Family member and tenancy agreement

[Pixilicious]

I am in the process of buying a house that my DM will live in, rent free. Do you know if we will need a tenancy agreement and if I will have the same responsibilities as a landlord as if she was a rent paying stranger?

If youre not charging, she's not hoping to claim benefits for the rent and happy that you wouldn't suddenly want her to leave, then I see no need. How old is she?

I would still do a tenancy agreement to cover who is responsible for what.

You also need to consider if she has friends moving in that cause problems.

She may need some protection from an aggressive partner in the future.

Even if you charge her a £1 a week put something in place to safeguard her and the house for worse case scenario.

Thanks both.

@MotherExtraordinaire 74

Legally this is a grey area. It is possible and highly probable that an assured shorthold tenancy will result in these circumstances because although not paying rent dm will be paying the council tax, and other utilities and presumably doing the garden and other maintenance all of which can be considered monies worth.

The general consensus in this position is to carry out the obligations of a landlord. These are gas safety certificate, electrical safety cert, how to rent booklet, carry out a right to rent check, and get an epc. (The property will already have an epc which you can get from the register online.) Its wise to have a gsc and electrical safety check and cert in a newly purchased property anyway. The rest of the docs can be got online. No need for a written tenancy agreement, but get a signature to confirm listed docs received.

Personally I would err on the side of caution as legally it covers you for absolutely any situation.

@Lineofconcepcion - thanks for the advice. This is all new to me.

If you are up for a learning curve, NRLA do an online course which I understand is quite good and covers the basics.

Don’t be tempted to not formalise things just because “it’s family” etc. Hopefully nothing will go wrong, but having a legal agreement/documents means that if it does, people’s rights/responsibilities are set out and covered.

I’ve seen more family fights and splits due to failure to do this, because everyone thought “0h, it’s my Mum” or “it’s my daughter” etc. (I’m a solicitor).