Seeking advice on renting out rooms.

Borachio

Borachio

Way past lunacy
Joined
Jan 31, 2012
Messages
26,698
Are there any experienced landlords lurking here?

It seems I've to find two tenants to share my house, in the interest of global thingy. And I would like to know how to go about this without getting murdered in my bed.

Any advice, or witty remarks, welcome. Meth addicts: yes/no?

Can't say I want any lodgers. I've been living happily alone for the last 8 years. But to keep to my cheery solitude I expect I could spend some time in the garden shed. If I cleared it out a bit. Well, a lot.

btw I'm really not interested in doing this on a formalized legal basis. Though, that might very well be a sound idea with regard to house insurance, and the like.

:)

Mississippi John Hurt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvRxA8gR7bw
takes a coupla minutes to get going. But I like.
 
Definitely no meth addicts. Also steer clear of Scientologists and members of the Reform Party.
 
i've found homeless meth addicts make for excellent lodgers
 
Put a lock on your bedroom door.
I assume that the tenants will have a separete bedroom.:mischief:

Spoiler :
I assume you are in the UK.
Will the tenants be sharing a room or will they have seperate bedrooms.
If they have seperate bedrooms or you charge over about £80pw you will have to pay income tax (and fill in tax return even if you are PAYE) plus you may have a capital gains liability on your house if you sell.

Think about your insurance as well, if you do not tell your insurer and the tenant burns the house down you may find that you are uninsured.
 
Do you own the home or are you renting it as well? If you're renting it, then go through your landlord. If you own it, dot your i's and cross your t's. You don't want the hassle of trying to get rid of a bad tenant when you've not got solid grounding in a lease.
 
All good stuff. Thanks. A bit more about my situation: I own this house outright (though it is no grand affair).

There are three bedrooms; so I was thinking of two tenants.

If anybody can find anything worth having here, they are welcome to it. The place is getting more and more cluttered with stuff, so much stuff, I can't be bothered looking at any longer.

I have had previous experience of tenants. Years ago I had two "tenants" in a previous, smaller house. This was no formal arrangement. To give you an idea I refer you to Steinbeck Tortilla Flat, although I only had the one house, with a mortgage.

So the problem is never going to be really one of a bad tenant(s), but a bad landlord.

And how does my insurance company feel if a "house guest" burns the place down?

About 10 years ago I myself nearly burnt this place down. Very foolishly. But another story.
 
I would never do it, but if I did I would have them sign a lease.

If anybody can find anything worth having here, they are welcome to it. The place is getting more and more cluttered with stuff, so much stuff, I can't be bothered looking at any longer.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't mind if you came home and the entire house was stripped of everything that isn't bolted down (and even some stuff that was)?

How about if they dig through your mail or get information from elsewhere in the house to steal your identity?

I have had previous experience of tenants. Years ago I had two "tenants" in a previous, smaller house. This was no formal arrangement. To give you an idea I refer you to Steinbeck Tortilla Flat, although I only had the one house, with a mortgage.

So the problem is never going to be really one of a bad tenant(s), but a bad landlord.
Click to expand...

Ok, so you had one or two good experiences, that doesn't mean it always will be.

And how does my insurance company feel if a "house guest" burns the place down?

About 10 years ago I myself nearly burnt this place down. Very foolishly. But another story.
Click to expand...

So you learned from your mistake and if the house did burn down you would have been covered. That doesn't mean your new tenant won't make the same mistake and actually burn it all down, and you might not be covered by your insurance.

....

Background checks, have them sign a lease, and inform your insurance are all minimum precautions I think anyone planning on renting out rooms should take.
 
This is all sound advice. Thank you.

But my intention really is simply to make my carbon footprint smaller. I was very alarmed to discover that if everyone consumed at my rate, we'd need 3.4 planet earths. I was alarmed because I had always considered myself a very slight consumer.

The most obvious way to reduce my footprint is to increase the number of people currently living in this house.

Producing a number of smaller versions of myself, even if I wanted to, is for a number of reasons not a good idea.

So I am in effect wondering about inviting people who need some accommodation to share some of mine.

I'm not really keen on this. As I am naturally rather solitary.

But I am genuinely concerned for the future of the human biosphere, and if I'm not willing to act, then how could I expect anyone else to do so?

So, finally, in conclusion, I don't intend renting out to make a profit. Nor do I intend renting out to people I neither trust nor like.

Does any of this make sense?

If it does, what is your advice to me now?

:)
 
if your solitary and don't want to interact to much with your tenants go for the type who spends loots of time on thier comptuter, likes the same type TV programe as you ....
do you like football, doco, reality shows etc, whatever your interest will it be theirs? Make sure they will like the idea of reducing their footprint, one really long hot shower twice a day can actually raise your comsuption (x2?)

I've lived in lots of mixed share houses (MFG) and it works really well if you have similar tastes, but can turn disastrous if your clashing over wildly diferent ideas what spending a quite night at home is about
 
Yes, just so. Which is why I mentioned above clearing out the garden shed, for a bit of more private space.

Actually, I think given my unconventional lifestyle, the problem is most likely to be finding anyone willing to share a bit of space. Though I don't know this for sure.

One of the things that bothers me a little bit about this, is when I once embark on this course there'll be no changing my mind.
 
Contact Sheldon Cooper and get a copy of his roommate agreement.

Most important: if a person's name is on a lease document, they are responsible for paying their share of the rent and utilities. If not, they actually don't have to pay anything and probably won't.
 
Ah this might be useful.

No lease though. I own this place outright.
 
Birdjaguar said:
Most important: if a person's name is on a lease document, they are responsible for paying their share of the rent and utilities. If not, they actually don't have to pay anything and probably won't.
Click to expand...

Neither of these are necessarily accurate, you really need to check laws in your specific jurisdiction.

The second, in particular, is iffy; in most places if you exchange money in order to live somewhere a single time, you automatically get all the rights and responsibilities of a tenant who has signed a regular lease.
 
I've thought of another possibility that might handle all this. Supposing I move out into rented accommodation (there's a place just down the road offering £18 per night - with TV! I haven't seen TV in 19 years), and put this place* in the hands of a letting agency. Still £18 a night seems a bit steep - I reckon I could find some flop house for a lot less.

*more of a family house than anything.

I want though to keep in touch with the garden. Perhaps some tenant might be glad of this.
 
Borachio said:
T
The most obvious way to reduce my footprint is to increase the number of people currently living in this house.

So I am in effect wondering about inviting people who need some accommodation to share some of mine.

So, finally, in conclusion, I don't intend renting out to make a profit. Nor do I intend renting out to people I neither trust nor like.
Click to expand...

Have you ever heard of Couch Surfing?
In this way you can have guests rather regularly and some level of assurance about who they are (there is a feedback mechanism to weed out undesirable people).
the most famous network is:
http://www.couchsurfing.org/

Not only you'll be able to have nice and international people visiting your place but you'll be also invited to visit other places and countries.
 
Yes, I'd heard of that, but forgotten. It's an idea. Thanks.

@rLf what do you mean?
 
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