months before you can apply to the courts for eviction as you would do with an AST contract.

I can explain more after your reply.

[Johnr12]

Hello all,

I am a live-in landlord with six tenants here with me. A couple of weeks ago, a new tenant moved in on a six month contract. She has fitted in well in most ways, but it has become increasingly clear that she often drinks very heavily after returning home from work and can become argumentative and verbally insulting despite our collective best efforts to remain calm and collected and not argue back or provoke her - particularly while she is intoxicated.

When we placed ads for new tenants, we clearly specified that we were a quiet and easy going household and that we did not want anyone joining us who didn't fit that description. She was absolutely fine when we met with her on a number of occasions beforehand, her acquaintances and ex-housemates all vouched for her, and two references were also fine. Everything seemed fine after close to a month of meetings and enquiries, so not sure how much else we could have realistically done to check her background and character.

I am hoping that her negative behaviour will not be representative of her behaviour long-term, and to her credit, she has recently told us that she has attended anger management sessions, but she certainly gave no previous indication that she drank this heavily or frequently, or that she was prone to such outbursts. I don't feel that she would consciously do anything that would cause harm or offence to others - it is simply a case of the alcohol bringing out the worst in her.

If it turns out that she will cause upset to others in the household on a regular and unacceptable basis, and any efforts we make to resolve the situation peaceably fail, how would I go about proving that her behaviour was to the detriment of the household as a whole? Does this constitute reasonable grounds to insist that she move out? While we continue to be as supportive and understanding as we can, I fear that some of us will not have the patience to put up with it for much longer. (nor should we expect them to, I feel).

Any advice much appreciated, and many thanks to you.

John