Rent a Room - Garage Conversion

unforeseen

Irrespective of kitchen and other things, is it even a wise investment?

Not really  a wise investment BECAUSE of the kitchen and things. 
It is NOT  a self contained annex because there are no cooking facilities. It is not a studio for the same reason. I really doubt whether you will get £500 for a room only and no access to cooking facilities. Use of a home gym adds zero to the appeal of it because it fails on the basics. 

hazyjo

itssmallstuff said:

hazyjo said:

So no sofa for them to sit on?

How much will this conversion cost? Rough estimate for an attached double garage, £15-30k for something habitable? That's going to be an awful lot of rent to cover that cost, and may even devalue your home rather than add value.

As above, agree it won't work as lodger's accommodation anyway.

Cost of conversation - it's certainly going to be 20-30k. Greater London location. Rent 500-650 pcm. It will take 4years to recover the investment. 
Sofa - there will room for a 2 seat sofa in their bed room. 
Kitchen - I'm just not confident to allow access to main kitchen in the house, however this may change once we know the lodger better. 

Irrespective of kitchen and other things, is it even a wise investment?

So you're presuming 100% occupancy for a lodger? No voids? People will have little security, prob with a week or month's notice. They're unlikely to be staying for 4 years. You wouldn't want more than £7500 a year anyway as that's the tax free rent a room scheme allowance.

You're not going to get a lodger to agree to "no using the kitchen until we know you better"!

"Self contained annexe" is very different to "lodger" for income. Also very different to house value! As I said, you may be devaluing it. Two garages in Greater London? Is it a double, tandem, or two separate ones? If you're near a station, you might be better to just rent them out if you don't need them and save the thirty grand conversion! Check out parking websites for comparable prices and current parking locations.

itssmallstuff

hazyjo said:

itssmallstuff said:

hazyjo said:

So no sofa for them to sit on?

How much will this conversion cost? Rough estimate for an attached double garage, £15-30k for something habitable? That's going to be an awful lot of rent to cover that cost, and may even devalue your home rather than add value.

As above, agree it won't work as lodger's accommodation anyway.

Cost of conversation - it's certainly going to be 20-30k. Greater London location. Rent 500-650 pcm. It will take 4years to recover the investment. 
Sofa - there will room for a 2 seat sofa in their bed room. 
Kitchen - I'm just not confident to allow access to main kitchen in the house, however this may change once we know the lodger better. 

Irrespective of kitchen and other things, is it even a wise investment?

So you're presuming 100% occupancy for a lodger? No voids? People will have little security, prob with a week or month's notice. They're unlikely to be staying for 4 years. You wouldn't want more than £7500 a year anyway as that's the tax free rent a room scheme allowance.

You're not going to get a lodger to agree to "no using the kitchen until we know you better"!

"Self contained annexe" is very different to "lodger" for income. Also very different to house value! As I said, you may be devaluing it. Two garages in Greater London? Is it a double, tandem, or two separate ones? If you're near a station, you might be better to just rent them out if you don't need them and save the thirty grand conversion! Check out parking websites for comparable prices and current parking locations.

1. My initial thoughts were to make it self contained annex. The issue is planning would only allow it to be used as ancillary to main and not as a separate family dwelling.
2. So, since self contained was not an option, I started investigating about Rent a room. With minimalist kitchen (portable items mostly).
3. Yes, two separate garages next to the property.. one is brick and internally converted. Other one is timber. Pre-plannning advise was that I could convert them both into habitable accomodation. 
4. I am about 1 mile from the nearest overground station. However there is plenty off-street as well as driveway parking space.
5. Sounds like, I have three options..
a. Make it an self contained annex.. and let it to friend/family only! I don't think I can find anyone fitting this criteria.
b. Make it self contained, and let it to open market. Risk Council enforcement! Loss of sleep! Stress all life!
c. Make it a room, but share kitchen OR bath!
d. Do nothing. Find other investment opportunities!

hazyjo

5a - never advisable to let to family or friends! Recipe for disaster!

