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Original poster

Rent a room

19 replies

Pinarkai · 21/08/2023 20:55

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all doing well. I'm currently exploring the possibility of renting out a room or a few rooms, and I was wondering if anyone here has experience with this. Could you please share some insights about the procedure? Specifically, I'm curious about whether I should be responsible for drafting the tenancy agreement etc.
Any advice or information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

OP posts:

Badbudgeter · 21/08/2023 21:00

Where are you as that will change the advice you get. Scots law different from English. I'd expect you the landlord to draft the agreement. I've had good experience using simplydocs download templated docs and adjust to fit your needs.

Haggisfish3 · 21/08/2023 21:04

My friend used openrent and it was great.

Original poster

Pinarkai · 21/08/2023 21:04

hi, thanks for your quick reply.
I live in London, purchased a house but now thinking of renting all the rooms out.

OP posts:

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Property

Haggisfish3 · 21/08/2023 21:14

Yes my friend rented her room out through openrent. They have example leases and operate a deposit holding scheme without ridiculous charges.

Original poster

Pinarkai · 21/08/2023 21:23

Thank you for the replies. Can anyone give me a step by step? I feel brain dead with the process of purchasing the house I can’t think straight. We have 5 rooms.

OP posts:

BMW6 · 21/08/2023 21:34

Hang on, if you're going to let out 5 rooms don't you need all sorts of health and safety checks, permission to be an HMO (house of multiple occupancy)?

Rent a Room usually applies to having 1 lodger in your home, not several.

I think you may be getting into a minefield. Ring your local housing office and ask. Or citizens advice.

Be very careful - there are serious financial penalties if you fall foul of regulations.

BMW6 · 21/08/2023 21:39

There's a Government site with info on HMO.

Just put HMO in Google.

EmpressaurusOfCats · 21/08/2023 21:45

Rent a Room usually applies to having 1 lodger in your home, not several.

I also get the impression that you won’t be living in the house yourself, OP, or is that wrong? I think that can make a difference too.

Buxustrees · 21/08/2023 21:50

Will you be a live in landlord at the property / living along side your lodgers? if you are getting a mortgage on the property you may need permission from the lender to rent part of the property out.

FrillyGoatFluff · 22/08/2023 00:12

Yeah that's an HMO.

Rooms have to be a certain size
There's a huge amount of additional requirements (on top of normal landlord legislation) that you need to comply with, fire safety for example
you'll need a licence too

Get an agent, don't try and do it via open rent or one of the faceless onlines (I say this having spent years working for online agents). And join the RNLA. You'll need the help.

Alternatively, sell the property and forget all about doing it at all, HMOs are a ballache.

caringcarer · 22/08/2023 01:07

With a HMO you'll need a licence. Each room must be a certain size. You must have fire doors. You must have fire alarms in every room in the house and hard wired into electrics. You need a gas certificate. An electric certificate. Locks in each room to be let. A certain amount of communal area. Ideally 2 bathrooms/shower rooms/2 toilets. Many will also have 2 washing machines/dryers and 2 ovens. If you've not done it before go through an agent who will vet tenants, sort deposits for you, guides to renting and make sure you are compliant. If you are not the fines are eye watering.

SpaceRaiders · 22/08/2023 01:17

It sounds like you really have no idea what you’re doing, which is a complete recipe for disaster. You need to pay an agent to manage this HMO on your behalf, for your sake and the tenants sake.

Original poster

Pinarkai · 22/08/2023 08:37

Sorry, I forgot to mention the property is a buy to let and no I won’t be living in the property only the tenants will be.

This is our first property to rent so we have no idea what we need to do.

thank you all for your replies.

OP posts:

EmpressaurusOfCats · 22/08/2023 09:20

Pinarkai · 22/08/2023 08:37

Sorry, I forgot to mention the property is a buy to let and no I won’t be living in the property only the tenants will be.

This is our first property to rent so we have no idea what we need to do.

thank you all for your replies.

PPs are absolutely right about you paying an agent in that case - you’re looking at a huge responsibility.

buzzing · 22/08/2023 09:25

So you bought the house and you’re just thinking about all this now?!

Barleysugar86 · 22/08/2023 09:30

I've done the shared living thing- four rooms in a houseshare. We had a living room, kitchen/ diner as communal areas and two toilets each with washing facilities (one had a bath, one a shower).

It was quite pleasant. But don't be that landlord that takes out the living room to make another bedroom. It's a horrible way to live and ends up confining everyone to their room not talking to each other.

I found my room through spare room. But with law changes on HMOs not sure how things have changed in the past ten years.

kitchenhelprequired · 22/08/2023 09:42

HMO rules apply for 3 or more non related/cohabiting parties in a property, some council area's require a licence at that point with others not requiring a licence until 5. If you are looking at renting rooms individually it will be on a Assured Short term Tenancy Agreement - Room only and many agents won't be an option for that type of contract. Alternative is renting on a standard AST to a group. It's a complex area and if you don't want to go down the route of renting as a singular 'family' home start with the HMO rules in the council area.

BMW6 · 22/08/2023 10:54

Well my mind is properly boggled that you've bought a large property as a buy-to-let when you haven't got a clue about any of the regulations involved!

Your original post suggests that you were thinking of getting a lodger in your own home, but the truth is as different as night and day.

This will not end well for you I fear, especially financially.

Buxustrees · 22/08/2023 11:00

Pinarkai · 22/08/2023 08:37

Sorry, I forgot to mention the property is a buy to let and no I won’t be living in the property only the tenants will be.

This is our first property to rent so we have no idea what we need to do.

thank you all for your replies.

To start, an important thing to remember is if you are not paying cash for the property, you will need a buy to let mortgage as this will be a business for you. Sanctions can be imposed by a lender if they find a residential mortgage is used for a buy to let business property such as -

· You have to immediately repay the loan in full.
· You may have to pay extra fees or penalties.
· Your residential mortgage will be converted to a buy to let mortgage.

You will normally need at least 25% deposit for a buy to let mortgage.

If you already own a property you will have to pay the the higher level stamp duty on this next property which in London can be in the £10s of thousands. I agree with the other posters, you need specialist advice, I would do some research and employ a quality letting agent that specialises in managing HMO properties. Many London boroughs require HMO licensing. The rules and regulations are now so strict for this type of letting you can easily get into trouble if you are new to this business, the penalties have been known to be a years worth of rent refunded back to the tenant by the landlord for non compliance with HMO rules. Good luck x

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