Mumsnetters are always telling people to get a lodger

[SlothfullyYours]

Have you had one? Been one? How does it work.

Do they have a shelf in the fridge? Cleaning rota? Do they use the lounge in the evening/weekends?

Can they have friends over? Boyfriend/girlfriend to sleepover?

Or take in ironing.👍😁

Is it more of a London thing? Non-Londoner here and I’ve never known or heard of anyone lodging or having a lodger ever, never seen it advertised or asked for either.

Oh it’s the same with that “free 30 minute appointment with divorce lawyer” 🤭

People always used to take in lodgers to help pay rent.

I've been a lodger. Fewer rights than renting but I liked the flexibility. I lived with my LL. I had a shelf on the fridge. My rent included bills. I could have someone to stay every other weekend for 2 nights.

I helped with cleaning. Used the lounge when I wanted.

I think it would differ from place to place. The ones I've known have been essentially a house-share, but where one person owns the property. They've lived as flat mates would, so equal access to the fridge/living areas and a policy on guests that covers both residents.

I think this would probably be quite different if you were a family with kids etc though.

I have a friend who rents her spare room to a guy who works in London three days a week, he's only there basically to sleep three nights a week. I think this is a good comprise as it's a bit of help with the bills, but not to invasive of her space.

I have one friend who always has a lodger so he (single) can afford a 3 bedroom house instead of a 2. No idea why, I'd much rather have a smaller house to myself (as I do) but he's a laid back, sociable type and I'm a neurotic socially anxious mess so it works for him in a way it definitely wouldn't for me. His lodgers have free access to all the house except his bedroom and guest bedroom. They mostly seem to stick to their room and the kitchen though.

I have another friend who was a lodger with a family for years. Out of both financial necessity and anxiety of being on her own (mid 40s and not a UK national, very anxious type). She mainly stayed in her room and did find it a bit awkward, I think.

I'm just imaging a rainy Saturday with a lodger doing their laundry or sitting in the lounge watching telly. Or bringing a man/woman back from the pub for a sleepover and me worrying about being murdered or robbed.

Or both.

I could do it, with a single bedroom and another room that they could use exclusively for TV etc. Their own bathroom too.

But I'm a selfish cow, and as I've lived alone for years, I doubt I could cope with someone else there. It could possibly work out great, but the chances of the lodger from hell would surely be my fate haha! I'm forever getting flyers from the two unis in the area looking for rooms to let. So a lot of others on my road have done it.

It's a great idea for those who need extra cash and I'm not knocking it at all. But it's not for me.

Hilda Ogden and Emily Bishop always had lodgers in Corrie,
But its not something I have co e across IRL.

It's no different to being in a house share though. And with a lodger you have more options if you're the landlord eg you can chose who you let to, any conditions and if you don't get on you can ask them to leave.

I have a lodger. She pays £650 a month.
Its because my expenses are high and I couldn’t pay for everything so needed some help.
It’s an adjustment but me and my son like having her around. None of us really sit in the lounge and we tend to naturally eat at different times

"The ones I've known have been essentially a house-share, but where one person owns the property. They've lived as flat mates would, so equal access to the fridge/living areas and a policy on guests that covers both residents."

This is what I've come across too. Usually a single person who has a lodger to help pay the bills.

But also if someone is a lodger and writing about a problem with the LL the advice is to leave or suck it up cause you're only a lodger.

My grandparents had lodgers. My uncle was a lodger. It wasn’t at all unusual when I was growing up.

How many bathrooms?
How old is your son?

In the olden days, think Eddie with the Ogdens 🤣 ,the lodger would have been provided with meals. Now it's basically a houseshare where the landlord lives in.

A friend of mines daughter has really fallen on her feet. She needed accomodation for a very rural job and lodges in a beautiful country cottage with a man in his 40s who is mostly away on business.

I've had various lodgers over the years, but only when they have a room with ensuite.
It's an easy way to make a LOT of money.

However I don't let them have people stay, or use the lounge. And when the heating bills all went up I specified no working from home people either- because of extra bill use.
The clearer you are from beginning, the more harmonious it is.

My stepdad was a lodger with woman and her son.
Had his own room plus use of kitchen and bathroom

My husband used to work 2 hours away from home. He used to lodge with someone 1-2 nights a week when he was working 4 long days rather than 5 days a week.
Would work, go for a curry, arrive at house, sleep, get up and go to work. I think he may have cleaned his teeth there and occasionally made a coffee.

We’ve had lots of lodgers over the years though none currently: it’s a very easy way to make money and the income isn’t taxable either.
We give them a cupboard in the kitchen and a shelf in the fridge but most of them rely on ready meals.
They tend to keep themselves to themselves and watch TV in their room though they are welcome in the living room with us.
Most lodgers spend a lot of time out of the house in my experience.

…even though no one on Mumsnet irons their own clothes because no one can tell.

The thing is, it's YOUR house, it works how YOU want it to. You just have to advertise & be clear what you've are offering & 'the rules' then choose someone you think you'll get along with.

I have a spare room, but a small house & it's just not for me. House sharing was painful enough when I was young, but I'm too particular about things to subject someone to it these days.

I'm not knocking it btw. And I can see how it would work if the landlord were single and it was like a houseshare. But on MN it's always being suggested to people with children who are struggling with the mortgage.

There are a lot of people who do this in London and often not on a full time basis. People are often looking for a room for 3/4 nights a week, come down, work 3/4 really long days back to back and just use the room as somewhere to sleep, then go home to their family at weekends. Now that is easy money.

Ive rented out a room before to pay the mortgage in a 2-bed flat and that was like the arrangement described above - flatmates but I owned it. Shared space in fridge/food cupboards. You definitely need the right person for that set up.

Or for the accommodation to be very self-contained. My ex rented a room which was basically a loft bedroom and shower room in a family home. He could use the kitchen but didn’t feel comfortable doing so. Their only rule was no overnight guests because of the children.

I have a lodger (my second).

I have two teen DC who are here half the week.

I stay at my partner's one night a week and one weekend a month. So lodger gets the house to herself fairly regularly.

My lodger has two rooms and some use of a shower room in our loft conversion. Shared use of kitchen, which is actually a kitchen/family room so I do feel a bit guilty about us being in there loads. When DC were younger, I'd take them out a lot to the park or on outings. Now they're teens, they spend more time doing homework and other stuff so it feels like we're in the house more.

London suburb, so high demand for rooms. I charge a fair price for the space/area. Last time I advertised, I had a high number of enquiries, including two single mums. I felt bad for them but had to say no because having another child here would have been a very different dynamic.

It has worked well for us and I (divorced) would have to sell and downsize without the additional income.

In fact, DC2 is out for the afternoon with our first lodger right now! Lodger1 had no family locally and was early/mid-twenties when she lived with us and DC were late primary/early secondary and absolutely adored her. More like extended family now. We also love our current lodger. Will be hard to have to replace her, too, when the time comes.

Oh yes! In two bed terraces with one bathroom.

Emily had Percy. Did the Ogdens have Eddie?

And Annie Walker had her potman, Fred, in The Rovers.

Elsie Tanner had Gail and Susie. That was the golden era of Corrie.