rental/HMO questions

WolfSong2000

okay...I've been looking for accommodation close to the university I will be attending as a postgrad in september. Current options are a £580 one bedroom flat in the town itself - it's old servants quarters. Quite damp (but no visible mould), the main coridoor looks like an underground bunker, *but* it's literally accross the road from the building I'd be studying in.

The second option is a 5 bedroom house, 15 min away on the bus (I don't drive), £575 per month, with stupidly low utilities costs (lower than the one bedroom in town, somehow!).

Now, I like the second one, despite the distance, but as it has 5 rooms, I want to look into renting some of them out to ease the rent costs. At the moment, one other friend is moving in with me, but I'll be paying over half of the rent, which isn't ideal (long story).

Anyhow, what I was wondering is, would my friend and I be able to go under a single contract, and then have someone else in under a second contract? In other words, can you have 2 people on one contract or does it have to be one person per contract?

I know you're not meant to have more than 2 unrelated people sharing, but my sister said some of her friends had used the aforementioned method without problems.

Anyhow...my friend is thinking about the town flat, but I am worried about the damp, etc, plus we'd have to convert the living room into a bedroom for her, but bus passes are £50 per month flat rate for the county.

This is in Scotland, by the way, if that makes any difference...

I have to let the landlords in the house know today one way or the other, so any help would be much appreciated!

clutton_2

you are talking about sub letting... ask your LL if you can do that....

if you saving more than £50 per month on low utiilities out of town, this will pay for the bus fare....

i would not want to live in a damp basement.....

WolfSong2000

so if the landlord ok'd the sub letting, then there would be no need for an HMO license?

scottishblondie

"An HMO is a property that is shared by three or more tenants who aren't members of the same family."

As far as I can tell the HMO rules apply if it is all one property, the thing about the contracts doesn't make a difference so you would need an HMO. While it is true that plenty of dodgy landlords get away with not having an HMO licence for large properties, if they're not complying with that you have to wonder what else they aren't doing. So if the landlord is all above board then I doubt they would be amenable to you subletting rooms, as it would probably put them at risk of a big fat fine if the council finds out. Or possibly you if you were then the landlord of the people you were subletting to? There's plenty of info about HMO properties on the Shelter website.

So if you like the big house better and the 2 of you can actually afford the rent without subletting, then go for it. The place in town sounds a bit miserable from your description.

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

you are talking about sub letting... ask your LL if you can do that....

It may be about a little more than that The OP says "I know you're not meant to have more than 2 unrelated people sharing, but my sister said some of her friends had used the aforementioned method without problems." so I'm not sure whether s/he is perhaps trying to deal with a LL who is wanting to circumvent HMO rules? The property is in Scotland, so the OP needs to check that the LL is registered with the council

OP - if the town property is damp now, in summer, with no mould showing, the odds are that come the winter months there will black mould a-plenty.

ETA - ah, Scottishblondie's post wasn't there when I started my response. I see we're thinking along the same lines

red40

scottishblondie wrote: »

"An HMO is a property that is shared by three or more tenants who aren't members of the same family."

The actual HMO definiton starts when its 2 people in 2 households, not 3 people in 2 households, hope that helps.

WolfSong2000

so the subletting would be a no-go...haven't discussed it with the landlords, who seem lovely. I just know the property doesn't have an HMO and they wont budge on the rent (having said that, £575 for such a big property is pretty damn cheap, as in the centreof town, the average price is £450pp sharing in a house...the accommodation the uni offered me was £116 per week sharing with 6 other people, and not including food/utilities.

Would another option be taking on exchange students temporarily - e.g. those only looking to stay for a term, as the property wouldn't then be their primary residence? The research I've done suggests this may be a possibility?

Thanks for your help, guys - much appreciated!

orangeslimes

WolfSong2000 wrote: »

so the subletting would be a no-go...haven't discussed it with the landlords, who seem lovely. I just know the property doesn't have an HMO and they wont budge on the rent (having said that, £575 for such a big property is pretty damn cheap, as in the centreof town, the average price is £450pp sharing in a house...the accommodation the uni offered me was £116 per week sharing with 6 other people, and not including food/utilities.

I was going to ask where you are trying to live that costs £450 per month on average in Scotland - as I know in Edinburgh and Glasgow you can easily pay less than that, but as I was typing I thought of one university town where a £450 figure average in the centre might not surprise me.

If you are going for the place 15 minutes away by bus I would research the regularity of the buses especially at night etc. I wouldn't move in somewhere with signs of damp.

WolfSong2000

orangeslimes wrote: »

I was going to ask where you are trying to live that costs £450 per month on average in Scotland - as I know in Edinburgh and Glasgow you can easily pay less than that, but as I was typing I thought of one university town where a £450 figure average in the centre might not surprise me.

If you are going for the place 15 minutes away by bus I would research the regularity of the buses especially at night etc. I wouldn't move in somewhere with signs of damp.

It's St. Andrews, so a lot of the prices are practically the same as London, which is appalling. Having said that, Aberdeen is similar...it can be tricky to find a decent place for a good price.

Bus stop is right outside the door of the house, and leave every 15 inutes up until about 11:30pm, so that's not too much of an issue.

PasturesNew

WolfSong2000 wrote: »

the accommodation the uni offered me was £116 per week sharing with 6 other people, and not including food/utilities.

I'd go with that for the first year - that has to be THE cheapest rent this side of 1975. And that bus ticket's cheap as chips, it's about £45/WEEK where I live (nowhere near london).

WolfSong2000

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd go with that for the first year - that has to be THE cheapest rent this side of 1975. And that bus ticket's cheap as chips, it's about £45/WEEK where I live (nowhere near london).

It's a postgrad, so only one year...and the rent is ridiculous, as the building next door is half the cost (discovered this after all the rooms had been assigned)...plus I don't "play well with others" as it were, with regards to accommodation, so the fewer people I live with the better. lol. (I like personal space too much).