Rent-a-room scheme - finding suitable lodgers

getmore4less

Are there any other niche facilities or interesting places close by that could attract other quality lodgers as the theatre does.

Eg near us is a hospital that has longer term patients and there is demand for rooms and parking.


Thinking about it I would be happy with 60% plenty of time for holidays.

G_M

Large local companies. Ask permission to put up ads on the staff notice board, or leave details with the Human Resources dept.


* Lodgers: advice & links for landlords & lodgers


(and yes- never use the word 'tenant'. Anywhere. Especially not to your mortgage lender or insurer!). Or on your contract.

Wildsound

Perhaps a misunderstanding - she's not looking for longer term lodgers (although she has had someone stay for just over a year before as they were pretty much the "perfect lodger" and they wanted to stay on). It's more trying to fill the 40% of the time the room is free with other short term lodgers.

She also goes to Spain for around 25% of the year as she owns a small flat there and enjoys going and doing creative work. She has even had a lodger in her own before. We have people we trust who can pop in and check up and she has all the relevant insurances and this is not a concern here.

Mojisola

Wildsound wrote: »

She also goes to Spain for around 25% of the year as she owns a small flat there and enjoys going and doing creative work.

She has even had a lodger in her own before.

Isn't that risky? If a lodger has sole use of the property, how long is it before they become a tenant?

jonnygee2

She has even had a lodger in her own before.

Do you mean in her own room? If she has let out every room in the property, I'm pretty sure she's created a tenancy.

Which is a terrible, terrible idea for a lot of reasons (some of the main ones from my understanding - she would no longer have the right to access the property without giving them notice, she'd have no way to get them to leave quickly if they chose to stay, if they've paid deposits and these aren't protected she could be taken to court and face huge fines, etc etc).

zagubov

Mojisola wrote: »

Isn't that risky? If a lodger has sole use of the property, how long is it before they become a tenant?

I think the OP's mum needs to be careful. It's very difficult to pin down what being a full-time resident landlord actually means. For example nobody would let the lodger move in without being present at the start of their stay, and it may help to be onsite at the start of the tax year.

Travelling for holidays shouldn't be a problem if it's for weeks but for months on end it may be different; she may need a family member to come in and check the post (and that the locks haven't been changed), and if the mortgage is fully paid off she may want to have the Land Registry keep her informed of all changes/requests etc. - Which may be something for everybody to consider when they have others resident in their house while they're away for longer periods.

She may want to use a sim with roaming so lodgers/ family/neighbours can contact her at local rates while she's away (and it might not make it obvious when she's outside the country.

And keep a copy of the deeds with her in case she needs a locksmith to change the locks back if a lodger tries to change them while she's out.

I'm not saying problems are likely to happen but there's some funny people about.

zagubov

jonnygee2 wrote: »

Do you mean in her own room? If she has let out every room in the property, I'm pretty sure she's created a tenancy.

Which is a terrible, terrible idea for a lot of reasons (some of the main ones from my understanding - she would no longer have the right to access the property without giving them notice, she'd have no way to get them to leave quickly if they chose to stay, if they've paid deposits and these aren't protected she could be taken to court and face huge fines, etc etc).

Agree, she absolutely must not let people stay in her room (or at any rate charge people to stay in it), as this undermines her claim to be resident.

Whether she could let her room be available informally to a trusted family member or to a formal house sitter is beyond my experience.

Wildsound

Thanks for everyone's posts. A lot of really good points.

With regards her own room, this was to a family friend once a while ago, but she was exploring the options. Based on what people have said here, it looks like having a stranger stay in her room is a no go so thanks for that.

I think the longest she's ever been away is just over a month, but its generally a few week stint max as she gets a combination or bored and home sick (her place is more remote so not many brits around in the spanish village she resides).

I will look into where the thin line is between lodger/tenant to make sure she's not doing anything potentially wrong.

Much longer term, and especially if her self-employed ventures yield any success, is that she will consider buying a smaller place to live in nearer to me and my brother (given grandchildren are probably on the cards in the next few years) and then turn the flat into a full time rental property, once I've gone through the costs with her and whether (at that moment in time) it's even worth doing, but that's another conversation for the future.

FreeBear

Wildsound wrote: »

Based on what people have said here, it looks like having a stranger stay in her room is a no go so thanks for that.

Definitely a no-no. Especially if she is still sleeping in the same bed :eek:

Honeylife

Spareroom.com does have the facility to advertise for a lodger for a week or a month or whatever the room will be available for. It also has the facility to look at Wanted ads where potential lodger advertise they are seeking a room for a specific short period.

Last summer I was not particularly looking but scanning, checking on prices and who was looking for what - I like to keep up with what's going on - and I found someone on the site looking for a room for three weeks as he still had to submit his thesis and his current accommodation contract in Halls was ending. My decorator had just let me down with refreshing the room it was empty. The prospective lodger came over, viewed and rented for exactly three weeks.

I won't take a lodger for a week. In that case, I use Airbnb, charge a lot more and go all out to make it special.