Should I charge- what's fair

punisher5112

Dav010 wrote: »

The same way it would be fair if you went away for a month, you would still be obligated to pay for utilities even though you are not there to use them.

It’s not a case that they were nice enough to tell you they are leaving, if you are leaving, you are obligated to give notice.

Not totally the same as if the home owner has you in they can turf you out without notice, obviously at the moment this is on hold but a licencee has no rights

twowheelsonly

shipsey wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies. I appreciate everyone taking the time.
I will definitely not be touching the tenants stuff . From the one time I was in the room it was jam packed and stuff everywhere
I am not a big landlord I have one house which I rent when I moved in with my partner . Rent just covers mortgage
I think I will tell them I will continue to charge by the week rather than the month till room is vacated


I'm sure the other tenants would like the room occupied as bills spilt and can't rent out again cause room occupied with stuff
I am trying to be fair here and am in on way taking the p*ss or take advantage as some people on here are trying to suggest

What happens now if the tenant just gives you the two fingers and stops paying the rent ?
You'll end up having to clear it out anyway.

Best to do it now and be done with it to give yourself a chance to rent the room out again ASAP.
Let the other tenants know as well and chances are they might know somebody looking to come in and rent or possible even advertise it in their workplaces for you.

Caranica

The room is occupied, rent is due. It's not the owner's fault that the lodger can't get back to Ireland. I don't see why you should be out of pocket OP. I also agree that you should not touch their stuff.

JimmyVik

If they cant move they cant move. I would not be charging them extra for living there when they arent.
What you could do is get their agreement to pay someone to come in and box up their stuff from a moving company who will then bring it to storage for them. They will also offer them insurance against damage if they want to take that out.
You have your room back and can now start earning from it again, and their stuff is safe and waiting for them when they want to collect it.

That how is works in the US.
Now you may have a problem at the moment getting a packer and storage facility due to restrictions, or you may not. You'll have to find out.

Browney7

How do you plan on getting them to pay and what actions are you willing to take to enforce your landlord rights OP? The tenant isn't going to pay to you

Dav010

JimmyVik wrote: »

If they cant move they cant move. I would not be charging them extra for living there when they arent.
What you could do is get their agreement to pay someone to come in and box up their stuff from a moving company who will then bring it to storage for them. They will also offer them insurance against damage if they want to take that out.
You have your room back and can now start earning from it again, and their stuff is safe and waiting for them when they want to collect it.

That how is works in the US.
Now you may have a problem at the moment getting a packer and storage facility due to restrictions, or you may not. You'll have to find out.

That’s very generous of you not to charge. But the op has a mortgage to pay.

Are you saying the tenant should organise someone to box and store? (I’m sure the op would be very happy with that, but the tenant might refuse), or surely you are not suggesting the op pay for it with tenant’s agreement, what if it is left there for months?

Still waters

If it happened that the room was cleaned out, can someone move in while this is going on? If so, would the other tenants be comfortable with someone moving with a potentially life threatening virus

Noddy33

Was in a similar situation as our OP where I had a tenant that due to Covid virus was temporarily laid off. Tenant took decision understandably to return to home place during lockdown to be with family. Come end of March i message tenant to say that given the unforseen circumstances that I would compromise and only charge half rent price for April along with since she would be living at home for the month I would not charge her any for of the normal monthly bills (ie electricity, Gas and Wifi etc).

As everything was a complete unknown as to when all this would end she decided give me her notice(2 days notice I may add) and vacate the room. She then asked would i be returning her deposit and i decided to take decision not to give deposit back to her. I explained to her from my circumstance she no effectively given no notice of vacating room, I believe I made a very reasonable offer of rent for April and bills while also I only take a halve months rent cost as deposit from tenants so told her that was my thoughts on it and that she could ring me if she wanted to discuss further. She didnt challenge me further and i did think was i being fair but......... in wider context there has to be some level of compromise here from both the tenant and landlord

Irish_peppa

I have / had a guy renting a room of me. His job site is on hold. It just so happened it was shut down when he went on holidays home for 2 weeks. He contacted me and has no idea if he will get his job back or whats going on. He was planning to seek citizenship in Ireland with family so his world totally turned upside down as he thought that job was the start of a new life here and was thrilled.. His car is outside, his room is full of his belongings. I have froze his rent as the chap has no job and I will leave his stuff in situ in room until / If / when i need to re-rent it. His stuffs not really in my way as im not renting room during this pandemic so its not really any skin off my nose. If he doesnt come at that stage where things go back to normal and I need the room ill box his belongings up if he wants to have courier collect it. Its a crazy time for all and hes been a decent chap. He has already offered for me to hang onto deposit if he is not able to come back. Ill help him sell his car if need be. It sucks for us all.

JimmyVik

Dav010 wrote: »

That’s very generous of you not to charge. But the op has a mortgage to pay.

Are you saying the tenant should organise someone to box and store? (I’m sure the op would be very happy with that, but the tenant might refuse), or surely you are not suggesting the op pay for it with tenant’s agreement, what if it is left there for months?

