Thinking about letting out 1/2 rooms in my house. The house will remain my main residence although I will be away most weekends. What do I have to watch out for? Are there any major pitfalls to this? Would be interested to here from anyone who’s done this in the recent past or who’s doing it at the moment- particularly from the legal/tax side.
cheers

Hey Hitman,

The main thing is make sure they have a job, can pay the rent and have money for a deposit pay. You can get people checked out as well – for credit and tenancy history as well. As you will be there as well it’s also very important that you can get on, so be upfront with rules and your own quirks and make sure you find out theirs as well.

There’s my spareroom.com thats set up for this type of thing. Also if you get a couple you can charge more and have the other room empty – or even rent them both so they can use one as a dressing room/lounge.

There are many ways to rent a room – to start ask around your friends as they might know someone who needs a room.

Hope this helps.

that’s really helpful – cheers
what about tax purposes – I know I can receive £4250 tax free is the rest payable at my income tax rate on top?
also what constitutes reasonable expenses – buying a bed?
what about the actual process of getting someone out if you don’t get on with them – how easy is this?

Correct re. tax. – may not be worth letting out second room full time (a dilemma I face)

How do “reasonable expenses” come into it unless you are running it as a business?

AFAIK lodgers have limited rights so getting rid is easier than with tenants.

cheers, but not sure what you mean by:

How do “reasonable expenses” come into it unless you are running it as a business?

I guess I don’t know what you mean then – I assumed you were going to claim tax back on buying a bed and wondering if it consituted a “reasonable expense”, however I don’t see how you could.

There are one or two legal requirements re renting rooms – the main one being you must have a Corgi certificate for gas appliances – I got caught out by this many years ago when I bought a house full of tenants.

My Mum rented a room in her old house to a tenant.

He was a serial tenant – by that I mean he had lodged for years and knew how to get the most out of it.

He used to borrow food and not give it back. He would charge up the batteries for his microlite (sp?) in his room (my Mum wondered why her bills shot up). When ever he was challenged about anything he got defensive and a bit rude and my Mum was put off renting our rooms ever since.

I had a go at him once when we discovered he was storing 3/4 drums of aviation fuel in the cellar and had hidden them behind some stuff under old sheets. When my Mum asking him to remove them he refused, I ended up removing them and leaving them next to his car in the street when I went up to visit…which he wasn’t very happy about.

He left when my mum was out and took the mattress from his room with him…it wasn’t his.

Yep, spare room is a good place to advertise and yes you can earn up to a certain amount without declaring it. I found a lodger by telling my bike buddies about the room and one of them came along and rented it, worked out great.

I’d reccomend getting a contract drawn up. I copied an example online, not sure how watertight it’d be if I needed it. Lodgers have very little in the way of rights (compared to someone on an AST) so its relatively easy to get rid – having rented out rooms for 3 years (to about 10 people) I’ve never felt the need (although that was mostly to mates).

Be prepared to lose a chunk of your privacy and ability to control the house. They won’t do things the way you want, which is a pain. Just keep thinking about the money

A contract is best, there’s usually a get out clause as well. If you’re not happy at all just have a word and give them 2 months notice. If you’ve got a contract and a good deposit (6 or 8 weeks) they’ll be more than happy to comply.

As for expenses – new furniture, stuff for decorating, tools etc. I think you can even get a kitchen/bathroom done as well. All this can be classed as reasonable expenses – sadly a new full susser can’t 🙂

McHamishs post is an eye opener – just make sure you get as much information as you can about them and start within your circles of friends.

Good luck

I guess if you look for younger folk there’s a chance they’re less likely to be dodgy.

I guess if you look for younger folk there’s a chance they’re less likely to be dodgy.

?

Are you in a student town, or near biggish industry? I lodged with a family while on work placement year of my degree, worked well for me and them. Not all students want the three year drinkfest approach to going away.

hitman – I mean serial letters who play the system/take the **** – I accept youngsters may bring their own problems.

Anyway what about the point above that you queried?

I rent out the spare room in my house, but I only rent to mates. I got a solicitor to write up a tenancy agreement and just do rent a month in advance, no deposit. That way if they do something stupid I can kick them out and they’ve already paid a month (don’t know how well that’d actually work but I can’t see it ever being an issue).

Something else to think about is that if you replace a gas cooker etc.. you probably don’t want to do it yourself if you have a tenant. If you do it yourself and it goes badly wrong you’re fully liable for the tenant (afaik).

hitman – I mean serial letters who play the system/take the **** – I accept youngsters may bring their own problems.

Anyway what about the point above that you queried?

Good point!

Sorry, not keeping up very well with this – I think you’re referring to my expenses point – realise now that any items I have to buy such as a new bed do not have any tax exemption.

Something else to think about is that if you replace a gas cooker etc..

You’d be committing a criminal offence unless registered anyway!

I don’t think you are if it’s not a permanent device. Ie – if the cooker is freestanding, you are allowed to connect a new cooker. if its built in, you’re not.

That’s my understanding, anyway

H

Nope 5lab, cookers don’t come with flexible bayonet hose connected, or an anti tip restraint, that has to be done by gas safe competent person, and it will then have to be part of annual gas safety check if in a rented house.

the main one being you must have a Corgi certificate for gas appliances

its a landlords gas safety certificate , costs about £70.00 including a anual service .

hitman – I mean serial letters who play the system/take the ****

Yeah, but they were young once.

Yeah, but they were young once.

but they weren’t serial letters then?

One point about renting out – a lot of people want internet access, how do you ensure that they are not accessing dodgy sites on your broadband connection?

@Hitman…

Clickety Click

Things to note when renting rooms:

They cant have locks on their doors for insurance/mortgage purposes
You wont be able to re mortgage if there is another name registered to vote from your house
Be very clear with what is allowed from the begining. Even small things can end up grating you after a few months (blue tack/nails in the wall etc..)

If you want a copy of a contract for renting a room out let me know, and will scan one in for you. Got it online from WHSmiths legal publishing.

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You wont be able to re mortgage if there is another name registered to vote from your house

rubbish – plenty of couples have a mortgauge in one name, yet both live there. Makes no difference.

rubbish – plenty of couples have a mortgauge in one name, yet both live there. Makes no difference.

Not entirely true. Some mortgage companies now won’t mortgage a property if there is another adult in the house (not sure how this works for grown up kids).

I think the idea is that the other adult may have a legal claim on the property value and, as such, would reduce what the mortgage company would get if they repossessed.

Anyway – that’s what happened to a mate recently – the mortgage company wouldn’t let her other half increase his mortgage while she lived in the house – UNLESS she went on the mortgage as well.

I got a mortgage for a house with 3 tenants (and myself) in it, from the Nationwide. They had no issues with locks on doors etc and the interest rate was the same as if I lived there on my own. The only proviso was as I bought the house with tenants, they had to sign a contract saying they had no claim over ownership.