Renting from a friend??

sarah.roberts85

Hello,

any help on this one would be much appreciated as I am pretty clueless!

Basically, me and my friend want to move in together this year. Her sister has bought a flat and says she will rent it out to us. What is the best way to go about this? Should we just pay rent straight in to her bank account to cover mortgage costs? Do we need to register for the electricity bills etc, or just get the bills sent to her and in her name and again put the money in her account?

I really don't know the best way of doing things so any advice welcome please! Thanks

no1gymbunny

Will you and your mate be splitting everything 50/50? I think the best thing would be to have all bills (utilities, tv licence and council tax) in you and your mate's joint names and probably the best thing would be a joint bank account. Each of you pay in your share when u get paid, then just have everything paid for by direct debit from there.

anniecave

I'd agree you should put the bills in joint names.

if you don't want to do a joint bank account, then say one of you pay the gas and elec and tv, and the other one pay the council tax. Then work out every few months who's paid more and even up.

In my current flat (rented off a landlord) I pay all the bills and my flatmate pays me an amount every month which approx covers it and I keep a record on a spreadsheet and occasionally she pays me extra to make it balance.

anniecave

you'd have to ask the sister how she'd want the rent paid and how much it would be, she'd let you know all that.

You'd probably need to pay water bill as well. Plus telephone or broadband if you have it.

clutton_2

make sure she gives you a proper tenancy agreement - for your protection.

jenpage

I second that latter!
I rented my house out to someone I considered my best friend. I charged her a nominal rent as I was grateful to have a house sitter as I had to work away for a few months.
Behind my back, she let other people who I didn't know move in.
There were various other problems (wild parties and so on!) She never left the property secure when she was out.
I didn't have a tenancy agreement and so no ground rules had ever been set out.
It was a nightmare. I never thought it could have happened that way as we were really, really close.
I got my house back and have now let it properly, to strangers with a tenancy agreement and references all in place.
But my friend and I haven't spoken since.

sarah.roberts85

Thanks for all the good advice!

I hadn't even thought about a joint bank account, but that definitely sounds like the solution! Tenancy agreement is also a great idea. Thanks a million!

irnbru_2

sarah.roberts85 wrote:

Her sister has bought a flat and says she will rent it out to us.

I'll assume the other sister has bought it as a BTL.

Don't assume she's doing you a favour. She needs tennants, so find out what the rents are for the area and then negotiate.

As others have suggested, you need a tenancy agreement. It'll protect you and the landlord.

thesaint

Do not get a joint bank account!

If your friend falls into financial trouble it will leave you with all sorts of potential problems. By all means open up an account, but have one name to it and pay the bills from there, with both of you keeping an eye on the funds in it.