Renting out a room

Jet

I'm about to move to a new house in a new area (for jobs and schooling reasons) and the house I'm buying needs a bit more work doing than I had anticipated. :eek:

As the house is 3 bedroom and there are only 2 of us (myself and 9 yr old son), I was thinking about renting out the spare bedroom.

I've been trying to look for sites that give advice on renting out a room, but can't seem to find much. I've done a search on here and not come up with much either. I've got an idea of how much to charge and realise that I don't have to declare the income (it will be under the limit). But I'm a bit daunted about what house rules to devise (if any), what happens with regards to the phone (scared of lodger running me up a huge bill! :eek:) Do lodgers tend to stay in their rooms or will they want to sit in the front room with us? Who decides what to watch on tv etc. ?

As you can tell, I 've got no idea how it works and want to get my head clear about it all before I dive in.

kendun

Hi Jet,
I've lived in shared accomodation in the past,but it was people from more or less a similar age group,some of the house rules included
Washing up the dishes immediately after use( if it's not stated people do pile up cutlery and dishes in the sink and you do get annoyed)
splitting the phone bill with the itemised bill
splitting all utilities bills equally
Rota for cleaning the communal areas including bathroom etc
Normally people coming in early watched what they preferred on telly,but something of common interest people would tune into that,guess it's a bit diffcult when you have ur son as well,maybe cud get a portable telly for your tenant or ask him/her to get one themselves
Lodgers do not always sit in their own rooms unless they have their own reasons ,so you expect them to share your front room.
Can be a bit awkward when lodgers bring their partners /have them staying over ,guess it's bit embarassing at times .......You could have rules about this but then someone coming back from a night out with a partner or someone they have met is always possible....
Guess you'll need to be quite strict with the deposit and dates for paying the rent etc.
I am not trying to be negative Jet,the above are both my personal experiences and also reasons for hesitating to have a lodger.I have a spare room and considered having a lodger but the above issues put me off.
I think if you find someone you think you'll be comfortable with maybe you could go for it.Think it might be easier if you have common interests/areas eg maybe someone from your workplace maybe?
Hope it goes well and do post your experiences in a few months and maybe I'll take the plunge as well

HugoSP

We've done this.

The good news is that a live in landlord means that the lodger has very few legal rights, unlike an AST tenant.

Obviously that doesn't mean you can charge him a hefty deposit and a month's rent then kick him out the next day, but it does mean that once you ask him to leave he must. And you must reimburse any moneys due to him.

We put together our own tenancy agreement but there will be good legally watertight ones out there.

If you must have a home phone that you can make outgoing calls on then you could replace the handset with a payphone, and install it in such a way that the lodger could not get to the bt socket.

Take sensible precautions, like put your valuables with someone you can trust, at least until you get to know the lodger.

As far as the TV is concerned, I would be tempted to provide a TV and freeview box (freecycle) in the lodger's room for him 'just in case he and you want to watch different programmes'.

Set out what ground rules you would like in place then consider whether or not they are reasonable. With the 9 year old boy for example, you don't want your lodger to roll in at the early hours of the morning drunk and making a lot of noise, or bring girl/boyfriends home on a regular basis. Whereas when we were students this was not necessarily the problem that it could be to you.

We took lodgers until our eldest was around 16 months old. The second was on the way. We would have probably asked the last two to leave when our eldest was born but they seemed happy to accomodate the needs of our new baby, so we let one stay as long as he needed, then when he moved out we put the other lodger in his room at the back of the house and put our daughter in the 2nd bedroom that was closest to ours. Even though both were students (young, having a good time etc) they were very considerate.

HugoSP

As far as finding a good lodger, it is a bit like finding a good builder - personal recommendation goes a long way.

When you are settled at work, why not put notices up and ask colleagues if they know of anyone looking for accomodation. People who have held jobs down for a while and are diligent in their work usually know the value of pulling their own weight and are often a good bet.

