King’s student: Runaway landlord nicked my stuff – then I saw his mate in my t-shirt

Computer Science student Josh Tigger Carley

A DEVASTATED King’s student discovered his flat stripped of thousands of pounds of his possessions after his landlord mysteriously vanished.

Josh Tigger-Carley, a third year Computer Science student, left his flat above the pub in Leytonstone for a week to allow for a kitchen to be fitted, only to return home to find nearly everything – including his laptop, TV and books – had been stolen.

All he had left was the single suitcase of clothes he had taken with him.

The theft followed the dramatic departure of his landlord, who fled after emptying a safe full of cash from the pub below the flat. “No-one knew where he went”, Josh told Roar.

‘Not eating’

The reality was made harder to swallow as Josh saw the pub chef wander about in his t-shirts. His new landlord demonstrated a staggering lack of compassion, simply telling Josh to “deal with it.”

He was left helpless, unable to sue the pub because he hadn’t signed a contract, something he urges all students to do.

He was working 17 hours a week for them just to cover his board. The flat had no kitchen, which meant he had to live on limited amounts of fast food. “I lost a lot of weight from not eating,” he said.

The landlord told him a kitchen was going to be fitted in mid-October and he would have to stay elsewhere for the week, during which time the theft occurred.

‘Hopelessness’

He was forced to move out of the flat the day before one of his January exams, which understandably left him “fuming”.

With nowhere else to go, Joshua moved in with with his girlfriend he’d been seeing for a few months.

Although he said she had been “brilliant” about the whole thing, he confided that the stressful situation had put a “strain on the early relationship”. He was forced to move elsewhere after a month when her flatmate asked him to leave.

In the month following the ordeal, Josh was forced to shell out £1,000 replacing essential items.

‘Nothing I can do’

He attempted to access the King’s hardship fund to cover some of the costs, but was told that it didn’t apply in situations such as his.

The traumatic experience has left him feeling “really angry,” with a sense of “hopelessness”.

He remains in financial difficulty and had to ask a friend to pay the deposit and first few months’ rent for his new flat.

“Living that year was tough”, he admits. “I’m upset about it, but there is nothing I can do”.

For advice on how to rent, click here. Contact King’s Student Advice Service here.