Ex-flatmates owes us money...

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 454
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Basically I'm pretty sure we're screwed, and can't get anything but I thought I may as well ask and see if anybody knows of anything we can do.

Me and my flatmate moved in with another girl two years ago, signing a joint tenancy with guarantors. We were very close with the girl, and she'd never had any problems with money, so we thought it'd be fine. She'd always paid her rent and everything. We moved out two weeks ago, and she'd gone to stay with her family for two months before that, but had left her stuff at the flat and still came back regularly. Two days before moving out, and after she'd moved all of her stuff out, our landlord informed us that she hadn't paid two months rent, which would be taken out of our deposit if she didn't.

Anyway, we got our deposits back, and as she hadn't paid the landlord had used her six week deposit to pay her rent, and taken two months rent out of mine and my other flatmate's deposits to cover the other two weeks and told us we'd have to get it back off her. We've been texting and calling her the last week and she's completely ignored us. As she's living with her family quite far away it's not really an option for us to go and visit her. It's a fair bit of money she owes us, as well as bills that she didn't pay. I know that since we signed a joint tenancy it's counted as one deposit/rent etc, what our landlord did was completely fair and legal, but is there any way we could get our money back from her without threatening her with a baseball bat?

Comments

  • davidmcndavidmcn Posts: 12,086
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    Put it in writing to her and threaten her with the small claims court, you'll find suitable wording if you search around. Whether it's worthwhile gong to court about it depends on whether she actually has the money.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 143
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    contact her parents?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 157
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    Why did he take two months worse of rent to cover the last 2 weeks? I don't understand.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 454
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    She owed two months, so the landlord used her entire six weeks deposit which leaves two weeks which he took from us.

    I thought we might have to threaten small claims court, just worried that it won't actually work, or if it goes ahead wouldn't be worth the cost/hassle. Going to give her a few more days, contact her parents then if not, go ahead with threatening SCC. Such a hassle.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 28
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    She owed two months, so the landlord used her entire six weeks deposit which leaves two weeks which he took from us.

    I thought we might have to threaten small claims court, just worried that it won't actually work, or if it goes ahead wouldn't be worth the cost/hassle. Going to give her a few more days, contact her parents then if not, go ahead with threatening SCC. Such a hassle.

    So a week each? Is that really worth bothering about or was it an expensive flat?

    EDIT: Sorry, didn't see the bit about the bills!
  • jsmith99jsmith99 Posts: 20,382
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    davidmcn wrote: »
    Put it in writing to her and threaten her with the small claims court, you'll find suitable wording if you search around. Whether it's worthwhile gong to court about it depends on whether she actually has the money.

    Did you each have a separate guarantor? Maybe send a letter to each of them, threatening to sue them jointly. If you took that step, then they'd also have the service fee to pay.
  • Keefy-boyKeefy-boy Posts: 13,561
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    jsmith99 wrote: »
    Did you each have a separate guarantor? Maybe send a letter to each of them, threatening to sue them jointly. If you took that step, then they'd also have the service fee to pay.

    Each guarantor would only be liable to underwrite sums owed by their tenant to the landlord, not by their tenant to he other co-tenants. As he has recovered all the money owed under the joint tenancy from the other co-tenants and the lease is ended they have no further liability.
  • jsmith99jsmith99 Posts: 20,382
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    Keefy-boy wrote: »
    The guarantors would only be liable to underwrite sums owed to the landlord, not the other co-tenants. As he has recovered all the money owed from the other co-tenants and the lease is ended they have no further liability.

    Probably true, though the fact it was a joint tenancy might make a difference. It would depend on the exact wording of the guarantee.
  • c4rvc4rv Posts: 29,538
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    If its anything less then a couple of hundred pounds then you are going to find it really difficult to get anything off her without a lot of effort on your part. I would keep trying to get in touch and try her parents.

    Also I thought it was a bit odd the landlord took the money out of your deposit. I would have though that effectively had three separate contracts that were not interrelated. Should have he not gone after her guarantor. Double check was it says in the contract.
  • Keefy-boyKeefy-boy Posts: 13,561
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    c4rv wrote: »
    Also I thought it was a bit odd the landlord took the money out of your deposit. I would have though that effectively had three separate contracts that were not interrelated. Should have he not gone after her guarantor. Double check was it says in the contract.
    She said it was a 'joint tenancy' so all tenants are jointly liable for the rent and the Landlord was entitled to recover the unpaid rent in the easiest way open to him. From his perspective that was far and away the easiest way I'd have thought.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,519
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    c4rv wrote: »
    If its anything less then a couple of hundred pounds then you are going to find it really difficult to get anything off her without a lot of effort on your part. I would keep trying to get in touch and try her parents.

    Also I thought it was a bit odd the landlord took the money out of your deposit. I would have though that effectively had three separate contracts that were not interrelated. Should have he not gone after her guarantor. Double check was it says in the contract.

    BIB - As far as I recall, in my last joint tenancy, each guarantor was liable for any rent that wasn't paid, regardless of whose share of the rent that was. In the end, my guarantor spotted this clause in the contract and got the letting agent to add an extra clause to our contract stating that she was liable for my rent and my rent only. We forwarded that clause to the other tenants so they could add it into their contract too, but they chose not to in the end.

    I agree though, check your contract, just in case. It's a shitty situation to be in, and the height of rudeness not to respond to your many attempts to get in contact.
  • TagletTaglet Posts: 20,286
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    If you have all the evidence take it to small claims court....its not as difficult as it sound to do.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 454
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    It's in London, so the rent was fairly expensive, with the bills included she owes us around £350 each, which I know isn't a massive amount, but neither of us are earning that much money, and it's over what I'd spend a month on living.

    As Katie Jane said, with ours it was that the guarantors were liable for everyone rent, rather than just theirs, and again that was a contract with the landlord rather than us. It's really annoying because as it was the last two months she hadn't paid, we didn't find out until very last minute. I'm sure if it'd been earlier then the landlord would have gone after her guarantor, but as we were leaving anyway just used the deposit.

    We're going to contact her parents, then send her a SCC letter. I doubt we'll go through with it, but hopefully the threat will be enough.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,588
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    £700 is worth a little trouble, but the system will use up a lot of time and effort, so any way of getting something back without the courts has got to be worth considering.
    cases get transferred to the defendant's local court.

    I'd suggest something like a modest standing order - she may freak at £700, but £35 a month isn't as frightening.
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