Friend paying to stay with us?

SeaVixen

Hi all,
A friend who lives nearby will be leaving her rented house in September (landlord moving back in)
She's asked if she could stay in our spare room for a month, and then store some things at ours for three months while she lives with her parents who live 4 hours away. She has offered to pay us board, and pay while her stuff stays here. She'll be renting in our town again after those three months, so I understand not taking everything to her parents given she doesn't have a car. 

OH and I are going to discuss how we feel about the matter tonight - does anyone have a handy list of things we should consider? 

I'm not sure why staying with us for a month before going to her parents helps, OH knows more so I'll find out later. In the meantime, I was just wondering how do we sit with the mortgage or any other legal requirements in this situation?
The idea of a little spare cash to go straight to the mortgage is very attractive. It feels daft to change the mortgage just for a month, but I obviously don't want to get into any trouble. Any advice, or links to sources would be much appreciated. 


I'm not sure what she wants to keep at ours. She doesn't have furniture, so it's probably cooking utensils, bedding, spare clothes, trinkets etc that she won't need at her parents, and will fit in the attic/cupboard in the spare room. If so, I wouldn't dream of charging her for storage, as it's not costing us anything and wouldn't be in in our way. If it's loads of stuff, or we think this might go on for a long time, then we might consider something. 

Covid-19: She's said she'll completely self isolate for three weeks before coming over, and then we'll all isolate for the month that she's here (I'm immuno-compromised). We'll have to see what the guidance is closer to the time. 

Comms69

In 99% of cases you'll be fine. She's a lodger, and most mortgage products allow that. Obviously check. 

[Deleted User]

SeaVixen said:

Hi all,
A friend who lives nearby will be leaving her rented house in September (landlord moving back in)
She's asked if she could stay in our spare room for a month, and then store some things at ours for three months while she lives with her parents who live 4 hours away. She has offered to pay us board, and pay while her stuff stays here. She'll be renting in our town again after those three months, so I understand not taking everything to her parents given she doesn't have a car. 

OH and I are going to discuss how we feel about the matter tonight - does anyone have a handy list of things we should consider? 

I'm not sure why staying with us for a month before going to her parents helps, OH knows more so I'll find out later. In the meantime, I was just wondering how do we sit with the mortgage or any other legal requirements in this situation?
The idea of a little spare cash to go straight to the mortgage is very attractive. It feels daft to change the mortgage just for a month, but I obviously don't want to get into any trouble. Any advice, or links to sources would be much appreciated. 


I'm not sure what she wants to keep at ours. She doesn't have furniture, so it's probably cooking utensils, bedding, spare clothes, trinkets etc that she won't need at her parents, and will fit in the attic/cupboard in the spare room. If so, I wouldn't dream of charging her for storage, as it's not costing us anything and wouldn't be in in our way. If it's loads of stuff, or we think this might go on for a long time, then we might consider something. 

Covid-19: She's said she'll completely self isolate for three weeks before coming over, and then we'll all isolate for the month that she's here (I'm immuno-compromised). We'll have to see what the guidance is closer to the time. 

You'll need to read the T&C of your mortgage and if there are gas appliances you should get a gas safety certificate although I'd bet money that the majority of resident landlords don't do this.  Rental income is subject to income tax but the Rent A Room scheme allowance is £7,500 for the  tax year so you'd need to be charging a hell of a lot of rent for a room to get anywhere near that.  Insurance would be the other thing to consider.  Who would be insuring her belongings left in your home?

eddddy

TBH, I think most people would just say she's a friend who's staying at your house as a guest for a month - and she's contributing towards the cost of food, hot water, electricity, broadband etc.

As long as she's happy with that description of the arrangement, it's very unlikely that anything bad that would happen.

Some insurers would want you to inform them how many occupants are living in the house - but a guest staying for a month isn't really an occupant. Also, her belongings probably wouldn't be insured under your policy.

SeaVixen

Many thanks both!

