Renting out a spare room

buzzby

Hi

In the new year I will be looking to rent out my spare room. I thought I'd come on here for some great advice.

How should I go about this?
References, deposits etc.

Any websites you could point me to.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Buzz

BitterAndTwisted

Lodgers have little to no security of tenure but it's sensible to draw up an agreement so you both know what your terms and conditions are for things like sharing the cleaning, whether you're happy for them to have friends round and that sort of thing. Decide if the rent includes a share of utility bills or whether you want the lodger to contribute a percentage. Interview prospective lodgers like you would if you were interviewing them for a job. You are giving strangers unrestricted access to your home and all of your possessions so you need to be extremely cautious about who you select.

ALWAYS take out references from previous landlords, a job-reference and get a copy of their ID and NI number. Take a damage-deposit equivalent to one month's rent and one month's rent in advance. I believe there's a draft/guide lodger's agreement available on the LandlordZone site.

Don't forget that there's an upper-limit before you have to declare the rent as income for tax purposes. See the Gov't "Rent-A-Room" scheme for clarification.

buzzby

Cheers for the great advice.

Is there any websites about where I could get hold of a contract agreement that I could edit?

I wouldn't know where to start.

Browntoa

think the threshold for tax is £4250 if memory serves me right

BitterAndTwisted

buzzby wrote: »

Cheers for the great advice.

Is there any websites about where I could get hold of a contract agreement that I could edit?

I wouldn't know where to start.

I suggested the LandlordZone site in my previous post

G_M

landlordzone or put 'lodger' in the search box

gov tax

Have VERY clear rules, preferably written/agreed.
What's included/excluded in thr rent?
What areas of the property are on/off limits?
Who cleans what?
Food storage/preparation? Sharing basics (salt, pepper, teabags, loo roll, cleaning things etc)?
Visitors? Overnight visitors? Frequency?
Notice period (Be VERY careful - if your relationship breaks down you'll want them out of YOUR home fast - see some threads on here!) but only fair they can also give you short notice in that case.
power consumption - if you're including all bills in rent and they move a 4 bar electric fire into their room, your bill will skyrocket.
Council tax - if you currently get a 25% single person allowance, you'll lose it.

You can do your own credit checks easily see here or use google for other companies.

travelodger

I'd be happy to email you copies of my lodger application and house rules so you can use them to make up your own.