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Original poster

Renting out a room to a lodger

111 replies

Spegit · 11/07/2023 18:29

We've just applied for a mortgage and things are SO much worse than when we first started down this road with selling our place and looking for a new one a few months ago. The interest rate we've managed to get is close to 6% for a 3-year fixed term and it is hundreds more per month than we expected. It's still do-able financially but I'm thinking about whether we should consider renting out a room to a lodger. It would potentially work quite well because the top floor has a bathroom and so the person could have a top floor room and their own bathroom. The house is four bedrooms and there are just two of us plus two cats and a dog. We both work from home a lot so wanted to each have a study, which we could still have. (We were looking for a 3-bedroom house but have ended up going for a 4-bedroom one.)

Just wondering if anyone has any experience to share of renting a room to a lodger. Would be interested to hear any views. We're in our late 40s, no kids. It's 20 years since I was last in a houseshare but I did really enjoy it. Of course I get that this wouldn't be a houseshare... anyway, interested in any views and/or stories.

OP posts:
TomorrowToday · 16/07/2023 18:10

@MongoFrogman that's not correct.

TomorrowToday · 16/07/2023 18:11

BarbiesManicurist · 16/07/2023 17:16

A lock does not turn a lodger into a tenant; having a lodger agreement in place and sharing living spaces like the kitchen always means they're a lodger. We have a rack bolt (opens with a key, somewhere between a bolt and a lock) on the lodger's door because the dog kept pushing the door open, going for a mooch (no damage) and getting himself shut in when the door swung shut again.

I think there is a balance to be struck between making sure they understand the difference between a lodger and a tenant (this is one way in which the lodger agreement is useful) and making them feel desperately insecure by announcing they have no rights.

I did have one prospective lodger who booked a viewing and then his friend enlightened him as to the difference. Next thing I know he's messaging me saying that he'd want the same rights as a tenant, including six months notice (we're in Wales). I pointed out that I'd never yet evicted a lodger but did need to retain the option in case, for instance, he put the dog in danger or turned out to be a nutter. He didn't seem to understand that while he was certain he'd be the perfect housemate and would never endanger the dog, I didn't know him from Adam. We mutually decided a lodger arrangement wasn't for him so never got as far as viewing.

However, make it clear on the Spareroom advert that you're a live in landlord (choose that tickbox, mention you own it in the description) and use a proper lodger agreement like the Spareroom template. But I'm not sure it's your responsibility to be teaching a module on Introduction to Housing Law 101.

Nothing to do with locks on doors. It's agreements. If the landlord lives of site it's an AST. If landlord lives on site it's a lodger agreement.... in the simplest terms.

TomorrowToday · 16/07/2023 18:12

msmonstera · 16/07/2023 16:49

I've seen it done well- a colleague had a granny flat style area attached to her house and rented it to a student lodger for a few years. The student had the privacy of her own entrance and bathroom and enjoyed a cheaper rent and less commitment than being a tenant. She became a friend of the family afterwards.
Also seen it done badly quite recently. Owing to housing crisis, a friend had to live in lodgings where she was expected to pay someone's mortgage but also not exist. No guests, ever, stay in her room and limited set times to shower and use the kitchen/laundry. Treating tenants as sub-human cash machines is the key to getting things wrong or not being able to keep them.

Yes awful!

BarbiesManicurist · 16/07/2023 20:55

I've been completely ignoring letters about TV licences for the last 5 year and am yet to receive a visit.

If they can't even effectively chase up houses with no TV licence at all, the chance of TV licencing finding out that you have a lodger and that they have a TV in their room are zero. I really wouldn't worry about it.

EmpressaurusOfCats · 16/07/2023 22:00

BarbiesManicurist · 16/07/2023 20:55

I've been completely ignoring letters about TV licences for the last 5 year and am yet to receive a visit.

If they can't even effectively chase up houses with no TV licence at all, the chance of TV licencing finding out that you have a lodger and that they have a TV in their room are zero. I really wouldn't worry about it.

I get a letter every year asking if I still don’t need a TV licence & listing all the things I can’t do if I don’t have one, then I just complete an online form to confirm I’m not doing them.

AndyMcFlurry · 17/07/2023 11:40

We have locks on all our bedroom doors, I think it’s a reasonable expectation of privacy for adults . As I installed the locks, I have a spare key.

The lodgers have exclusive use of their own bedrooms and shared use of all the other public rooms. That’s what makes them a lodger not a tenant ( at least in Scots law ).

They have their own kitchen cupboards for food and also dishes ( if they wish ) or they can share ours. Sometimes lodgers with dietary requirements want to use their own pots and dishes ( we’ve had one who was vegan and another who eats halal food).

The lodgers pay a proportionate share of the Tv license, broadband and gas / electric bills.

TomorrowToday · 17/07/2023 18:38

AndyMcFlurry · 17/07/2023 11:40

We have locks on all our bedroom doors, I think it’s a reasonable expectation of privacy for adults . As I installed the locks, I have a spare key.

The lodgers have exclusive use of their own bedrooms and shared use of all the other public rooms. That’s what makes them a lodger not a tenant ( at least in Scots law ).

They have their own kitchen cupboards for food and also dishes ( if they wish ) or they can share ours. Sometimes lodgers with dietary requirements want to use their own pots and dishes ( we’ve had one who was vegan and another who eats halal food).

The lodgers pay a proportionate share of the Tv license, broadband and gas / electric bills.

By the fact you live in the house makes it a lodger. What you've described is what am AST/HMO would fall under,

AndyMcFlurry · 18/07/2023 08:59

TomorrowToday · 17/07/2023 18:38

By the fact you live in the house makes it a lodger. What you've described is what am AST/HMO would fall under,

Show quote history

No it’s not an HMO. An HMO has a whole set of different legal requirements and applies if there are more than two non related households living with the homeowner.

Having a lock on the door or their own kitchen cupboard doesn’t make it an HMO.

The homeowner plus two lodgers ( or two couples / siblings / families etc ) does not need an HMO.

AST tenancies stopped in 2016 in Scotland.

TomorrowToday · 18/07/2023 09:41

@AndyMcFlurry ah right Scotland. What I've written applies for england. .

mrsmiawallace3 · 23/11/2024 15:45

After divorce, I began to take in lodgers, to help me keep my lovely house and garden.

Whilst my children were none too pleased at first, since they have moved
out they are now in line to inherit 1million+. Feeling quite proud of myself,
since their biological father excluded two of them from his own substantial
Will.

Be careful, especially with students, that they are not ' Mummy energy' vampires. I became exhausted with these, following me around the house,
desperate to vent, or ambushing me when I arrived home tired from work.

In the words to my late mother : " This is not a hotel" are useful words,
to encourage help with the cleaning, the bins etc.

Couples are a good option, since they keep to themselves, and tend
to be out a lot. Monday to Friday students are also great, as they bring
home their washing !

I learned early on, not to keep things such as walnut chopping boards, Waterford crystal glassware, and Denby Delph etc in the communal kitchen. Primark all the way for the communal areas! The sheer scale of casual theft
can be quite shocking.

I broke my own rule of ' No middle aged men' as lodgers, when I was starting back at Uni and needed someone to move in quickly.

Reader; that man became the love of my life .

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