CF lodger - advice please

[Kiwirose]

Our spare double room in our family home is let for single occupancy for £500pm including bills (which is probably too cheap) to a PhD student. He has just returned home with is wife without discussing this with us first. She tells us she is staying for 2-3 months.

We knew he was married and his wife lived and worked abroad in the same country he lived and worked in prior to study, so he is over here on a student visa.

We previously discussed with him the need to increase rent bin October because of the cost of living and all of the bills increasing.

My question is how much do you think it is reasonable to charge for a double room with double occupancy for the time his wife is here?

(and yes I am annoyed that this happened without prior discussion. I think he is treating this like a shared flat which it isn't, but even if it were I don't think you could move another person in without everyone else asking reasonable financial measures to compensate for additional utility usage and inconvenience).

All ideas gratefully received please.

Bananasweetlady A one bed or studio council flat is going to be £80/90 per week without bills. Add in utilities and council tax and that will take it to another £50 per week easily. That’s £568

add on wifi and furnishings, cleaning and toilet paper etc

if you want a housing association flat it’ll be more more than that.

its not the price that is unfair it is the lack of student accommodation at universities and the lack of council properties being built for the last 40 years

@Bananasweetlady

£500 pcm is very reasonable! I paid about that 15 years ago…

The lodger is a student - unlikely to be able to buy a house or qualify for a council house, anyway! Plus he’s foreign so probably wants to go back home.

NHS pay is pretty bad these days. Personally I would rather my phlebotomist (for ex) had a lodger to help with finances rather than working a second and / or third job and was too exhausted to function properly.

Ha. Well he could go there but getting housing would be a very different matter. Where I work we have vulnerable adults unable to get anything because literally there is nothing to apply for.

He's cheeky, but 500 PM just for a room seems a bit steep

That's what they agreed to.

Why on earth should OP offer a room in her family's home for cheap? Some posters, seriously

Includes all bills ie gas, electricity, c tax, water, share of maintenance costs. Also the cost of having a ready made roof over your head with no responsibilities, cleaning costs and the inconvenience of having someone in your space. Not just cost if "a room"

I'm amazed at how out of touch so many posters are about the price of housing these days?
Are you all council tenants on fixed cheap rents (does that even exist?), or paid off your mortgage with inherited wealth so no idea of the renting/housing market?

Have any of you heard of supply and demand? Or market forces?

In my crappy town (pretty but no decent jobs), in the south but nowhere near London, rent is easily £600 for a double room as a lodger. But no bills on-top which makes it the cheapest accommodation.

Op is in Cambridge I think, which is one of the most expensive places in the UK for property. She sounds like she's undercharging already, let alone having a unemployed visitor staying in the house all day.

I’ve just looked in my town (Peterborough, which I know most people think is a dump). House shares in my area are around £550 a month.

I'm in Cornwall. Just had a look on spare room and someone is asking £200/week for a proxy room in Penzance lolololololol fucking hell. OP's £500/month is perfectly reasonable for somewhere like Cambridge.

I can only think that posters who are questioning the rent must have bought their houses in the early 90s before prices went insane and wages stagnated, and have absolutely no idea what a mortgage costs in most of the UK these days.

*poxy

aaah - I just wrote a long response and then it disappeared!

So the question was never "is £500pm an acceptable rent?". We already know it is on the cheap side and for those of you who disagree you are free to look on myspareroom as others have suggested. The question was given that his wife has arrived what should we charge?

There is no issues for visas for either of them. He isn't secretly people smuggling and I don't believe he is a conman although you do take that risk when sharing your home. Our worst lodger was someone who had been police checked and we thought that would mean she was safe around children - she is the only person we have asked to leave so far , and no, I would never have left my children with her. (that's a whole other story).

For those of you wondering why we were waiting until the weekend and preferred the children to be out of the way we believe that was the best thing to do for all concerned. They are never party to the negotiations.

We have now discovered that she is not on holiday. She has resigned her job abroad and does not have a job to return to. She intends to have a break and then look for work here. That does indeed put a whole different dynamic on things.

Had we been approached by someone wanting to rent the room for double occupancy we would have said no so of course we are annoyed about it. We feel this has been thrust upon us rather than being of our choosing.

For now we have agreed on a rent rise which solves one issue. We do always have the option of giving notice.

@autocollantes

• quite! @Shelaydownunderthetable – I think you are probably right about the cultural differences. @Forestdweller11 - we may well still say “Say that the situation with the two of them no longer works for you.” @AnotherDelphinium
• thank you for all your support – I have pm’d you and emailed you as requested. @ivykaty44 – thank you for your support too. @IncompleteSenten
• “people on here really need to learn the legal differences between lodgers, housemates and tenants.” I agree @Fe345fleur
• this time “If it helps motivate you, picture a few months time and writing the next post "CF lodger's wife won't leave." 🙂” This is now!!!!!

Good luck Op - I'd have increased the rent and also given notice in the meantime as they've gone about this in a very under hand way, so could end up in a very difficult situation a few months down the line when she's established and won't leave!

I think you are making a mistake letting them stay. They knew what they were doing . It was obvious she was planning to stay in the UK. What kind of job would she have that she can take 2-3 months off willy nilly. Instead of sitting down with you to discuss her moving in he just brought her without telling you. Things are only going to get worse. Expect thwm to do more messed up stuff.

Now that tou have agreed a "rent increase" they will feel entitled to be there and that will show in their behaviour. She will always be there cooking and constantly in your space. The dynamics are going to change massively. I would get them out NOW if i were you.

So she's not just going to be staying for a couple of months, she's moving in and even though you don't want a couple lodging, you're going along with it.

Bizarre.

Big Mistake OP. They’re taking you for a fool.

I think you are behaving in a very bizarre, passive way OP. Are you completely terrified by any firm of confrontation? Do you generally find people walk all over you and you tend to accept that?

It's your house, home, your family. WTF are you doing.

*form

For now we have agreed on a rent rise which solves one issue. We do always have the option of giving notice

Have you discussed how long she is allowed to stay? You sound very passive.