Ditzy_Mitzy

I'll say what everyone else seems to be thinking: this is an utterly horrid idea, bordering on the morally reprehensible.  A single garage, because the two buildings are separate, is a single garage.  It was put up to shelter the householder's Ford Consul, or whatever sort of medium sized car is appropriate to the era of construction, from the elements.  It is not a house.  It never will be a house.  If you haven't got a Ford Consul then by all means put a lawnmower and chest freezer in there but, for God's sake, not some poor !!!!!! with a middling job.  Where's the kitchen?  Where's the bathroom?  Where's the insulation and the windows and the poor prospective occupant's dignity?  I've got a garage too, lucky me, it's full of old tins of paint and spiders.  One day I might clear it out and buy myself a Ford Consul with faux leopard-skin seat covers to put in it.  I won't, ever, think: 'You know what I could do?  Get a poor person to pay me handsomely to live in here!'.  What about the dead of winter, when you're sitting indoors with the central heating blasting and poor boy/girl is sitting in your garage shivering with nothing but a £30 Argos oil radiator to keep warm by.  Would you let him or her in if asked nicely enough?
You know; I let a maisonette, a whole one with different rooms and everything, for what you're proposing to let a wooden framed garage out for.  These are people, we're talking about, real people with hopes and fears and imaginations and, if you like, souls.  People made of the same stuff as you and I, only with less money.  They aren't livestock and they certainly aren't cars.  They deserve better.

itssmallstuff

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

I'll say what everyone else seems to be thinking: this is an utterly horrid idea, bordering on the morally reprehensible.  A single garage, because the two buildings are separate, is a single garage.  It was put up to shelter the householder's Ford Consul, or whatever sort of medium sized car is appropriate to the era of construction, from the elements.  It is not a house.  It never will be a house.  If you haven't got a Ford Consul then by all means put a lawnmower and chest freezer in there but, for God's sake, not some poor !!!!!! with a middling job.  Where's the kitchen?  Where's the bathroom?  Where's the insulation and the windows and the poor prospective occupant's dignity?  I've got a garage too, lucky me, it's full of old tins of paint and spiders.  One day I might clear it out and buy myself a Ford Consul with faux leopard-skin seat covers to put in it.  I won't, ever, think: 'You know what I could do?  Get a poor person to pay me handsomely to live in here!'.  What about the dead of winter, when you're sitting indoors with the central heating blasting and poor boy/girl is sitting in your garage shivering with nothing but a £30 Argos oil radiator to keep warm by.  Would you let him or her in if asked nicely enough?
You know; I let a maisonette, a whole one with different rooms and everything, for what you're proposing to let a wooden framed garage out for.  These are people, we're talking about, real people with hopes and fears and imaginations and, if you like, souls.  People made of the same stuff as you and I, only with less money.  They aren't livestock and they certainly aren't cars.  They deserve better.

Sorry, but you misunderstood. The conversion will be done in line with building regulations. It would be furnished no less than my own home. Heating, hot water, bed ... These are basic necessities and will be made available. I'll be doing more than that - TV, washing machine, WiFi, parking, garden, milk/cereals, regular cleaning, safety checks...

I'm not planning to put a bed in garage, but convert the garages to the level of habitable accomodation.

itssmallstuff

itssmallstuff said:

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

I'll say what everyone else seems to be thinking: this is an utterly horrid idea, bordering on the morally reprehensible.  A single garage, because the two buildings are separate, is a single garage.  It was put up to shelter the householder's Ford Consul, or whatever sort of medium sized car is appropriate to the era of construction, from the elements.  It is not a house.  It never will be a house.  If you haven't got a Ford Consul then by all means put a lawnmower and chest freezer in there but, for God's sake, not some poor !!!!!! with a middling job.  Where's the kitchen?  Where's the bathroom?  Where's the insulation and the windows and the poor prospective occupant's dignity?  I've got a garage too, lucky me, it's full of old tins of paint and spiders.  One day I might clear it out and buy myself a Ford Consul with faux leopard-skin seat covers to put in it.  I won't, ever, think: 'You know what I could do?  Get a poor person to pay me handsomely to live in here!'.  What about the dead of winter, when you're sitting indoors with the central heating blasting and poor boy/girl is sitting in your garage shivering with nothing but a £30 Argos oil radiator to keep warm by.  Would you let him or her in if asked nicely enough?
You know; I let a maisonette, a whole one with different rooms and everything, for what you're proposing to let a wooden framed garage out for.  These are people, we're talking about, real people with hopes and fears and imaginations and, if you like, souls.  People made of the same stuff as you and I, only with less money.  They aren't livestock and they certainly aren't cars.  They deserve better.

Sorry, but you misunderstood. The conversion will be done in line with building regulations. It would be furnished no less than my own home. Heating, hot water, bed ... These are basic necessities and will be made available. I'll be doing more than that - TV, washing machine, WiFi, parking, garden, milk/cereals, regular cleaning, safety checks...

