Earlier this week, I spent a couple of days away from home. Home is a shared house. It's a 5-room HMO, but two are currently empty. I came back to find that an unopened container of food in a cupboard was not only no longer unopened, but that about half its contents had gone. Over the course of six months there have been around a dozen incidents where food has been taken, and I suspect they're all the same person. This would be the person who a month or so ago thought that they could somehow deny being the thief when stuff disappeared in a 4-hour window when he and I were the only people in the house.
Also found when I came back were his dirty dishes from the weekend prior which he still hadn't done, and both bathrooms in an absolute state - mould in the downstairs sink, and what looked like debris in the bath upstairs. I had arrived in the early evening, and there were full loads in both the washing machine and the dryer, even though clearly nobody had been home in hours.
Given that this has been happening continually (including a previous occasion when someone just left their dinner outside overnight), I've confronted him about it in the past. He's also a drug user - everyone that's lived here while I've been here (including myself) has been fairly clear that that's not a problem unless it becomes a problem, and I'm wondering whether his brain has just become so addled he can't function properly. I suspected there were maybe some mental health issues or neurological conditions, but he insists that he has neither, which means I have no other option than to just assume he's being an anti-social cunt. He said "I don't have a nice cushy 9-5 job like you all do" and blames his forgetting on working long hours. I'm disabled and working irregularly from home, and the other housemate works shifts in a call centre. We are very much not in the realm of "cushy 9-5".
With my own issues, I can't really afford to just randomly lose a meal or two's worth of supplies a couple of times a month. I don't really have the cash spare to arrange a move, and probably don't have the budget for it anyway. I probably can't afford to put up a deposit, and doubly so given the letting agents are cunts who I would have to fight over it, because they eventually managed to protect the deposit about 4 months late. It's apparently taken them 8 months to do something as simple as fit a restrictor to a window in the spare room, and even then they only did it after the council told them twice, so I'm not convinced that they'd bother doing anything if I reported him for anti-social behaviour.
I can't keep living like this. Short of murdering the cunt in his sleep, what am I even supposed to do? As I said, I can't afford to move, and with the effect this is having on me, I won't be able to afford it either.
>>32589 Does he know that you're having money trouble and can't afford him stealing food from you? If he does then he really is a turd and you should report him even if you don't think it would do anything, make sure to include some pictures of the state he left the house in too. How do the others feel about him? The letting agent would probably be more likely to take action if they received multiple complaints.
>>32590 >Does he know that you're having money trouble and can't afford him stealing food from you?
I made it fairly clear when I confronted him that I can't really afford to do this, and that constantly having to check the fridge and cupboards to see if stuff I put there is still there is taking a toll.
>How do the others feel about him?
The one other person currently here has already had his fill of bullshit with the letting agents anyway and is trying to move out. He rightly doesn't want to get involved because the trouble he's already having with them is too much for him.
Lace a specific item - one you're unlikely to forget - with laxative, then laugh directly into the face of the mystery thief as their arse prolapses into the toilet.
>>32592 Not really up for poisoning anyone. Plus, with his habit of coming home pissed out of his head and the sort of things he brings home to eat at those times, I'm not convinced he'd realise the difference.
Have you tried speaking to the housing department at your local council? I can't make any promises because it depends so much on where you are in the country, but they might be able to help you move into social housing or get a deposit. You're in priority need due to your disability and you're at risk of homelessness due to antisocial behaviour, so they have a legal duty to help you. It might be worth speaking to Citizens Advice first if you want a better understanding of your rights or need a bit of coaching on what to say.
I had a dickhead housemate in an HMO about 10 years ago. He'd have loud parties and the house would be taken over by his scum friends, but I'd stay in my room and it was fine.
When it was the Christmas period, all of the tenants except him went away. When I came back on New Years Day morning as I had to work that day, I found my room trashed, with a condom and a pair of shoes (not mine) on the floor. I went to work, came back, the shoes had disappeared, and there was only one person in the house that wasn't me so it was obvious it was him. I reported him to the landlord, and he got evicted pretty fast. Got the landlord to fit locks to all the rooms, and have never stayed in an HMO since unless it had rooms I could lock.
My experience reporting to a landlord went well, but if your landlord and/or property managers are useless cunts that might not be so easy. I am sorry you have to go through this, feeling vulnerable in your own home is a terrible feeling.
