Student House (Renting) - Partner Moving in Help

sbrown26

Dear All,

Myself and 3 other friends are about to move into a rented private student property. We had to arrange this via an Estage Agent who charged us admin fees of around £700 which the landlord agreed to pay for us. We have all now signed the contract.

However, my boyfriend wishes to move in and share my room with me. All of the other tenants are more than happy about this because he would contribute equally to all of the bills and rent thus reducing everyone's costs.

I have asked the landlord and he said that it is fine that my boyfriend moves in, however an additional £120 per month in rent would be required to be paid to cover "insurance costs".

My boyfriend and I visisted the estate agents who just said it would be a simple case of adding him to the contract. I recieved a phone call a few weeks later saying that my boyfriend would have to pay a £282 fee to be added to the contract (which they failed to tell us before). The Landlord refuses to pay this fee.

My question is simply - what should we do? Should we just pay the fees and increases rent (for the same money we could have found a lovely 1 bed room apartment) OR just let my boyfriend live here and pay his share of the rent to the tenants and live here as a guest without the landlord/estate agents knowing? If my boyfriend lives here as a guest then the rent we will all be paying will be incredibly cheap.

Thank you

casper_g

The amount the landlord proposes to add can't possibly be justified by the "insurance costs" he cites. That said, having 4 people in the house instead of 3 will increase wear and tear and it's not unreasonable to charge something for the extra tenant. The landlord is under no obligation to allow another person to be added to the tenancy at all.

If you have your BF move in as a 7-night-a-week "guest" after the LL has told you about these extra charges, you won't be able to claim ignorance. Be aware you may annoy him and end up being given notice at some point. Of course, if you were only planning to live there for 12 months and had a 12-month AST (say) then you might not be as concerned by this....

mchale

If your boyfriend isn't a student CT will be liable on property & LL will be responsible for payment

Lokolo

mchale wrote: »

If your boyfriend isn't a student CT will be liable on property & LL will be responsible for payment

The LL wouldn't, the boyfriend would.

clutton_2

Fistly your landlord has paid £700 for your agency fees - he did not have to do this.

Secondly , moving a property from a 4 person to a 5 person property may force your landlord to license the property with the local authority - there are significant costs involved in this. IF he does not know there are 5 of you, and the local authority do a spot check, he may well be subject to prosecutioin.

Thirdly - if the LL has declared 4 persons and 5 persons live there any insurance claim on his part will be reduced accordingly

Fourthly if the 5th person lives there without being on the Tenancy Agreement s/he will not be covered by any of the landlords public liability insurances

Fifthly - the working tenant will be reponsible for the Council tax in total

Sixthly - living in a property which s/he has no legal right to be there gives him/her NO legal rights at all in terms of tenant legislation

in other words - do the right thing.. pay up and do it legally - join the real world.. this is what its like .. taking responsibility for your decisions

sbrown26

My boyfriend is a student, as is everyone else in the household. To my understanding a landlord must give 24 hours notice before coming to inspect the property and my bf would only be here 5 nights a week.

Regardless of if my bf would live here or not the reality is that everyone would have their partners over frequently anyway, the landlord would find it very difficult to proove my bf lived here and paid rent to the other tenants - especially if my bf makes sure no letters arrive under his name.

I have spoken to a friend who is a landlord and he said that we should simply let my bf move in and not mention anythin and make sure no letters under my bfs name arrived etc. He also said the worst that could happen is that the contract could be terminated (which would be unlikely because the LL would not be able to find students half way through the year to live in the property).

The only issue is loosing our deposits / legalities. Even if the LL managed to take all of our deposits as a result we would all still be better off over the course of the 12 months as a result of the cheaper rent.

olly300

sbrown26 wrote: »

The only issue is loosing our deposits / legalities. Even if the LL managed to take all of our deposits as a result we would all still be better off over the course of the 12 months as a result of the cheaper rent.

Your housemates would be really glad to lose their deposits.

Loads of student housemates don't talk to each other after sharing for a year even if they were good friends before.

I suggest if you actually get on with your house mates you work out whether you can afford to pay their deposits back to them before allowing your boyfriend move in.

You never know what can happen in the future - remember loads of relationships don't survive amongst those who met in their late teens/early twenties - and whether you will need a friend's floor/spareroom you can kip in.

Emmzi

clutton has given you very good advice but you seem determined to ignore it.

personally I'd find a replacement for your room acceotable to ll and other tenants.

Then i would find a proper room to rent for 2 people somewhere else.

The MSE way is not to condone fraud.

sbrown26

Thank you very much for everyone's advice. I was not determined to ignore clutton's advice, just simply trying to understand the pros and cons. If you have a close friend who is an experienced landlord themselves telling you to just go for it and nevermind the legal issues it can be rather persuasive.

Once again I thank you all - especially for pointing out it is illegal to do what I was thinking of doing. My bf will be taking the legal route and paying the admin fee.

moromir

Let me be the one to point out that being a 'landlord' just means you can afford to buy a property and rent it out, not that you have any training, morals or knowledge of the law

Glad to hear you're going to sort it out properly though.

mchale

Lokolo wrote: »

The LL wouldn't, the boyfriend would.

Incorrect if property is a HMO, LL is liable for CT