advice on renting spare room in my flat

katejo

Definitely be choosy about who you take. I find Spareroom a good site as people do tell you quite a bit about themselves in their ad. Just a couple of points to add to what others have said already.
1. If a lodger brings their own TV, they need their own licence for live broadcasts
2. You will lose your single person council tax discount. When the lodger later moves out, your local council may refuse to reinstate your discount unless you provide the new address of the departing lodger.

Guest101

thequant wrote: »

No you can't, you need to give reasonable notice. reasonable notice is unofficially 4 weeks. However the reasonable notice period can be reduced due to unreasonable behaviour.


In an extreme case, say your lodger was threatening physical violence you could reduce that period to nothing and have that person removed by the police (hence why not to give them paperwork that says otherwise!)

Can you quote reasonable notice as 4 weeks?

I believe Officially you can evict a lodger is as little as a day without an overriding agreement

Guest101

katejo wrote: »

Definitely be choosy about who you take. I find Spareroom a good site as people do tell you quite a bit about themselves in their ad. Just a couple of points to add to what others have said already.
1. If a lodger brings their own TV, they need their own licence for live broadcasts
2. You will lose your single person council tax discount. When the lodger later moves out, your local council may refuse to reinstate your discount unless you provide the new address of the departing lodger.

I think the first point may be incorrect, however I don't know for sure. Usually unless it's seperate tenancy agreements. One licence covers the property.

The second point is definitely incorrect. No one is liable to disclose another's location, unless it can be construed and later prove to impede a criminal investigation. I would never ever provide forwarding address unless the lodger asked me to

thequant

Guest101 wrote: »

Can you quote reasonable notice as 4 weeks?

Officially you can evict a lodger is as little as a day without an overriding agreement

I can't as reasonable notice is not defined anywhere. However I was in this situation some years back and asked for legal advice. I was told that the starting point for reasonable notice was 4 weeks which can be reduced for any unreasonable behaviour all the way down to zero.


Ultimately I was advised to call the police if the LL tried to evict me. Wanting to pre-empt that this info was correct I contacted the police who confirmed that this was indeed correct. I was told on the proviso that the info I gave them was correct, that if the LL tried to evict me they would tell him I was entitled to this reasonable notice period to find somewhere else to live.


The police said this scenario is quite common and they are well versed in dealing with them.

Mojisola

asoe209 wrote: »

Hello all hoping for a little advice, im thinking about renting out my spear room on a short term basis. Say 3-6 months at a time with possable extention or another 3-6 months.

Im not sure what to charge,I had a quick look on a renting site and saw a few rooms to rent at the 450 mark. Of course I would like more if I could.

My place is a ground floor flat, tenent would ha e access to every thing, sky tv, desktop computer internet access etc.

Do some reading before you commit to anything.

https://www.gov.uk/rent-room-in-your-home/becoming-a-resident-landlord

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/sharing_and_subletting/lodgers

A lodger who is sharing living accommodation with the LL doesn't have the same rights as a tenant.

I would be wary of letting the tenant use your internet connection. Do you want to be responsible for everything he/she downloads?

00ec25

Guest101 wrote: »

I think the first point may be incorrect, however I don't know for sure. Usually unless it's seperate tenancy agreements. One licence covers the property.

As usual with all things to do with the legal position and TV licences the position is somewhat vague, one interpretation of the rules is that a lodger requires their own TV licence. However, as the TV licence authority uses the term lodger very loosely and only gets specific when talking about self contained accommodation there is scope for some doubt, unless that lodger is formally related to the LL either as an employee (eg: nanny, au pair) or is a member of the LL's own family, in which they definitely do not need their own licence
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/for-your-home/tenants-and-lodgers-aud2/

in simple terms - don't get caught!

thequant

thequant wrote: »

I can't as reasonable notice is not defined anywhere. However I was in this situation some years back and asked for legal advice. I was told that the starting point for reasonable notice was 4 weeks which can be reduced for any unreasonable behaviour all the way down to zero.


Ultimately I was advised to call the police if the LL tried to evict me. Wanting to pre-empt that this info was correct I contacted the police who confirmed that this was indeed correct. I was told on the proviso that the info I gave them was correct, that if the LL tried to evict me they would tell him I was entitled to this reasonable notice period to find somewhere else to live.


The police said this scenario is quite common and they are well versed in dealing with them.

For those interested, when this happened to me. My LL had told me in the morning he wanted me out by the evening "because he could"


After getting the advice, I went back to him told him the advice I was given and for him to check it himself and we will discuss the situation later.


After allowing him to confirm that what I told him was correct, I told him it was my intention to dig my heals in 4 weeks, after all if you play hard ball I will to.


However if he was prepared to be reasonable, I would look for another place ASAP and move out.


To allow maximum flexibility for both parties, we agreed that I would not pay my last months rent and any rent due would be deducted pro-rata.


In the event I moved out 2 weeks later, so we were both "happy" he got me out 2 weeks earlier than I could have forced it to. Likewise I got to stay 2 weeks longer than he wanted me to.


This was only possible when were prepared to be reasonable to each other and recognise the objectives of the other party. I.e. he wanted his place back to himself ASAP, but also I did not want to be homeless in the process.

Yorkie1

katejo wrote: »

Definitely be choosy about who you take. I find Spareroom a good site as people do tell you quite a bit about themselves in their ad. Just a couple of points to add to what others have said already.
1. If a lodger brings their own TV, they need their own licence for live broadcasts
2. You will lose your single person council tax discount. When the lodger later moves out, your local council may refuse to reinstate your discount unless you provide the new address of the departing lodger.

Guest101 wrote: »

I think the first point may be incorrect, however I don't know for sure. Usually unless it's seperate tenancy agreements. One licence covers the property.

The second point is definitely incorrect. No one is liable to disclose another's location, unless it can be construed and later prove to impede a criminal investigation. I would never ever provide forwarding address unless the lodger asked me to

There's a recent post on one of the forums here where this has happened to someone - the council tax people refusing to accept that the lodger has left (i.e. that the owner is now the single occupant) without proof of the lodger's new address.

OP, don't forget that you will need to get a landlord's gas safety certificate before you let a room out.

Guest101

thequant wrote: »

I can't as reasonable notice is not defined anywhere. However I was in this situation some years back and asked for legal advice. I was told that the starting point for reasonable notice was 4 weeks which can be reduced for any unreasonable behaviour all the way down to zero.


Ultimately I was advised to call the police if the LL tried to evict me. Wanting to pre-empt that this info was correct I contacted the police who confirmed that this was indeed correct. I was told on the proviso that the info I gave them was correct, that if the LL tried to evict me they would tell him I was entitled to this reasonable notice period to find somewhere else to live.


The police said this scenario is quite common and they are well versed in dealing with them.

I believe you ofcourse, just not sure how accurate this information is.

Guest101

Yorkie1 wrote: »

There's a recent post on one of the forums here where this has happened to someone - the council tax people refusing to accept that the lodger has left (i.e. that the owner is now the single occupant) without proof of the lodger's new address.

OP, don't forget that you will need to get a landlord's gas safety certificate before you let a room out.

It must've been a rare occurrence, and certainly incorrect by the council. It's not even unreasonable to not have an address, excluding the legality of the council demanding it.

Hope the poster sues them for the difference