lodgers - good idea or not?

[motherpeculiar]

of you have experience (good bad or other) of renting out a room in your home?
We are a bit strapped for cash at the moment and it?s something we are considering doing so would be very interested to hear from anyone who has done so
Apart from anything else, do you think people would be interested in renting a room in a family house? We have two young kids (1 and 4 yo) so it?s not always tranquil around ours
We would offer them the top floor of the house to themselves, with a double bedroom and private bathroom (not ensuite but on the same floor with no one passing by), also use of kitchen, garden, tv room .. We?ll have wireless internet access in by the time we are thinking of doing this.
I?m also wondering what effect it might have on us as a family having a stranger about the place?

does that mean it is a crazy idea?

hi there, we have a lodger and it is working quite well.
He rents for a proportion of the week (as he goes away at weekends) - so that suits us nicely.
He also does shifts so is not around that much generally at all.
I think it works for us because we don't get under each others feet - previously we had a couple who used the kitchen a lot and that was a bit of a pain.
Try and work out what you can live with and then find someone who will fit in with those requirements.

not done it myself but I think you might be hard pushed getting a professional single person to share a family home (sorry) and I would be worried about the person that would (again sorry) but then again students might be interested however the students that i knew enjoyed going out on the drink ALOT and they might want to entertain friends and have parties (how would you cope with that) I think i'm just being cynical

aha see i'm a cynic as it sounds like it works for unicorn

My mum used to rent out our spare room to overseas students through our local English Study Centre: we got to meet loads of interesting people and only had a couple of dud ones (and since they only stay temporarily it wasn't the end of the world). The rates were quite good too.

have a look here

You need to feel comfortable with your lodger - we took up references and met him in advance. We also laid out what was included/what wasn't in the rental.
It can work - wouldn't do it if we didn't have to but like you we need the money.

sorry not sure where you live and most of that is London related, but I think you can advertise on that site too.

thanks for that link unicorn - looks very useful and we are in London so it applies very well

glad to hear it is working for you - will bear in mind your advice about vetting etc

language students - great idea, must work out how to track them down

for language students, get in touch with your nearest college/uni I would say

I have some great memories of the friends we made from all over the world

motherpeculiar have you thought of having a weektime lodger only? Try mondaytofriday

oh that's an interesting site CD, never seen it before, will bookmark it for future.
have you availed yourself of it?

thanks CD - monday to friday would be ideal actually.

Another option is being a host family to international students at private schools.

These are young people who are boarders at their school/college who don't return to family during weekends and school holidays.They pay to spend time with families who take them under their wing and take an interest in them.

Try contacting any local private schools who have a lot of international students.

i grew up with lodgers and really hated it- we had some real nutters who seemed fine at first! one even took us to court- cant remember why as i was too young. am sure it CAN work well but i'd worry about giving an assured shorthold tenancy to a stranger. why not get a nice , quiet japanese student? we've had lots of lovely ones.

where do you get the nice quiet japanese students then noonar?

"assured shorthold tenancy" does sound offputting

Don't think I could do it myself but a friend did while she was a sahm to help with the bills. Her dh had often rented out rooms in his house when he was single so I think they were pretty experienced at it. It worked for them because their lodgers tended to stay in their own room a lot! Also, she was working as a childminder too so the lodger had to be police checked as well as my friend and her dh - so I guess she was able to get them checked out this way.

Maybe try the language students first to see how you feel about ti - they generally only stay for a few weeks.

i know loads of people have good experiences and we did have some nice people too when i was small. by the time i was adolescent, tho i really needed my space and just resented them. i guess that says more about me, tho! my mum is very community minded and suited to the whole communal living thing. thinking about it, i probably just hated having it foisted upon me, so am not that objective!
local language schools/unis are a good place to look as the students are often here term time only. not sure of the exact position regarding tenancies, tbh, but you dont want to find yourself unable to get rid of someone if it doesnt work out.

We've had 5 different sets of oriental students as adjoining neighbours over 5 yrs at our old house and have to say they were soooo quiet, timid even. Maybe they were all doing a certain subject that attracts quiet geeks rather than it being a racial thing.
Can't believe how lucky we were as our bed was against the adjoining wall. They probably hated us

Our lodger is coming back soon He's been working abroad, and we've moved house since then!
He's a friend, so there's none of the dodgy stranger issues, he's part time, he's got a car, he can babysit, and he's good looking so very good for my image