Housemates leaving gas on

[Anonymous]

so currently, i live with my mum, dad, brother and sister and we have a male living with us at the moment. We did have another one before as well ( both living in seperate rooms) and the other one always smoked in his room, and left the stove on in the kitchen while we were sleeping 3 times! My mum kicked him out and so we have another male now.

He has been very weird, ive never liked him, and just today he leaves the stove on whilst he goes to the shops. My mum has been worried constantly about people like him burning our house down.

She wants to kick him out, but shes afraid he knows too much about our family (have been living with us for 14 months (never uses stove much, and just 2 weeks after the other person left the stove on, my mum gave the current man a warning not to do it). Shes afraid that he will disclose information about us out of anger, and possibly having our keys duplicated and using it himself.

What should my mum do? she has anxiety and depression (over last few years) and takes alot of medication and doesnt need this sort of stress. Kicking him out will cause him to get angry and maybe do things to our house in the last few days (we have to give him a weeks/month notice dont we?)

Any suggestions would be great, really need help atm.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

anon?

[Anonymous]

is that whats supposed to happen?

[Special At Specialist]

we have to give him a weeks/month notice dont we?

Do you have a fixed term agreement of longer than 6 months (eg. did you tell him in January he could stay until August?) If so, then you need to give him 90 days notice. Otherwise you need to give him 60 days notice, unless you can prove that he behaved in a way which is illegal or dangerous to other residents, of which case you can have him evicted immediately.

You can look up the "notice to vacate" requirements here:
http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing-and-accommodation/renting/ending-a-lease-or-residency/landlord-or-owner-ending-lease-or-residency/landlord-giving-notice-to-vacate

In terms of safety, always notify the police when you are planning to evict someone, because you never know how they might react.

[Einstein]

.

[Russ]

You should definitely have gotten a bond/lease and you should do that in future with other tenants. Even for friend of a friend, it's just easier and less messy in situations like this.

If you want to ask him to leave, you will need to give him notice. Leaving the gas on doesn't allow you to evict him immediately, unless it's repeatedly done (I guess it technically put you in danger but I doubt that's going to hold water). You still need to give him sufficient notice, which I think is 2 months minimum. The fact that he's been living there for so long is significant when it comes to these things.

If your mother has issues with stress/anxiety, she should address those independently of the tenancy situation and it would probably be beneficial for her to do so.

[Einstein]

i agree with above