Converting a room in my house to a self contained bedsit?

[landlordtobemaybe]

Can i? And where do i start?

I own my home mortgage free. I like where I live, don't want to sell or downsize. Also don't want lodgers in the usual sense as I have DC. So I've been thinking whether I could convert a downstairs room we rarely use and rent it out?

The room has it's own exterior door via a small lobby. There is a door to the main house but I would get a lock fitted to this/ put a wardrobe in front of it.

I would need to create a small shower/ kitchen area within the room itself (which is about 12ft x 10.5ft).

I am fairly close to London plus there are 2 colleges in our town so a lot of student lets.

Is the room 12 x 10.5 now? That's not huge and a shower and a kitchen would take out a lot of space.

It sounds a good idea, otherwise!

I'm pretty sure you'd be liable for additional council tax as it would be classed as a separate dwelling - so at times between rentals or whenever it's empty you'd have to foot the bill for it, also you'd need to think about services, gas electric etc and decide whether to include it in the rent and take a chance on them being sensible or getting separate supplies in for the room. Also consider parking for tenant and visitors, noise etc. Also that's going to be very small with a kitchen, toilet and shower in it - would put some people off.

Sounds far too small to fit all that in tbh.

I was thinking of more of like a tiny kitchenette area, well basically a couple of electric rings and a small fridge - years ago one of my friends had a bedsit where the kitchen was basically all tucked away inside a big cupboard.

Would it count as a separate dwelling? Id intended to advertise/ rent it as a self contained room. The electric/ gas supply would be coming from my home, not separate.

I thought that would be enough to get round any tax implications, but perhaps not?

I have room for 3 cars on my drive, if they had a car I would happily allow them to park on there (alternatively there's free on street parking).

It would be a small room (I think with the kitchen/ shower areas it will cut out at least a 3ft x 5ft rectangle) but I had in mind renting to a single person rather than a couple, either a student or someone who's moved to the area for work, and doesn't want a standard house share or rented room set up.

I think I may have to try and measure it out in the room itself. I need to make sure there's room for a bed etc!

It would need planning permission as technically you are creating an extra dwelling.

You will need planning permission. I would speak with the Council in the first instance to get an idea about their policy on such things.

You will definitely require building regs for health and safety.

Sounds too small , you need a sink in the kitchen and a loo and shower at least in the bathroom bit .

Is there a way OP could legally get round it so her "tenant" is a lodger? That way she could earn about £4000 tax free.

I definitely don't want it to be a separate dwelling. I might need to keep it to just an ensuite shower room if that's a sticking point, and not have any cooking facilities. Having put in an additional bathroom upstairs previously I'm sure that at least shouldn't require planning permission.

Noah that was the line I wanted to go down, and as that room links to an external door I thought it would be perfect, avoiding me having to have lodgers sharing the main part of the house.

A friend was the tenant/lodger in a similar setup- but she had the two front rooms of the house, one as a bedroom, the other converted into a kitchen and a bathroom. That worked very well, but it sounds like you have far less space.

It's the cooking facilities that make it a separate dwelling so just the en suite should be okay.

I once lived in one of those baby belling on top of fridge bedsits. It was pretty grim. A lodger set up sounds preferable if you can't fit in the proper facilities.

There are extraction rules for shower rooms and cookers and the installation would have to comply with building regs. A room this size with cooking and a shower room would be tiny! A bit like a prison cell. I pity anyone renting it! Hopefully there would be better options!