You may be better off finding someone who works away from home if you can. They may live beyond commuting distance from their place of work and hence need to take up a room during the week but leave at the weekends to go and see their family. This would give you every weekend to yourselves.

A lot of up and coming professionals do this whilst they are either on a temporary contract, looking to move to their job, or decide not to move their family to the area for whatever reason - yes this does happen, as in the case of one chap I knew who probably realised that his job may be short lived, because it was part of his grand career plan.

kendun

Hi Jet,
HugoSP has mentioned about trying for lodgers at work,that is a really good way.You could advertise on your intranet if your workplace has one.You could have a read through the gumtree website to see how they advertise their rooms,flatmates and roomates sites are also good for getting an idea about advertising.
Sharing with people from work was my best experience and sharing with people though one of these sites wasnt a very good experience,learnt it the hard way.You could advertise for professionals maybe.
Do mention about smoking and pets,it saves a lot of hassle later.If you do end up advertising through a website meeting the person while they come around to view the room will definitely help,you'll get an idea about the person and do trust your vibes.
When you get around to advertising use terms/phrases to make it sound interesting.When you have a read through the various ads you'll get an idea of what sounds good and what is dull and insipid.Phrases like a 5 min walk from the supermarket,spacious room etc are the norm
If you think that splitting the utilities bill might be a headache,you could estimate how much it would cost and maybe increase the rent and mention all bills included or so.If it's a student you wouldnt have to pay the extra council tax but in case it's a working adult that's another issue to be considered when you are thinking about the rent.
Take care and good luck mate

Jet

thanks for the replies. I will probably continue to work where I work now (at least for a while anyway) and there are currently only 3 of us, so no scope for letting out a room to a colleague. I know quite a few people in the new area, so I might ask them if they know of anyone. I did think I would include all bills - I think it makes it more straightforward although not if they decide to run a fan heater all day in their room, I suppose. I need a landline for an internet connection, so I'll have to keep that - maybe look into a payphone. It's a scary thought, sharing my house with someone else especially as I have my son but maybe I can find someone through word of mouth. I have a strong feeling I wouldn't want a student, so would be looking for a professional person (preferably one that wasn't around much at weekends!)

HugoSP

We actually split the bills with the lodgers.

We dropped the rent slightly to compensate for this but it did mean that lodgers' use of electricity or gas had a direct effect on what they would pay.

Also, one of my lodgers did moan about my use of my tumble drier on good dry days - fair play to him, we've been pretty good about this since!

mcchell

Well my OH has!

I live with my OH in a 3 bed house and we rent the other 2 rooms out.

We take a deposit and then rent weekly, so long as you vet intersted people closely, get references etc then you should be OK. We don't have house rules as such, we keep communal areas clean ourselves but if we feel someone is making work for us we say. (This is all explained at the beginning)

If things are not working out you can always ask them to leave!

We use http://www.spareroom.co.uk to find people. On there you can look for people who just want mon - fri rooms if you like.

ali1972

Theatre Digs.......

Do you live relatively near a theatre? If you do, you could put the room on the theatre digs list, by contacting the administration department. Actors, musicians and technicians working at the theatres (especially repertory theatres and theatres that receive tours of musicals) often need to rent rooms on a short term basis. Depending on the size of the theatre it can be anything from a week at a time to something like 6 weeks at a time. It's sort of like Bed and Breakfast without the breakfast. Some theatres have woefully small digs lists so really need more rooms to offer.

Usually the deal includes bills and the price tends to vary depending on what you are offering - these days anything from £70 a week for a basic single to £120 for a nice double with its own bathroom. The nearer you are to the theatre the more you can charge generally, especially if it is walking distance. Theatre folk tend to be out most afternoons and until late evening so their presence doesn't really tend to impact on family life. They keep themselves to themselves and tend to slip in and out unnoticed most of the time. Because they are used to touring they normally are very self sufficient and will probably retire to their room with their laptop and 8 series of CSI on DVD! Theatricals are also very nice about giving any complimetary tickets they get to their landladies...

