OK, question for the wise users of this forum.

My Girlfriend has moved in as a lodger to a 2 bed house where the owner (who no doubt cannot afford the mortgage) has just landed her with a tenancy agreement (not license which I thought was standard for lodgers). Part of the terms of this is that should my girlfriend move out she has to find a new occupant for her room. Can the landlady do this or is this a clause that has no backup under case law/statutory law?

A little background. My GF pays half the bills yet the landlady runs her film production company ( ) from an office there, using up way more than half the electricity. Also the GF is not on the council tax bill at this new residence and as such I cannot remove her from my own.

Anyone on here offer any assistance?

I cannot see why you cannot remove her from your council tax, as she doesn't live there any more? The fact that she is not listed as resident at her landlady's has nothing to do with you.

As for the clause mentioned above, I'm not a lawyer (so take anything I say with a grain of salt) but it sounds very much like it would be deemed an unfair term/condition. Sounds to me like she would be better finding somewhere else to lodge as this LL seems like she might be a bit of a nightmare in all sorts of ways.

Does anyone know what the legal situation is with deposits as a lodger?

In my opinion (and I’ve only read a bit about housing rules) it is unenforceable.

I don’t think she can have an assured tenancy for just a room in a house so there is no obligation to rent it for a long specified period. If it was an assured tenancy the landlady may offer a get-out for the assured period if she found another lodger.
She probably only has to give notice of the period over which she pays rent- normally a month.

If the landlady gets shirty then she could get stung for non-payment of council tax and council tax fraud (if claiming a 25% discount), electoral roll fraud (if she had to declare your girlfriend on the electoral roll) and running a business from her home (maybe if she hasn’t checked it out with the council). Alternatively, she could just phone the local DHSS who will always be looking for rooms for their clients. I bet the landlady’s contract does not say anything about the “quality” of the tenant so a 17 year old unemployed bloke with a history of drug abuse might be just the ticket.

Have you seen the clause yourself?

There is sometime a clause in agreements in which a tenant can leave with no notice period if they find a replacement tenant to fill the gap. I am thinking it might just be one of those, or supposed to be one of those but worded badly.

Thanks for all replies on this guys my GF is in a right tizz over what this idiot is up to.

Injin: no I have not seen the paper myself but the GF is going to bring to my house this weekend for a look over so more news then.

Andy07: Good points, I too believe it unenforceable as effectively this woman removes the right of my GF to move out of the area for work commitments, which is possibly strays into european law on the right to roam bla-blah.

D'oh: My advice also is to start looking for somewhere else. I am looking for work in London but I would need a rise to cope with the inflation that is coming to the London plus a healthy relocation budget, she is obviously reluctant as she could end up stuck in a year tenancy whilst I live around the corner (hopefully). If anyone has knowledge of a decent house share for around £320 a month in West London it would be most appreciated

Again all advice is welcome so if anyone else can fill me in some more on this it would be most appreciated.

ouch.... I think I cracked a rib.

Your GF is a lodger. However, if she signs an agreement, she is contractually obliged to fulfil the terms of the agreement she signs. I would advise that she does not sign the agreement, as if she does, there is no question that she is liable for the terms within it. The terms cannot be overrulled as suggested by the OFT unfair terms, and/or "preventing roam of employment".

I would have to disagree. If a contract or agreement is deemed unfair or illegal it can not be enforced. I do not think it is legally acceptable to force someone to remain liable for the rent until they themselves find a replacement lodger.

I'm sorry, but thats just not true. If a contract is illegal, it cannot be enforced, you are correct. This contract is not illegal. In a tenancy, if CERTAIN TERMS are considered unfair, then they cannot be enforced. However, this is not a tenancy. This comes down to simple contract law. Whilst I agree that in court, the landlord would probably not get(for example) 6 months rent paid to him, I would also consider it unlikely(due to that contract) that the court would obstruct a claim for 2 or 3 months. The OP needs to be VERY aware that this is not a tenancy, and as such statute law and the OFT's rulings on fair terms do not apply. There is NO LAW that prevents a contract(a standard contract, not a tenancy or other "regulated" contract) from applying if the terms are considered unfair. Apart from anything else, there is no kind of legal definition of unfair for contract terms - only for tenancy terms, which this is not!

I would concur that she should not sign. Having said that, generally there is a test of reasonableness with respect to contract terms and they can be declared invalid, at least in b2b and in b2c contracts for the provision of goods and services. The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 does not apply to tenancy and licensee agreements but that the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulation 1999 does.

MrShed is correct though in stating that your GF would probably not be a tenant. She would probably be a licensee rather than a tenant if the LL is not excluded from her room/they share a living room etc. In this case the LL doesn't even have to give 28 days notice to your GF if she wants her to move out.

I have no clue as to how the UTCC would apply in this case as there is a distinction made between standard terms and those clauses that have been separately negotiated. The LL certainly cannot raise the rent by 200% in the middle of the contract - that is definitely excluded, but what may be considered unreasonable by a normal person may not be considered unreasonable by a lawyer... speak to Shelter or the CAB would be my suggestion if she must continue living in this property.

I would hope that if the landlord wanted the right of absolute veto on any prospective replacement found by your GF together with the "must find replacement clause" this would probably be deemed unfair as the contract would more or less allow the LL to keep charging rent forever and having the house to herself once your GF left. This is a significant imbalance between the parties in the contract, and this is the sort of thing that is considered unreasonable, i.e. an imbalance between the parties to terminate the contract. However, would she want the hassle of sorting out the mess when the LL tried to enforce the contract? Court is a miserable and stressful experience even when you are in the right. Best for her to leave now. The contract as it stands indicates that the person behind it is a nasty piece of work and best to be avoided. It has been my experience, in business and in personal contracts, that whenever someone presents you with a contract like this you should just stop all dealings with them if you can. Otherwise, you will end up having a miserable time in the future one way or the other. Reasonable businesses and people propose reasonable contracts.

Oh dear Symo. all sounds a bit too boiler-plated, just so she can be a lodger. GF's gaff>possessions>couple of garden sacks>front door. Now.
The late unlamented al-Zarqawi placed fewer strictures on his guests.
This woman sounds like a classic middle-class control-freak. Do not sign. Walk.

Or is there more to the situation than a simple "hey, I saw your 'room-to-let' card. How much?"?
Work involvement, for example?

As for the council-tax thing ... words fail me.

Good luck with the house for eighty quid a week. Up here, a depressed rural area (is there any other kind?) where wages, when available, are so low that a country postie and his wife live like lord's b4st4rds (SUV, horse in livery, etc., I kid you not) the butt-end of housedom is some freezing run-down ex-hind's hovel in the farm row, next to the slurry-pit, miles from anywhere. £425 and upwards, generally.
You could get a ground-floor ex-council flat in the scheme in the local town, though. Where they dump all the junkies and jakies until Sheriff exports them to Edinburgh. You need a payrise, pal.


[edited to bang on a bit more]
It doesn't matter how desperate and homeless she feels now, GTFO.
This is just the beginning, and already things are a bit whiffy, nothing like as bad as it's going to get. Once she signs you're both over a barrel. Like D'oh says, a nasty piece of work. Save your sanity and WALK.
I am very old, which means I know everything

http://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk...-a-room-scheme/

Ooops, now I've got me specs on I notice that. Sorry for being irrelevant.
Even so, a room in a stinky 'student' flat in the street I'm just about to drive to in Embry will set you back £295 to £330, swivelling around £310.