Can I secretly rent my house to my son

Do you have a mortgage on your house? If
tou do, you’ll need to inform the bank/ take out a buy to let mortgage ( more expensive). I don’t think landlord insurance is compulsory. Of course you could ignore all this and DIY it, but you’d be a hostage to fortune.

As others have said, make sure you declare to HMRC as the rental income is taxable. Also, I think you’ll need to rearrange your home insurance for the property you own but no longer live in.

You will also have to have landlords insurance.

All sorts of potential problems. You will be listed as the tenant on a tenancy agreement for the bungalow, not your son. Landlord could object to that. If you are getting rent paid to you and not declaring to HMRC, someone could dob you in and you’d be liable to a fine and back payments. Your son could stop paying rent to you ( it happens) . All landlord forums say don’t rent to family. Only do it if you totally trust your son, and then draw up a proper tenancy agreement with him just in case.

If you're renting your house then you are a landlord and you will have all the responsibilities of a normal landlord so gas safety certificates right to rent guides, electrical safety testing etc. And of course, as everyone else has said you will need to declare the income and pay tax on it and you'll have to do a tax return.

Secret how/why? In terms of tax evasion? Or government oversight?

I don’t think so.

Could your son pay the bungalow landlord instead? That way you pay your mortgage and he pays your rent and you just swap houses.

I mean you could try but you'll both be in the shit if someone finds out like your landlord, your mortgage provider, HMRC...

So it's up to you really.

Define secretly? HMRC need to know, you need a proper AST to safeguard both parties.

Well spotted- the tax free advice is totally rubbish.
Look at trouble Rachel Reeves got into recently and she was trying to do everything correctly. I am an accidental landlord- there is so much legally you must do. HMRC, tax return, gas cert, councl licence if needed, EICR cert, EPC, smoke and CO alarms, tested, timely deposit certification, immigration checks etc etc. There's more, and recently AML checks too for all landlords.

It's not your son reporting you you probably need to worry about, it's anyone else who finds out and wants to get you into trouble.

OP not going to come back and enlighten everyone?

What’s the point?

Surely that is if there is a tenancy agreement?
What about people who let a relative live rent free in a property? No agreements or anything.

Even if it’s for free you are still a landlord and still required to comply with all the landlord rules and regulations (which are about to be increased massively).

It completely depends what you are trying to. Ensure your property is legally up to standard for renting, declare you are renting (if necessary) to your mortgage provider and insurance company etc but not tell your daughter because she will feel you are favouriting her brother and turn it into a big issue? That’s something you can do.

Pretend not to be renting to break the law and/or commit fraud? No.

You need to give more info here.
Why does it have to be in secret? What are you hiding, and who from?

Who do you want to keep it a secret from and why? No one can answer if you don't divulge this as we can't accurately assess the liability.

Why not get your son to pay your rent while you continue to pay your mortgage?

You can rent your home to anyone you like provided the mortgage lender agrees and you inform the HMRC. You’ll both also have to register your new addresses for council tax and voting.

Years ago I got evicted by a bank because the actual homeowner wasn’t allowed to rent the house to anyone else, it was in the terms of their mortgage.

Why doesn't your son rent a bungalow and you just swap homes: if he's not paying you rent, then it's not income which needs to be declared by you.

Probably, although I don't know how it would work if she still legally owns the house. Maybe a tax or mortgage job.

If you mean sort of sneaky, cash in hand thing for whatever reason, I think it is a bad idea. One, you'll probably get found out / reported and end up in trouble. Two, if your son ever finds that he needs housing benefits, he will have no evidence that he ever paid you rent, so I think they will not help him. This happened to someone I know who stayed for free in one of his mum's properties and then he wanted housing benefit. Obviously (and rightly so), they said no as he never paid any rent. So I imagine any under the table rent situation would be the same

OP will need to tell her bank (ask in fact) and change the mortgage to a BTL mortgage. Many lenders will NOT lend if a family member resides in the rented house.

Also OP will need to change the house insurance to landlord insurance rather than owner occupier.

OP will need to do all the usual gas and electrical (and Legionnaire's etc) checks and serve all the usual paperwork else the mortgage and insurance won't be valid.

And yes declare the income via an annual tax return.

I don’t think you will be able to get a proper answer, without explaining who you want to keep it a secret from. But as others have said, at the very least you will likely have to tell your mortgage lender (if you have a mortgage) and declare the rent you recieve to HMRC as it constitutes income.