Lover_of_Lycra said:

You'll need to read the T&C of your mortgage and if there are gas appliances you should get a gas safety certificate although I'd bet money that the majority of resident landlords don't do this.  Rental income is subject to income tax but the Rent A Room scheme allowance is £7,500 for the  tax year so you'd need to be charging a hell of a lot of rent for a room to get anywhere near that.  Insurance would be the other thing to consider.  Who would be insuring her belongings left in your home?

Will check T&Cs this evening - thank you. I'd always assumed that 99% of mortgages wouldn't allow it, but I'll check the actual wording, someone staying for just a month might be ok.... 

There's no gas appliances other than the boiler. It's had a recent inspection, so I'll see what paperwork we have on that to see if we need anything additional. 

We'd obviously be well under the £7,500 limit. I'll look into the Rent A Room scheme to see if it's something we need to declare anyway. 

I'll check the wording on our current contents insurance to see if it explicitly excludes belongings which aren't ours but are in the house. I can only see it being common household things which we could just declare as ours. I presume she'll need all her high-risk items at her parents, though I'll make sure we check this with her. Thanks for bringing this up - this is something we should discuss an approach to, in case an incident occurs which impacts on her belongings that we wouldn't be claiming on the insurance for - just so we're all on the same page. 

Mojisola

SeaVixen said:

A friend who lives nearby will be leaving her rented house in September (landlord moving back in)

She's asked if she could stay in our spare room for a month, and then store some things at ours for three months while she lives with her parents who live 4 hours away.
I'm not sure what she wants to keep at ours. She doesn't have furniture, so it's probably cooking utensils, bedding, spare clothes, trinkets etc that she won't need at her parents, and will fit in the attic/cupboard in the spare room. If so, I wouldn't dream of charging her for storage, as it's not costing us anything and wouldn't be in in our way. If it's loads of stuff, or we think this might go on for a long time, then we might consider something.

Rather than be concerned about the financial side (she's just a friend staying with you and contributing to the household expenses), be certain that you and she are absolutely on the same page about what can be stored, for how long, and how long she will stay.  It might seem over the top to get these things in writing but, if it goes wrong, you'll be glad you did.

getmore4less

If the plan is to come back to the area expect other overnights during the search for a property. 

Make sure you have romantic arrangements agreed. 

Socajam

Personally, if she was my friend I would inform her that there will no rent changed as she is only staying for one month. I would expect her to provide her own food though.
Charging rent opens up a whole can of worms and I doubt that you would want to go there.
I would find out what exactly she would like to leave at the house and if it small items, no charge.   Now if it was a room full of furniture, that would be different.

SeaVixen

Socajam said:

Personally, if she was my friend I would inform her that there will no rent changed as she is only staying for one month. I would expect her to provide her own food though.

To be clear - I'm not looking to make a significant profit from her. My OH and I have lived alone for 5 years now, so we're just looking for a small donation to sweeten suddenly having to share the bathroom/TV for a significant period of time.
We are thinking 1/3 of the water and electricity bills while she's here. If things remain as they are, all three of us will still be working from home and in the house all day, so there will be significant usage. We'll work this out in advance using 1/2 of the last bill we have (though we haven't had any bills yet from when me and OH started working from home, so it will be an under-estimate anyway). Then maybe rounding this up to the nearest £50. Will see what this gives us and how we feel about it. 

@getmore4less You're right on both points. We'll be fine with the occasional overnights while she finds a new place.

Re: romantic interests - She's single, so we'll have to see closer to the time what the CV-19 rules say. She never brought romantic interests back to her previous house, she would always go to theirs. We're significantly less central than her previous house, so I imagine the same will apply. But we'll definitely have that discussion.

MovingForwards

Can't offer any advice on cost, but it may help with the other issue you have 😉

SeaVixen

Comms69 said:

In 99% of cases you'll be fine. She's a lodger, and most mortgage products allow that. Obviously check. 

We checked the mortgage last night, and while it says we have to tell them about tennants, it doesn't mention lodgers. As far as I'm aware they are different things, but we're going to call them today to check.