The following are a few pointers for anyone thinking of letting out a room to theatricals:

1. If you put a tv in the room, you will hardly ever see your lodger.

2. If you put a kettle and teabags in the room, you will definitely never your lodger.

3. Theatre employees get paid weekly on fridays so generally the custom is to pay cash to the landlady on friday every week.

4. Less is more. As long as they have some space so they can unpack and a socket or 2 to plug in hairdryers, phone chargers etc theatricals are content. If the room is doubling up as a junk room though, it's much harder to unpack! Obviously you need to provide linen and a couple of towels as well.

5. Most landladies are happy to let the lodger do a load of washing a week. Just have a think about whether you are happy to let the lodger use the machine themselves or whether you would rather put it in yourself and make sure they know your preference.

6. If you are happy to have a lodger use the kitchen, then let them know where in the fridge you would like them to put a few things. Most landladies just clear a salad drawer or part of a shelf. Also they might set aside a shelf or 2 in a cupboard. If you don't want the kitchen used then make sure this is clear when they book. Most people renting digs like this will probably only keep some cereal or a loaf of bread anyway. Some landladies who don't allow use of their kitchen do provide breakfast instead. This happens less and less these days but usually is just a case of providing juice, cereal and toast.

7. Get a hold of the digs list for the theatre if possible and see what other people include on their entry. For instance, they might include a parking space which can be important to a lot of tourers.

8. It's fine to pop a list of rules/guidelines in the bedroom. Lodgers would rather know where they stand. This can be things like the time in the morning you need to use the bathroom. It's also nice if you can leave instructions or a map of how to get from the digs to the theatre.

9. Good digs tips are spread around the theatre community by word of mouth. When they find a good place, theatricals tell all their friends and put the details into professional publications.

10. Because it's all short term lets, you can decide when you want a lodger and when you don't. That's handy for people who only have a room available for 10 weeks at a time when their kids are at university.

11. If you have any cause for concern about your lodger at any time you can contact the theatre and ask to speak to the Company Manager for the production.

ali-t

I have had a couple of lodgers over the last few years and haven't had any real problems. It has made me realise that I am pretty inflexible and stuck in my ways but had a contract drawn up prior to having anyone move in.

I'm not sure if I can post the full contract on here or not but could e-mail it to you if you want. I take £300pcm and the same for a deposit and the lodger has 2 rooms (single bedroom and their own living room with tv and freeview, wireless broadband etc).

this works out great for me as I rarely see them and they help to pay me bills. I haven't noticed an increase in gas and electricity and they generally use their mobile phone rather than mine. The first one I had in, I put a call bar on mobiles and premium lines from the house phone and had free evening and weekend calls anyway.

go for it. Its a great way to make a bit of extra cash and there are always people looking on websites for digs. If you live in a city there are often professionals (usually male) who are looking for monday to friday digs and go home to their families at weekends.

If you live near a college or university, foreign students looking to improve their English often require accomodation. The only issue for me with this was that the college stated that people from hotter countries often find the uk too cold so prefer a hot house - I can't abide a hot house, especially not at night so that was out for me.

I also looked into theatre companies but prefered to have a regular income rather than sporadic which is might be from the theatre. Another option that requires more input from yourself is approaching your local football club. One of the big clubs in my area often advertises looking for accomodation for very junior players. These are likely to be 16-17 year olds away from home for the first time. The money is quite good but you have to provide food for them. HTH

Bagger

My wife works in a school. We find that the school hires one or two foreign language teachers every year. They work in the UK for 7 or 8 months. We have been putting them up for the last 3 years or so. The good thing about it is that they definitely leave after their contract is up. You hardly see them during the weekend or holidays since they are sightseeing. You may want to contact your local school for this.

Bagger