The site with guidance and services for people renting a room in their home to a lodger!
If you are new to renting rooms to lodgers, you may want to read our 21 days of tips for Lodger Landlords. The other sections of the site (our documents shop and legal advice service) can be found from the links above.
Enjoy the site and please feel free to leave a comment, if you have any questions or points you want to make, on the relevant blog items below.
Tessa Shepperson
“What a fantastic web site your Lodger Landlord site is. I have learnt so much more from this one web site than many hours of Googling.” Jim Hitch
We want an injunction please! Many years ago when I was a trainee, my principal and I saw some new clients, a middle aged man and his wife. His new wife as it turned out. “We want to get an injunction against my daughter” he began, his wife nodding in the background, all blonde curls [...]
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Lodgers meals – my experience When I started taking in lodgers, they were mostly foreign students on short English courses at my local university. Part of the deal was that I would provide them with meals and talk to them over dinner. Talking in English with a ‘family’ was an important part of their experience. [...]
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Lodgers are generally nice .. I have written quite a bit here about problem lodgers, eviction and the like, as these are things which worry people, and which have therefore been popular topics on the blog. However it is important to remember that most lodgers are lovely. I had six years of taking in lodgers, [...]
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PAT stands for Portable Appliance Testing. A portable appliance is basically any appliance with a plug attached to it. For example personal computers, and their equipment (monitor, speakers etc), kettles, irons, leads, cables, toasters, printers, etc There is a very good and informative web-site here from which you can see that PAT testing is mainly [...]
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Your lodger has gone – she cleared out her room, signed the visitors book and drove off. But you keep getting mail for her. What should you do about it? Ideally you should speak to your lodger about this before you leave. For example If they get a lot of mail, tell them that you [...]
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One of the commentators to Day 1 of my 21 days of tips for Lodger Landlords asked what was wrong in allowing your lodger to have a tenancy, bearing in mind that you would be able to evict without getting a court order if you shared living accommodation. These matters deserve to be set out [...]
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You have decided that you are absolutely fed up with your lodger and you are going to serve a notice to quit on them (as discussed in day 19 of our 21 days of tips). You have written it all out. How do you go about serving it? As you share a house with the [...]
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In my 21 days of tips, I discussed whether taking in lodgers could create an HMO on day 7. However since then the planning law has changed. If you take in more than two lodgers your property may need planning permission. The background to this change in the law, is the numerous complaints to MPs [...]
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Have you a spareroom? At the time of writing (20 April) a cloud of Icelandic volcanic dust has grounded virtually all planes. Our people cannot get back here and visitors to England cannot return home. At least not until either the skies clear or they can arrange alternative transport. This begs the question ‘where will [...]
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Lodger eviction In Day 20 of my 21 days of tips for lodger landlords, I described a procedure for evicting lodgers without getting a court order. When exactly can this be used? The answer to this lies in the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. This is the act which says that all evictions of residential [...]
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Planning permission, HMOs and lodger landlords
In my 21 days of tips, I discussed whether taking in lodgers could create an HMO on day 7. However since then the planning law has changed. If you take in more than two lodgers your property may need planning permission. The background to this change in the law, is the numerous complaints to MPs [...]
Read the full article »