Housemate leaves before end of contract.

[qwifty]

Hi LandordZone forumites. I need your advice please.

I rented a room out in my house. My housemate signed up for 6 months but disappeared just before the second months rent was due.
He still as the house keys.

I sent and received a text message yesterday enquiring about his where abouts because I had not seen him for a few days. He replied saying...

"Not left yet. Back in yorkshire at the minute. Doubt i'll be coming back to be honest so will post the keys to u. Got too much **** going on and no disrespect but being treated like a kid sometimes in the house just winds me up more. You will get the keys by post in the next couple of days but u can re-advertise the room now."

I'm not sure exactly what he meant by being treated like a kid. But chatting with my other house mate as revealed the fact that she told him to be quiet at 1am in the morning when he came in drunk and loud and woke her up on a few occasions and on one occasion she told him to hurry up in the bathroom one morning because she needed to go to the toilet whilst he was in the shower.

This seems rather petty reasons for reneging on the houseshare contract he signed with me.

My question is how do I make him fulfil is contractual obligations regarding the legally binding 6 month contract he signed ?

Thanks Dave

[jeffrey]

1. As you reside there, this is not a tenancy covered by the 1988 Act but, at most, either a licence or an excluded tenancy.
2. He is, however, bound by his contractual obligations.
3. Does he have any assets? Verify this before deciding if it's worth suing him.

[qwifty]

No he doesn't have any assets. He could not even afford to pay his share of the bills last month. He had to borrow some money off a friend.

He is working though so he as a regular income. I'm not sure wether to go to the courts but I feel he should be made to pay the remaining rent on his contract until I find someone to take his room, otherwise what is point of having a contract ?

I also noticed yesterday when cleaning his room that he as broken the coat hook off the back of the bedroom door and taken the duvet cover, bottom sheet and pillow cases.

He as still not returned the keys so I'm going to have to replace locks and get new keys cut.

[jeffrey]

Attachment of Earnings?