Protecting credit rating from room renter

CatherineChichester

I am currently considering renting a room in my home, ( of more than 20 years) and would likely be using an agency to find a tenant rather than a website, as I would prefer to have a credit check completed on an potential housemate. However I wondered if i could get any advice on protecting my own personal credit rating, from any housemate who would then be based at my home address?

Pixie5740

Credit files belong to an individual, not an address so unless you open up a joint account with your lodger then their credit history will have absolutely no bearing on yours.

booksurr

as said , credit ratings are for the person not the address

as for using an agency to find a lodger you would do well to remember that just because someone can pass a credit check it does not mean they are the sort of person you want to share a home with

a lodger is a totally different proposition to a tenant and I would have thought few prospective lodgers use agencies to find rooms since few agencies deal in such situations

noisla

You can do credit checks yourself. You can also avoid people based on "gut feel" which an agency won't do. You can hardly tell them you'll only rent with softly spoken types who seem "nice" and don't have shifty eyes :-)

Plus you should also chat to the lodger about how the house works, what freedoms they will have in the house, etc - better coming from you than second hand from a bored letting agent. I can't imagine anything worse than having to live with a complete stranger in my own home! It's a special relationship with a lodger - even if not family or friends - they'll see you in your pajamas, when you're upset, when you're tired at the end of a long day... Viewings are also a great way to meet lots of interesting people!

G_M

Do the credit checks yourself for 1/3rd the cost.

ParagonAdvance (Tenant referencing provider – there are others. Use Google) Letsure

You won't have a tenant, but a licencee (lodger) assuming you also live there.

Don't open a joint bank account with your lodger and you'll be fine.

LODGERS (Licencees/Excluded Occupiers)
A lodger (broadly) lives in the same property with their resident landlord, and shares facilities. Unlike tenants, lodgers have few rights.

The Housing Act 1988 provides definitions of 'Resident Landlord' and 'same property' (S31 & Schedule 1 (10).

There is advice for landlords considering taking in lodgers here:

LodgerLandlord (General information site)

Landlordzone (General advice on taking in lodgers)

Renting out rooms in your home (Government info)

Rent a Room Scheme (Government scheme for tax-free income from lodgers)

21 tips (Tessa Shepperson's Lodger Landlord website)

jjlandlord

Note that you can create a tenancy with someone renting a room in your own home, but you probably don't want to.
It does not confer them more rights re. tenure and eviction but could create trouble re. access to the room.

The key is not to write, or do, anything suggesting that they have exclusive possession of 'their' room.

Beckyy

As others have said it's an individual rating and you can only be affected by another person if you have joint finances.

I credit checked my last tenant, however some posters here were quite against it as it doesn't necessarily give a true or current picture of the persons finances, or how they are with money.

The most important thing is to meet the person yourself and go with your gut reaction, as you will be living with them.

Kynthia

Beckyy wrote: »

As others have said it's an individual rating and you can only be affected by another person if you have joint finances.

I credit checked my last tenant, however some posters here were quite against it as it doesn't necessarily give a true or current picture of the persons finances, or how they are with money.

The most important thing is to meet the person yourself and go with your gut reaction, as you will be living with them.

Did you credit check a tenant or lodger? The former you definitely should, the later is your choice but it shouldn't be instead of meeting them and seeing if they are happy with your house rules and are the type of person you can imagine sharing your home with. This is because if a lodger can't pay their rent you can ask them to leave pretty quickly, but a tenant has your rental property tied up for months potentially costing you thousands.

SunReader

Beckyy wrote: »

As others have said it's an individual rating and you can only be affected by another person (AT THE SAME ADRESS) if you have joint finances.

Not sure about that at all, unless things have changed. I was under the impression that previously a dodgy family member living at the same address could affect credit ratings. Hopefully I'm wrong on this.

Capital in brackets I have added to quote for clarity.

Pixie5740

SunReader wrote: »

Not sure about that at all, unless things have changed. I was under the impression that previously a dodgy family member living at the same address could affect credit ratings. Hopefully I'm wrong on this.

Capital in brackets I have added to quote for clarity.

Yes it changed quite some tim ago. Now it's only people you have a financial link with (joint accounts) that would affect your credit file.

Kynthia

SunReader wrote: »

Not sure about that at all, unless things have changed. I was under the impression that previously a dodgy family member living at the same address could affect credit ratings. Hopefully I'm wrong on this.

Capital in brackets I have added to quote for clarity.

Only if you are financially associated with someone can they affect your credit rating. A joint mortgage or joint bank account do this. I believe even married couples manage to have completely separate ratings, perhaps one has bad credit, by avoiding joint credit applications.