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I am a student studying in Europe and I sublet my room to another student (I did not know this subtenant) for a month until mid-January. I'm not asking for any legal advice but I'd really appreciate some general advice in this situation.
I didn't ask for deposit (which now I know is a huge stupid mistake) because it was a very short period and I based my trust on "my subtenant is also a student". I only asked him to pay the rent in full amount within the first week he moved in. We signed the sublease and I left the country. I was in touch with my housemates during his stay, I heard he brought a friend in the house (I thought it was just a sleepover kind of friend but it turned out to be more like a second subtenant) and my housemates' food started to go missing all the time and the shared space was very very messy. My housemates talked to them about the problems and they apologized but did it again and again. My subtenant gave me one excuse after another for his rent delay. I kept reminding him about the rent all the time. He was very polite in his messages so I didn't say anything harsh to him (and considering he's in my room and I left a lot of my stuff in the room.) But he just didn't keep his words again, and again. I was out of the country so I couldn't really do much from afar. When I got back in town, he and his friend already left the house and didn't even leave me the keys. When I managed to get in my room, it was a completely mess. The whole room stinks with smoke smell and cigarette butts on my bed, and a couple of holes on the floor. My stuff was used and scattered. Just a total mess. My subtenant avoided to see me (obviously) and he apologized for his friend's behavior (according to him, he moved out earlier and his friend stayed by himself) and he promised his mom would send me the money that Friday. Anyway, I did not get the money and he completely blocked me on facebook (the only way we kept in touch) so I can't even contact him now. I already felt it's impossible to get my money when I got back, but on the other hand, it really sucks to know that he can simply get away with this. I've filed a report in police station already but they told me there's not much they can do.
Right now there's only one thing I haven't tried... I found his mother on facebook (my subtenant was my facebook "friend" earlier) and I'm temped to send her a message to tell her the whole story. I'm not sure if this is a good idea because he's an adult already and moms normally take their kids' side. Any thoughts? Thanks for reading such a long post.
Let it go and move on. You did everything possible wrong so clean up your room and learn from this mistake which could have been a lot worse than it was. As tempting as it may be, leave his mother out of it. If there's a next time, learn how to do things properly right from the beginning. Good luck!
Yes my landlord knew about and agreed on this arrangement, but of course the sublease arrangement was only signed by me and my subtenant.
I'm not sure what you meant by "pay the rent that you owe"? I've already paid the rent to my landlord even though I didn't get the money from my subtenant.
Let it go and move on. You did everything possible wrong so clean up your room and learn from this mistake which could have been a lot worse than it was. As tempting as it may be, leave his mother out of it. If there's a next time, learn how to do things properly right from the beginning. Good luck!
Yeah I've surely learned an expensive lesson from that... Thanks for your input.
You can try to get his mom to pay you. Guilt her into it. Worth a shot. I'm sure she will rationalize her sons behavior even though her son is a pile of excrement
Since you say this person is out of the country you could always nicely get in touch with his mother and let her know that he told you she would send you the rent money on his behalf (I missed that on the first read) but it never came. "Just wondered if you had my address ..." sort of thing. Don't go into detail about he left the place, just leave it at that and see what the response is.
I just sent his mom a polite message and tried my best to not to sound like I'm accusing her son. Unfortunately I'm not connected with his mom on fb in any ways, so my message will end up in her "other" folder and maybe she will never see it.... But oh well, I have tried it. (fingers crossed)
If there are burn holes in the carpet, etc., get an estimate for repairs, and include that in your suit, along with rent owed. Also ask the court for your court fees to be reimbursed by this little scumbag.
One way to find someone's new address, is to send an envelope to his last known address and write on the front "Do Not Forward." What happens then, is the post office puts the yellow forwarding address sticker on the envelope, but then sends it back to you, instead of forwarding it on. So, then you have the forwarding address.
I learned that trick from my dad. He was an investigator for the public defender, for a county here in CA.
There are other ways to find someone, too. You can pay a process server to find him and serve him with the small claims court action.
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