Mum in law wants a lodger

Jagraf

AFK_Matrix wrote: »

Honestly if you haven't got a contract with the agency, dump them post haste! If you do have a contract have a good read and see how you can stop the contract. Then you can pocket all the money from the lodger as it should be.

Just another thing how much is she charging again? I assume you have checked out the tax side of things in regards to the income from the lodger?

She is charging £80 per week so I believe under the tax threshold. We have informed the council so she will now pay 100% council tax. And we've done all the relevant checks Re gas etc. she did sign a contract with the agent but doesn't have a copy, so at this point I have no idea what she agreed.

Jagraf

booksurr wrote: »

it is utter rubbish and cannot stand up in court - MIL has a lodger not a tenant.

having a bit of paper headed AST does not make it an AST if the reality is there is a resident LL and a lodger. Even if you did change the wording to grant "exclusive use" of the bedroom as i said above that is a very grey area and also unlikely to stand up in court

The agency is incompetent and clearly just going through the only process it knows - issue a "contract" and charge fees for so doing. agents are not set up for handling lodgers and in this case clearly is incapable of amending its process to reflect the huge difference between lodger and tenant

issuing an "AST" contract with a 3 month period is shameful behaviour by the agent since the LL cannot start repossession proceedings until after the first 6 months so the 3 month period is of no use to the LL and therefore should never have been offered - the agency is clearly making a complete mess of trying to apply standard AST contract documents to the wrong situation, thereby rendering the whole thing invalid

Thank you. Wish we had now done it all for her. I don't want her to lose her lodger though. I really need this to fill my days

Brallaqueen

Booksurr is right that an AST alone does not make a lodger a tenant but I would bet that it makes her a more secure lodger. The devil is in the detail when it comes to lodgers so any contractual rights granted by the tenancy agreement I believe remain valid despite not being a tenant. So longer notice periods and longer lengths of tenancy would need to be followed.

Pixie5740

To be honest I'd just let your MIL get on with it, on her head be it. If she can't bothered to read what she's signing or keep copies that's her problem. Hopefully everything will work out with this lodger but if not, your MIL has made her bed so let her lie in it if it all goes tits up.

CKhalvashi

Pixie5740 wrote: »

To be honest I'd just let your MIL get on with it, on her head be it. If she can't bothered to read what she's signing or keep copies that's her problem. Hopefully everything will work out with this lodger but if not, your MIL has made her bed so let her lie in it if it all goes tits up.

I think it's very harsh thing to say.

If I were OP's MiL, I'd be grateful that OP is helping me sort this out, and if I were OP, I'd be happy that I could speak to my MiL about such things, and that I was ensuring she is getting good advice.

I just wish this had been done (for everyones sake) before the situation occured, but that's out of our reasonable control.

Pixie5740

Jagraf wrote: »

My 80 year old mum in law has decided she wants to take on a lodger. Love her to bits, but myself and my OH have said its her decision, but she needs to organise this herself, we won't and can't organise it for her. She says she will go through an agent and is seeing one today.

From the very start the OP's MIL was warned that getting a lodger was her decision and her responsibility. Now we have a woman who has left sorting out gas safety certificates and what not to her son and DIL. A woman who doesn't bother to read what she is signing. A woman who doesn't want to deal with the paperwork so dumps it on her son and DIL to look after. So I don't think it's harsh to let her just get on with it.

AbbieCadabra

these are very different circumstances, but just as a word of warning...

my mum's in her 70's & took a lodger in a while back, a guy in his mid-30's who she knew well enough to say hello & have the odd conversation with. he'd been living with a friend but this was coming to an end for some reason (alarm bells were already going off at that point for me) & he'd got nowhere else to stay, apparently.

obviously i was a little concerned when she told me this, he'd already moved in at that point, so i started asking a few questions. she didn't even know his surname & had no idea about how to sort out a lodger agreement etc.

i found out some info & made sure she was aware of what she needed to do for council tax, insurance etc. i also stressed to her that i thought this was a very bad idea, basically letting a complete stranger into her home & she must make sure that any personal info (bank/savings etc.) was kept away safe.

over the next 18 months or so various info cropped up that made me even more concerned that she was being taken advantage of -
his children would come to stay & mum would make sure there was plenty of food (paid for by her),
he was using her car on a frequent basis, all free of charge,
she'd paid for various things for him, nothing had been paid back

i voiced my concerns but she was adamant everything was ok.

6 months later he moves out without any notice, she's very upset & in the fallout i find out that he's had £1,000's off her, nothing paid back, he's never paid any rent nor anything towards household bills in all the time he's been there...

unfortunately, she was more upset that he'd left as she'd grown emotionally attached to him (a whole other story) & she flatly refused to believe that he'd taken advantage of her as "he'd never asked for anything, i willingly gave it to him" - emotional manipulation anyone?

i took advice from age concern/help the aged & even the police at this point, but because she would be considered mentally sound & hadn't been forced info anything, there was nothing that could be done, even though everyone i spoke to completely understood my distress & concern at this situation.

hopefully this is an extreme example of what can go wrong, but there are people out there that prey on others that are too trusting & perhaps have a poor understanding of how they're being manipulated.

Kynthia

Oh dear it does sound like the lines have been blurred between whether this person is a lodger or a tenant now. This could prove very difficult should your MIL want them to leave in the future and they refuse as she might need a court order. Even if they are a lodger the contract has given them the right to stay for 3 months even if your MIL wants them out.

Jagraf

Ok, well. What I'm going to do is tell her why I think the contract is incorrect and some of the consequences that may or may not come from it. I am then going to make sure she has a file with everything in it, copies of insurance, certificates, and a list of contacts for gas, electricity, handyman (which she has anyway).

I then think I will tell her its up to her if she wants to do anything about it, so long as I have helped her with the information I have researched then I think i should leave it up to her. After all, she knows the agents and I don't want to get blamed for her losing her lodger etc.

She is perfectly capable of organising a lodger and I have already told her she is a business woman now with responsibilities. In fact, I believe she has some very strong management qualities

Thank you everyone, you've been really supportive.

sleepless_saver

Jagraf wrote: »

In fact, I believe she has some very strong management qualities

Yes, her ability to delegate is quite outstanding .