How will giving/renting room impact my student finance?

brians_daughter

My brother rents a house, his landlord has told him last night it is going on the market. His landlord has given him notice.

I have a sapre room at the mo as my youngest still shares with me as he is still awake in the night a lot.

He plans to buy in summer/late spring but hasnt been able to as he has had a rolling 3 month contract. his employer offered him a different perm job about 4 weeks ago so hopefully by may he should be in a position to buy by spring/summer

I have said he can stay with us, i only plan on charging him what it costs me so he can plough more into his deposit savings. ie gas, elec, water (i have a meter) council tax - as i wouldnt pay if i was here alone as a student. He works 12 hr shifts so will be buying own food most of the week and will spend most weekends with his g/f at her parents home.

He cant move back in with our parents as they downsized many years ago, we both left home over 10 years ago so they figured we where never going back! And he has only been with his g/f 12 months so doesnt want to move in with her so early on

What do i tell student finance? i dont know what he will be giving me as i dont know how much extra it will cost to have him here, but it will only be running costs - no £ for the actual room. i have tried to call but its obviously the busiest time!

Do we need a tenancy agreement? i doubt it but dont know!
what do i tell student finance?
How would this impact my student loans/grants?
is this a good idea! (obviously only i know that lol, but i think i would enjoy the company and it enables him to ramp up his savings by a minimum £550 pcm ie what he was paying rent)

Thanks - i have only thought about any implications to my student finance package this morning and he is practically packing his stuff up! lol

Oldernotwiser

As far as I know, this shouldn't affect your student finance and you're allowed to earn something in the region of £4,500 without paying tax under the rent a room scheme.

Don't forget that you'll have to pay council tax (-25%) whilst he's living there so you need to allow for in his rent.

Whilst I think that you're looking at this from a very generous point of view, it might be worthwhile remembering that you're a poor student and your brother's in full time employment so I don't really see that you have to subsidise him totally. If you charge him a cheap rent then you'll both be better off.