Gerald turns bad:
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Tenant: Individual room let to Gerald, a single, self-employed market-trader.
Duration of tenancy: two years.
Monthly rent: £180.
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Gerald had always been rough around the edges, but he started to become downright rude and his rental payments started to falter. One day, he was talking to Adrian on the ‘phone whilst we were out shopping for a second-hand car. Our electrician, Paul, had been to Hill View and all the tenants had been informed that there were going to be works going on throughout the house (the council had stipulated new, expensive additions, like low-level lighting as though they were living on an aeroplane). When Gerald realised someone had been in his room, he was furious. He never allowed anyone in there, not even Adrian. Paul had gone in to install a smoke detector and Gerald went ballistic. He shouted at Adrian on the ‘phone:
‘You weren’t f***ing clear! If anyone ever needs to go in the room, they'd better f***ing tell me first! I'm not having anyone in there without me seeing what they're f***ing doing.’
I could see Adrian getting worked up as he listened to this torrent.
‘Well, if any works need doing then, you’ll have to take time off your market stall.’
‘No I f***ing won't,’ he countered, ‘they’ll have to fit in with me.’
This would have meant workers could only come evenings and weekends, which wasn't practical. Adrian pointed this out and Gerald hit the roof.
'Don't get f***ing funny with me! I'm telling you I'm not having f***ing strangers in my room!'
'And I won't have you effing and blinding at me. So you can stop right this minute! I always speak to you civilly and that's how you can speak to me!'
Gerald seemed to calm down then and stopped swearing.
'How come he's so worked up about a little thing like an electrician going into his room?' I asked Adrian. 'It's for his own good, so that he doesn't get burnt to death.'
'Well, he's obviously got something to hide,' he suggested.
It later became clear what an untrustworthy person he was; and he assumed everyone else was equally deceitful (and years later, thinking about it and about the fact that he lived under the radar, paid no taxes and had no bank account, a light bulb went on - 'He's probably got all his money stashed in the room! He'd have to, if he doesn't put anything in the bank,' I declared to Adrian).
Two months before Christmas, he had solemnly promised to pay £70 a week in order to keep up current rental payments and pay off some of his arrears, but then just before Christmas, he said he couldn’t pay because of the snow, but that he would pay double the following week. The next week, when he was due to make this double payment, Adrian sent him a text reminder and he immediately ‘phoned back complaining about being ‘pressured’ by Adrian. By then, he owed us some of October’s rent, plus all of November and December’s rent – more than £500, with us paying not only the mortgage, but the council tax, water, and electricity bills. Maybe he thought we were his mother and father, despite us being younger than him.
As it was a Saturday, he then said:
‘Well, is Natwest open after 12 today?’
Adrian said, ‘I don’t know.’
‘Well, if I can’t get it in on time, you’ll have to come up for it.’
‘No, I won’t,' Adrian corrected him. 'You have to pay it in.’
He texted a while later to say he'd paid, but it was clear he hadn’t been intending to do so before Adrian had 'pressured' him.