to think they wouldn't be here ALL the time?

[winkywinkola]

So we've got a couple of lodgers. They're very nice - a young couple.

They're students but also told me they have part time jobs.

Turns out one has a job in a bar one night a week. The other tutors a child in English once a week. Okay, more fool me for not getting more details. No problem with paying the rent.

But they are here all the time. In the kitchen. Working on whatever assignment they've got. They never go into university, they just work in the kitchen.

I work from home in my kitchen too. It's starting to get on my nerves.

They have a double ensuite room with a large desk big enough for two. The room is warm and light.

Aibu?

Where are you renting Kogasa? London? Home Counties?

ThereIsIron can I live in your home for a tiny sum whilst you go elsewhere?

kogasa I can assure that it's not just London that is expensive. My daughter rents a flat in Bristol and I've just been looking at what a room would cost. Even single rooms can cost as much as £400 a month and many are much more than that.

Where do you live?

It was reasonable to assume that they wouldn't be in your kitchen nearly all the time. But I think it's just one of those things you will have to chalk up to experience. Have a word with them but I suppose if nothing was agreed beforehand then they might be a bit put out. Next time say use of kitchen for cooking. And it's a lot easier to get rid of people who lodge with you than it is for tenants.

It might be easier to say the kitchen won't be used as a workspace any longer so you will move into the lounge or other room and they move to their bedroom. Pity they can't just be out all the time. Lodgers sound a great way to make extra money but the reality is very different. Your house is never your own.

Kogasa don't be dense! We are in the middle of a housing crisis and private rents have risen multiple times the rate of inflation over the past 7 years. Rents are expensive all over the south, not just the south east. People pay it because they have no choice.

My dfriend has lodgers. Northern city. £90 per week for her Mon-Thurs night lodger and £120 for the full timer

It works out for the Mon-Thurs lodger at £22.50 per night which is a lot cheaper (and nicer) than the cheapo hotels she was living in beforehand and the full timer seems happy enough too, although he does get his own bathroom for that price.

You can't really compare to house shares if you consider the admin/stress/up-keep etc imho.

The lodgers only have a room, which is up to them to keep as clean as they want. They have no responsibilities elsewhere in the house apart form clearing up after themselves. They do not pay bills or even think about them.

Its cheap and a good option for people who just don't want or need the hassle of renting if you ask me.

600 pounds a month round here for a room in a house - also not London.

House shares are also different to someone renting a room or having a lodger.

So basically, as a lodger, you pay a set, all-in price, with reasonable access to the bathroom and kitchen? (Sorry - I'm not really too familiar with the ins and outs)

I'm in a major NW city, and our students frequently opt for the (sickeningly expensive) all-in student residence option, where they have a studio room, fully furnished, with kitchen and en-suite, for a stupid amount of money, so as to avoid house-sharing: could it be that the students in question have misunderstood, and just think they're getting a house-share without the grief? All-in seems really common now, even in student house shares: I can't get my head around it, as the prices they pay would cover a decent three bed-room house (OK- without bills: but between three, and with no council tax as students, they'd come out ahead) about five to ten minutes away from the city centre by bus.

All I mean is that these students may well have misunderstood the lodger/house share thing, given the nature of contemporary student lets, which is why politely pointing it out to them is absolutely fair game.

Personally I would draft a contract with the rules
If they don't like it give them notice and get new ones and write the contract better next time !

I can't decide if I'm being totally over sensitive now as a result of their being around all the time in the day.

One of them has just come back from his job in a cab. The old hoover was sitting on the drive waiting to be taken to the recycling centre to be refurbed, as it were.

We've bought a new hoover to replace it. The lodger used the vacuum cleaner to barter a lower taxi fare. Without asking.

I bridled when he told me this. Should I not mind? I think it's the not asking.

No, that's massively out of order!

They think you're their mum. Disabuse them.

He has literally stolen from you. OK, he may have almost reasonably thought "it's going to waste as it is" - bat that is not his call to make. It was your property. He sold it.

It wouldn't bother me. I would be pleased not to go to the tip and would be glad it was getting used.

Have you done anything about the lodgers using the kitchen.

With this latest development, I now agree with stop. Draft a clear contract. If they don't like it give them notice.

Better still, give this pair notice and find some new lodgers with a clear set of rules.

Hm, I'd say that does take this piss as he had no idea why it was there. He shouldn't have assumed anything.

Hang on, Pillocks! OP was taking the vacuum to the refurb place, not binning it. If it was going to be sold to a minicab driver, that's her decision not some random student's.

Better still, give this pair notice and find some new lodgers with a clear set of rules.

Let me rephrase that. Find some new lodgers with respect for other people's property and personal space.

I thought the recycling center was another name for the tip???

Stuff that ends up at our local tip that can be refurbed gets sold on in aid of ymca. So the lodger had no right to get rid of it, as the op had another intended use for it.
He's a piss taker.