Take in a lodger... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

LAW_3

Does anyone know if it's best to have the lodger sign a contact? Also, how much deposit should you ask for? One month? 6 weeks? I have a single room and a double room to rent all inclusive, what should the differential be between the 2 rooms if I live in the south of England? £50 or less?

Gillian_Henley

I live on my own so am able to supplement my state pension with a student lodger. Full time students do not have to pay council tax so I retain my 25% benefit. My students have to cook their own food and come and go as they please. They have a room and their own bathroom which I would say is essential - I'd hate to have to share a bathroom.

Always make sure you see the student's university ID card which will tell you if he/she is full or part time and also confirm that he is a bona fide student. If they book the room some months before the beginning of term, take a month's rent to hold the room until he can move in.

My current student is doing a PhD and is 35 or so. He has never used the kitchen and is now in his second year with me. He never has to be asked for money - it appears a month or so in advance and is usually for two or three months at a time. The situation is live and let-live - if we leave the house at the same time I offer him a lift etc. etc.

I think it's probably easier if you live in a university city and I book my students through the university accommodation office.

Minky2Slice

This thread seem very useful indeed.. I have a second double-room available, however - does it need to be furnished to take in a lodger? Of course i do realize the rent would be less if unfurnished.

Also, a couple of people mentioned NOT to have a tenency agreement, but some have said some sort of contract is definitely needed. what is the difference then? thx

Badger_Lady

Minky - furnished is usually easier, you only need a bed and a wardrobe. Unfurnished isn't just cheaper, it's harder to let since most lodgers won't have their own furniture and would be reluctant to buy / move bulky items.

You can't do a "contract" or "tenancy agreement" but you can do a "houseshare agreement" or "licence agreement". I've got an example if you want to PM me...

dannymac_2

I have "rented a room" for nearly four years .I apply to my local collage to host an international student. there is the bonus of having the collage to help if any problems arise ( I haven't had any concerns to date) the students I have had have always been very trustworthy and there is the option of choosing male or female and which nationality you prefer. the student I have now will soon be going to uni and has asked if she can still live here.
going through a local collage or uni is a safe way and when your holidays come they will find the student somewhere to live during that time.
this is a safer way than just advertising for a lodger as you always have the back-up.

hedgewitch_2

My prospective lodger has brought me a form from the council - mostly for her to fill in but a bit for me as well. One question on both parts puzzles me, it asks whether the lodger is related to the landlord and what the relationship is. Does anyone know why they need to know this, and what difference it makes? Can a lodger not be the landland's daughter, nephew, cousin or anything else? Will they not get housing benefit if they are lodging with a relative and paying rent?

Andy_Hamilton

Caroline2CV wrote: »

6. Insurance - Contents
Do put a lock on the lodger's room door so they can apply for insurance. There are firms for Students to insure their own items.

Putting a lock on their door allows them to claim Assured Shorthold Tenancy (whole load more rights than a lodger).

As for a contract, WH Smiths have a blank one you fill in for around £7 and there are loads online.
If you have no contract, you have hardly any rights. The lodger could walk out without paying, they could claim they are your partner and want half the house etc etc. Clearing up the paperwork only takes a couple of minutes.

Some mortgage companies will allow you to take in a lodger only if that person is working.


Interview a few people before allowing them to move in. Getting along with someone should be as important as getting rent.

pete_v

Yet another (rambling) example.

I'm single, and own a three-bedroom semi in which I rent two rooms to lodgers. So far, they've all been work colleagues; I work at a site with around 3000 people and a steady influx of new graduates needing accommodation. This eases a lot of the "are they a nutter?"-type questions - effectively I'm piggybacking off the company's own thorough selection process.

All of us will have lived in student houses within living memory, and we function as a cleaner, better-off version of that model. What Nikki says about "[as if] renting with them rather than to them" is very well put, and pretty much describes the dynamic in this house. I don't want people to feel like they're guests in my house - we're all housemates in our house. (Though in practice people do tend to defer to me as the owner, which I guess could be handy if I do need to change things.)

I charge rent all-inclusively - life's too short to go dividing up the bills. I did put a clause in the contract about "excessive" use, to give myself a leg to stand on if someone's really taking the рiss, but I haven't come anywhere near needing to do so. Everyone's been stricken with green and turning the lights off even though they don't pay the bills :-). I think the power-usage meter I put in the hallway (originally a prototype on trial from work, now you can buy them everywhere) may have helped get this habit started.

We only have one bathroom, so mornings can be a little queued-up - but then that applies to pretty much everywhere I've lived including at my parents'. It's not too bad at present since one of the guys cycles to work and showers when he gets there. If there was an obvious space to turn into an en-suite for myself, or a second shower, I might consider saving up for it, but there isn't anywhere.

I do think it's important to make sure that the guys are getting what they pay for, avoiding the "landlord won't fix it" clich!. Fortunately I'm able to do things like boiler repairs (excluding gas-carrying parts) myself, and can take a half or full day off work with no notice, so when the hot water failed one morning recently I was able to get things back in action much quicker than some colleagues in their rented house. For the same reason I pay for small-business grade broadband with an enhanced service level - a room I once rented came with Tiscali broadband that was down for weeks at a time and the landlord, while basically willing, couldn't or didn't do much about it.

As far as contracts, rights, etc are concerned, I worked from the Government leaflet on renting rooms in your home. Incidently, this mentions nothing about locks on doors having special legal significance in an otherwise shared house, so I don't know where people are getting that from. My rooms have no locks (including my own), but only because I didn't get round to fitting them before I first had someone ask me for a room, and haven't felt the need since.

I used a suitable occupation agreement found online as a base, and then modified it substantially to fit what I actually wanted. I'm not a lawyer, but I did at one point do a short course on contract law so I know that something like this is not as complex and scarey as some people seem to think. In any case, the chances of having to enforce it in court seem negligible, especially if I'm able to keep renting to work colleagues. It does specifically mention that I live there, and therefore that it's not an assured shorthold tenancy, and therefore that it's not subject to the tenancy deposit scheme requirements. I just take the deposit as my own money when people start, and pay it out from my own pocket when they leave - it's not big enough to cause major cashflow repercussions. So far I haven't needed to retain anything; the last leaver even cleaned the bathroom just before he left :-).

I haven't investigated what the TV license situation is - I don't provide TVs in the rooms, and the contract says that if they choose to do so it's up to them to find out if they need a license and if so to pay it. I wouldn't let a TV licensing person in the house without a warrant anyway, on principle.

My mortgage lender (Nationwide) is quite happy with the arrangement, provided I send them a form whenever I get someone new (and they've been happy with repeated photocopies of the original one they sent me). Originally I got insurance with Endsleigh, the only one up-front about lodgers being OK, but I'm now with a cheaper Direct Line who after some discussion were happy as long as the lodgers weren't students. They don't cover the lodgers' stuff, obviously; my contract makes this clear and advises them to get their own cover (dunno if they have).

All in all (touch wood) it's working well. Clearly I'm in a different situation to the family wanting to rent out the spare room, but as an example of an increasingly common 21st century living arrangement my shared-house-with-one-owner is doing OK.

Pete

Badger_Lady

You and I are on a very similar vein, Pete

abby1234519

If I was to rent myself a 3 bed flat and find someone to share it with, if I wanted to pay rent bills etc out of my account but my friend simply gave me £300 a month what does that count as? They'd be on the tenancy I'd assume I'd just prefer to pay it all myself.