Renting a room out

flimsier

I'm sure there are plenty of things I haven't considered, but the first is, if I rent a room out in my own home, do I need to change the mortgage?

I know the rules on paying income tax above a level on the capital repayments and advantages and disadvantages. Do I have to actually change the type of mortgage though?

worried_jim

I've done it for 10 years+. Never told anyone, just did it.

G_M

No. Your mortgage is fine. But check with your insurer, and don't forget tax.

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)

booksurr

flimsier wrote: »

I know the rules on paying income tax above a level on the capital repayments and advantages and disadvantages.

let us hope you do because that explanation makes it sound like you don't - rent a room scheme has nothing to do with the mortgage capital element, the normal method on the other hand does, along with countless other aspects of deciding how to apportion your eligible costs

flimsier wrote: »

Do I have to actually change the type of mortgage though?

no. it would be very rare for a lender to have any restriction on you having a lodger

flimsier

G_M wrote: »

No. Your mortgage is fine. But check with your insurer, and don't forget tax.

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)

This is really helpful. Thank you.

kingstreet

Some lenders require you to request permission to take in a lodger, so you should check your lender's requirements prior to doing so...

gazter

Certainly check with your is insurance company though. Accidental damage might not be available, and the lodgers property might not be covered by policy.

Be shrewed with your choices. Don't be taken in by hard luck stories. You want solid professional people with good stable salaries.
Lodgers I've had in past eighteen months:
National grid team manager
Archeologist
University lecturer
Police officer (doing PhD simultaneously)
Newly qualified doctor doing his rotations.

Not really had a ny problems, one of them was maybe a bit more used to living by himself, so there was a tiny bit of difficulty squeesing everything into a single room.

The last two are my current lodgers. Absolutely brilliant we get on, we often eat together, take part in events etc. Really friendly, and actually quite nice to have people around the house. I would be on my own for a major part of the time in a largish four bedroom house if it wasn't for them.

Everyone who has stayed has shown complete respect for my home. But trust is required. You need to make sure that you are assertive and ground rules are set.

Some of the problems I read on this forum exist when lodgers have a more dominating personality than the live in landlord.