Renting out a spare room now that I am an empty nester

[Mollymolloy]

Both my DDs have flown the nest. I am single and looking to rent out a spare room, partly for financial reasons and partly for company.

I wasn’t sure whether to aim for someone who is a similar age or to go for a student.

Has anyone done this? Any advice gratefully received….

I did this for a couple of years. Students and someone who worked at a local hotel. The students were great. Advertised on Spare Room and used contracts from there.

I have been on the other end, room found on spareroom though I was classified as a lodger definitely look into the difference.

I basically had to live in my room and that even included taking my items out of the shower everytime after use.

So essentially be clear on how you want your space used. I was a young professional so out for 8hrs + m-f didn't WFH

Depending on were you live could be a good one for postgraduate students or nursing?

But I would say as a lodger I could not have anyone round and was quite isolating but obviously safer feeling for the landlady

if I had a spare room I’d be looking for a Monday to Friday lodger…

Also my family opened up their home to a student completing a course and the college paid towards his rent and that did not work out well at all, things like waking hours using the kitchen in the middle of the night, eating my parents food etc

Can’t remember and too lazy to look it up but there is a lodger/flatmate legal difference and I think it’s at least partly about whether you own the house. We rent a room out and it was interesting to discover we have a lodger, not a flatmate! We don’t have to hold a deposit in a scheme, and as a pp said technically they don’t have rights to communal areas - though also no obligations to those areas, ie no cleaning!

Ours doesn’t function like that in practise though, we’re all friends and chip in and I couldn’t recommend it enough, it’s fab having another person to feed the cat, take in a parcel etc.

Be clear about expectations (particularly around cleaning / noise / use of communal space / guests) but I think it does work better if you’re comfortable with them at least in some ways treating your house like home, ie having a friend over and coming and going when they please, with the normal type of respect a normal person would pay to any household.

I think it depends on you in terms of who to get. If the idea of a drunk 20 year old fills you with horror maybe not a student, or you may prefer that rather than someone your own age who might want to be friends and chatter at you all the time!

Someone whose job takes them travelling can be handy as it can be nice to have a little break.

If you get a lodger you will need a licence agreement and not a tenancy agreement. Which ultimately means you can ask a lodger to leave at very short notice in if it doesn't work out. Also you don't pay tax unless you get over a certain amount.

I was a landlady on my 20s, so not t quite the same. I would suggest asking yourself how ok are you going to be with ppl living in your space.

You are going to have to give any potential lodger space in communal areas- their kitchen cupboard, car parking space. And get used to their quirks - yoga practice on the living room.

Set ground rules early - partners only stay over max 2 nights a week. You can always flex the rules if the bf is not a pain.

Maybe seek out Monday to Friday lodgers.

Best way of luck

Thanks very much for your comments everyone. I really appreciate it. A lot to think about!

Be very careful how you advertise the room in terms of what rights you are giving someone. A lodger has few rights and a tenant has many. You absolutely don't want a tenant

I had a few lodgers before I had kids. I think it helped a lot that I was the only person they had to share with. They were all women, like me. I did it on and off, over about eight years. I had an oddball woman I found online but really liked. Another (very lucrative one as her employer paid) who was only there during the week, for work. A few foreign students who were very interesting, one in particular who I liked a lot. And then, the last one was a friend and her little boy. They lived with me for six months, a time frame agreed beforehand, while we both saved. I was pregnant with my first child during that time. It helped that the little boy was only there half the time, although I liked him a lot. I saved for my new baby coming and my friend saved to buy her own flat.

My advice is that you get a proper lodger contract and amend it to suit you, as well as some written house rules to cover anything important. These dont need to be anything crazy, but you'd be shocked at the amount of people that think its fine to leave the windows open when they go out for the day, or leave the lights on all the time for example, especially if bills are included! Also maybe you might want to think about whether youll let them have guests and whether they can stay overnight and if so how many times a week. Having stuff written down can help avoid misunderstandings later.

We've had loads of lodgers over the years, and unfortunately most of the crap ones have been british sadly. We may have been unlucky with that though! Good luck!

Please consider that if you seek a lodger who is using the place as a temporary crash pad rather than a home, that you reflect this in the price accordingly!

One of my pet hates when house sharing was seeing adverts for lodgers that were mon-fri let's, sometimes not allowing belongings to be left in the room over the weekend, no overnight guests allowed, no access to the living room, not allowed to work from home etc, but charging the same rates as flat sharing. I never applied to lodge in places where it felt the the landlord clearly didn't want anyone to actually be in their home. For some of us, this is/was our home, the most we could afford.

I did lodge full time in a home with a landlady who was an empty nester and divorced, I was a mature student. She had a cleaner included in the price which probably helped avoid tensions over deep cleaning, though we were all responsible for our own washing up etc. When looking for house shares/lodging it's standard to visit the home and the existing tenant/owner to make a decision so tbh most people make their own decisions about who they want, regardless of whether it is strictly PC (eg wanting to share with someone or a similar age, background, culture etc)

My LL lived close to a university and dance school and had many interesting guests stay, many international dancers and singers on short term contracts. I think she preferred that as if for any reason she didn't 'click' with someone, there was a natural end point.

Just make sure that both you and the lodger are very, very clear about what you want.

When I was lodging it was because I was saving to be able to afford my own place, I had a hot lunch at work so didn’t need to cook. I was out a lot and when in, preferred to spend most of my time in my room with my books & the TV.

My landlady had got a lodger because she wanted someone to chat to. And she was very chatty.