Renting a room to a friend

cookiemonster26

I have a friend who is currently at university, I'm a couple of years older and have a job and a house. Obviously it's summer and she moved back home with her parents. It's not really working out for her, and it's making her unhappy. I have 2 spare rooms, and she's stayed with me temporarily before. I've offered her the room for the remainder of the holidays and she's insisting on paying me.

I have to stress, I don't want to make money on this, I'm just helping a friend out, but at the same time I don't really want it to cost me money. What would be a fair price? Either per week, or per month? She'll only be with me 2 months.

Thanks!

BitterAndTwisted

If you don't want it to cost you money and you're not bothered about making a profit then you should think about charging her whatever the additional costs for the utilities would be.

To make it worth losing your privacy for I'd charge her £25 a week as long as the stay has a definite end-date. Which presumably it does if she's returning to Uni in Sept/Oct

cookiemonster26

Thanks BittterAndTwisted :-)

Kynthia

It might be worth checking if she has a council tax exemption certificate, otherwise you might lose you single person discount ( if you're currently the only adult there). If not you can then charge enough that covers the increase in CT.

BitterAndTwisted

I'd completely ignore the Council Tax issue. You can't lose your single person's discount for having a friend stay with you as a guest for a few weeks.

LisaLou1982

Id charge maybe £250 inc bills for the month? Thats what shed pay in student digs but bills would be on top

BitterAndTwisted

The OP has said that they do not wish to exploit their friend, just to have any additional costs covered. £250 a month would be making a huge profit.

cookiemonster26

Yep, as BitterAndTwisted said I'm not looking to make money. If I could afford not to take any money off her I would, but I really just need to break even. I had a look on some room renting websites, and the going price in my area seems to be between £70 - £200 per week, but that's just too much!

DRP

cookiemonster26 wrote: »

Yep, as BitterAndTwisted said I'm not looking to make money. If I could afford not to take any money off her I would, but I really just need to break even. I had a look on some room renting websites, and the going price in my area seems to be between £70 - £200 per week, but that's just too much!

could you ask your friend to get the weekly food shopping in while she;s with you ?

sammyjammy

Does she actually have money to pay you? I like B&Ts idea of £25 a week if she buys her own food, more than enough to cover cost of additional utilities and the fact you're living with another person temporarily. I also agree no need to contact Council tax office.

cookiemonster26

sammyjammy wrote: »

Does she actually have money to pay you?

It was her that brought up money, so I assume she does have some. I think a wider point is probably, what can she afford to give me. Something we'll have to talk about. I guess.