I'm not planning to put a bed in garage, but convert the garages to the level of habitable accomodation.

Not sure if I mentioned, the room will be an ensuite with a full size bath!

68ComebackSpecial

itssmallstuff said:

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

I'll say what everyone else seems to be thinking: this is an utterly horrid idea, bordering on the morally reprehensible.  A single garage, because the two buildings are separate, is a single garage.  It was put up to shelter the householder's Ford Consul, or whatever sort of medium sized car is appropriate to the era of construction, from the elements.  It is not a house.  It never will be a house.  If you haven't got a Ford Consul then by all means put a lawnmower and chest freezer in there but, for God's sake, not some poor !!!!!! with a middling job.  Where's the kitchen?  Where's the bathroom?  Where's the insulation and the windows and the poor prospective occupant's dignity?  I've got a garage too, lucky me, it's full of old tins of paint and spiders.  One day I might clear it out and buy myself a Ford Consul with faux leopard-skin seat covers to put in it.  I won't, ever, think: 'You know what I could do?  Get a poor person to pay me handsomely to live in here!'.  What about the dead of winter, when you're sitting indoors with the central heating blasting and poor boy/girl is sitting in your garage shivering with nothing but a £30 Argos oil radiator to keep warm by.  Would you let him or her in if asked nicely enough?
You know; I let a maisonette, a whole one with different rooms and everything, for what you're proposing to let a wooden framed garage out for.  These are people, we're talking about, real people with hopes and fears and imaginations and, if you like, souls.  People made of the same stuff as you and I, only with less money.  They aren't livestock and they certainly aren't cars.  They deserve better.

Sorry, but you misunderstood. The conversion will be done in line with building regulations. It would be furnished no less than my own home. Heating, hot water, bed ... These are basic necessities and will be made available. I'll be doing more than that - TV, washing machine, WiFi, parking, garden, milk/cereals, regular cleaning, safety checks...

I'm not planning to put a bed in garage, but convert the garages to the level of habitable accomodation.

But you don't cook and eat your microwave only meals sat on a tiny sofa in your bedroom, which is what you are expecting your lodger to do. What you are proposing to provide as "extras" - TV, washing machine, garden etc - are actually what you would expect as standard as a lodger sharing a home.

[Deleted User]

itssmallstuff said:

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

I'll say what everyone else seems to be thinking: this is an utterly horrid idea, bordering on the morally reprehensible.  A single garage, because the two buildings are separate, is a single garage.  It was put up to shelter the householder's Ford Consul, or whatever sort of medium sized car is appropriate to the era of construction, from the elements.  It is not a house.  It never will be a house.  If you haven't got a Ford Consul then by all means put a lawnmower and chest freezer in there but, for God's sake, not some poor !!!!!! with a middling job.  Where's the kitchen?  Where's the bathroom?  Where's the insulation and the windows and the poor prospective occupant's dignity?  I've got a garage too, lucky me, it's full of old tins of paint and spiders.  One day I might clear it out and buy myself a Ford Consul with faux leopard-skin seat covers to put in it.  I won't, ever, think: 'You know what I could do?  Get a poor person to pay me handsomely to live in here!'.  What about the dead of winter, when you're sitting indoors with the central heating blasting and poor boy/girl is sitting in your garage shivering with nothing but a £30 Argos oil radiator to keep warm by.  Would you let him or her in if asked nicely enough?
You know; I let a maisonette, a whole one with different rooms and everything, for what you're proposing to let a wooden framed garage out for.  These are people, we're talking about, real people with hopes and fears and imaginations and, if you like, souls.  People made of the same stuff as you and I, only with less money.  They aren't livestock and they certainly aren't cars.  They deserve better.

Sorry, but you misunderstood. The conversion will be done in line with building regulations. It would be furnished no less than my own home. Heating, hot water, bed ... These are basic necessities and will be made available. I'll be doing more than that - TV, washing machine, WiFi, parking, garden, milk/cereals, regular cleaning, safety checks...

I'm not planning to put a bed in garage, but convert the garages to the level of habitable accomodation.

I'd call cooking facilities a basic necessity and I don't count one microwave as cooking facilities.

[Deleted User]

@itssmallstuff you don't appear to want to share your home with this other occupant, whatever their status might be, but that's the whole point of the rent a room scheme....to rent a room in your home. Would you want to rent a converted garage with no access to a proper kitchen?