I am suggesting tenat calls storage companies and arranges and pays for it. Its their stuff after all and they are no longer tenants.



If the tenant refuses throw it out. You made the offer. Up to them to take it or leave it Its up to the tenant to mind their own stuff. They cant not pay what they owe and let the person they are not paying it to mind their stuff too.


I think it would be a fair offer.

cannotlogin

Usual times, unusual situations.

How much a deposit do you have?

Advise him that you are taking a 3 month position on this in line with the 3 month mortgage break you can get from the bank and that you will review the situation after that. Even if the room was empty at the moment, the likelihood of being able to rent it is slim.

If the situation continues after that advise him that you can allow him to leave things for one further month subject you you retaining his deposit.

After 5 months, if he cannot make alternative arrangements, let him you have no choice but to box off the items and get rid of them. That is more than generous.

While you will be down the 3 months rent, you would be in the same position if he had cleared the room and no worse off. Not ideal, but what is the alternative.

dubrov

OP, just tell the tenant you are arranging for someone to come and box up their stuff and store it.
Just use the deposit to cover the cost.

Ideo

dubrov wrote: »

OP, just tell the tenant you are arranging for someone to come and box up their stuff and store it.
Just use the deposit to cover the cost.

This is reasonable. You can keep some of the deposit to cover some of rent and the rest to box the possessions.

Purple Mountain

dubrov wrote: »

OP, just tell the tenant you are arranging for someone to come and box up their stuff and store it.
Just use the deposit to cover the cost.

Who's going to volunteer to do that?
That's not an essential journey for someone to make and how could you ask someone to go into a house where 2 other tenants are?

jim-mcdee

Fol20 wrote: »

Even if they are not physically in the room. They are still using it when their stuff is there.

It’s like a tenant asking to pay 50pc rent if they go on holidays for 2 weeks

I wouldn’t touch the tenants stuff as they could claim you damaged or stole something.

Tell the tenant. You will charge him until all of his stuff is out of your house.

If they want to move on but can't because of the restrictions I think it would be wrong to charge them and possibly not legal.

ted1

Well they have to live somewhere, they have their motive to move out and move In elsewhere, they can’t move in elsewhere so their new landlord should take the hit, not the one providing the room for them and their stuff.

So yes charge them, their new landlord shouldn’t

Also when did they travel ? People knew about restrictions for a while. Their gamble / bad decision to travel shouldn’t be on you.

dubrov

Purple Mountain wrote:

Who's going to volunteer to do that? That's not an essential journey for someone to make and how could you ask someone to go into a house where 2 other tenants are?

No need for a volunteer. One of the other tenants might do it for a fee.

Otherwise, the OP will have to wait until the restrictions are lifted enough to get a third party in to do it. I guess it would be fair to charge rent up until that date.

Emme

OP could you come to an agreement to charge for storage while they're not there? Do you still have their deposit? If so consider holding on to that if necessary.

3DataModem

If you are going to move the stuff to a self-storage unit, bear in mind that almost all of those companies insist on a credit card when you drop off, and will debit ongoing costs to that card until the stuff is collected.

jawacz

Posted this in the "Covid Restrictions of Movement" but got no response so moderators please delete there.

Hi, I have two people in my home on the "Rent a Room" scheme. One person who has been here a year, continuing to work Monday to Friday is a non-national and has no family in Ireland, came back two days ago with her regular boyfriend who often stays overnight. I understand that he lives more than 2km away, I spoke to her as they got out of the car and explained that she should not socialise with anybody outside her household and that he should not be here, they left and she returned alone a few hours later.

Yesterday she went out in her car and has stayed out overnight.

There are three others living here and apart from her we are complying with the restrictions of movement. I would prefer not to have her staying here any longer, Should I just tell her to get accommodation elsewhere & how much time should I allow prior to moving out?

Yes, the rent is very welcome particularly as I am on the Government Covid 19 subsidy but our health and that of the rest of the country is priority.

punisher5112

jawacz wrote: »

Posted this in the "Covid Restrictions of Movement" but got no response so moderators please delete there.

Hi, I have two people in my home on the "Rent a Room" scheme. One person who has been here a year, continuing to work Monday to Friday is a non-national and has no family in Ireland, came back two days ago with her regular boyfriend who often stays overnight. I understand that he lives more than 2km away, I spoke to her as they got out of the car and explained that she should not socialise with anybody outside her household and that he should not be here, they left and she returned alone a few hours later.

Yesterday she went out in her car and has stayed out overnight.

There are three others living here and apart from her we are complying with the restrictions of movement. I would prefer not to have her staying here any longer, Should I just tell her to get accommodation elsewhere & how much time should I allow prior to moving out?

Yes, the rent is very welcome particularly as I am on the Government Covid 19 subsidy but our health and that of the rest of the country is priority.

Tell her stay where she is and not come back till the lockdown is over.... Simple.

jawacz

punisher5112 wrote: »

Tell her stay where she is and not come back till the lockdown is over.... Simple.

Good point.

Hotblack Desiato

She's a licencee, a house guest you can "uninvite" at any time for any reason.