When you decide to take in a lodger, you need to keep very much in mind that this is a financial business relationship. You should therefore treat it that way right from the start. This does not mean that you should not be friendly with your lodger (although see Day 18). However, you must be very clear about what you will and will not allow in your home.
Consider in particular the following (which are in no particular order):
- What will the arrangements be for paying the bills? If the lodgers rent is inclusive of bills, you need to make sure that he is not running them up too much.
- What will the arrangements be for your shared living space? For example:
- Will you let him cook in the kitchen or will you provide all the meals?
- Will you let him ‘take over’ the kitchen sometimes for example if he wants to have a dinner party?
- What will the arrangements be for cleaning?
- What will the arrangements be for the use of the bathroom? For example, if there are several people living in the house, you might need a rota
- What about the television? What if you both want to watch things on different channels?
- Will you allow overnight visitors, and what is your position on partners staying over regularly? For example, you might want to consider limiting this to just a few nights per week.
- What about car parking?
There may be things about your property which your lodger will need to know about. Maybe your lavatory is sensitive to anything which is not lavatory paper being put down it. If so, your lodger will need to be told this and warned that you will expect him to pay for the plumbing expenses if he causes a blockage.
Before you let to a lodger for the first time, have a sit down and think about all these things. Make a list. If you have had lodgers before, try to remember anything which caused friction in the past, and think about whether you should have a rule about it from the start.
Once you have done your list, you can draw up some house rules. This is not the same as the formal legal lodger license agreement which will be discussed on Day 15. Those agreements are drafted by lawyers to cover things which will apply to all lodger agreements.
The formal agreements will not therefore deal with domestic matters, such as how often your lodgers girlfriend can stay over, and which cupboard space he can use for his food, as these are things which will probably be different for every letting.
These domestic matters can be set out in a separate house rules list, which can be discussed, agreed, and signed at the same time as your lodger agreement. Then you will all know where you stand.
You don’t *have* to have a set of written house rules. A large number of lodger arrangements exist quite happily without any paperwork at all. However if you find you have an ‘awkward’ lodger, the fact that they have signed a set of house rules may be very useful to you, if they start being difficult.
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What is your experience of the things in this section? Do you draw up a set of house rules? What things do you put in them? Do you have any tips for other lodger landlords on house rules?
If you are a landlord or a tenant, you will help and guidance on Tessa's other sites, Landlord Law and the Landlord Law Blog.
re. providing a television
I have just found out that if a lodger has a tv in his/her room, the tv is not covered by the landlord’s tv licence unless the lodger is a relative. I suspect that many people will not know this.
Hi Katherine, thanks for your comment. Where does it say this? Do you know?
Katherine is perfectly correct on this matter. The terms of the t.v. licence stipulating who is and who is not included on it can be found on the back of the tv licence itself.
I am a live in landlady. My lodger wants me to ask her permission before babysitting at short notice eg an hour or less. Is this an obligation of a landlady, or at my discretionl?
We share the living room, kitchen and bathroom, do we have equal share of these rooms, or us that at my discretion too?
There are no hard and fast rules set in stone, it is really what you agree between you.
However if nothing has been agreed then as it is your home and you are the landlord, I think your wishes should take priority.
But note also that if your lodger has been using a room as part of her lodger entitlement you cannot suddenly say she can’t use it.
I just now found your wonderful and informative web site while looking for a polite approach to resolve a problem with a lodger as stated below.
I clearly stated at interview with the prospective lodger that among my rules is -NO BARE FEET AROUND THE HOUSE-.
My lodger has ignored this, said he is a clean person and does not have foot fungus and then went to put on shoes. Later on in the day he did the same no shoes walk and gave me the same argument when I reminded him that this is a shoes ON household. I told him that this is not a beach house, it is my home, and I had stated this rule clearly when he first interviewed. If he does it again, is there a a way to resolve it to my satisfaction short of giving him put-your-walking-shoes-on papers? If I have to tell him to get out, would you know the lawful way to give him that boot in my USA? And, btw, can you do a web site with USA law?
@Jeni – I am afraid that this site is just for UK lodger landlords (so far as the law is concerned) and as I am just a UK solicitor I have no idea what the laws are in the USA! Sorry!
Hi Could you help with a difficult matter please? I have just moved into a house as a lodger. The landlady has a burglar alarm set at night with the control panel in her bedroom. This means I can’t leave the upstairs portion of the house during the night until she turns the alarm off in the morning. I feel like a prisoner and have said I’m not comfortable with the situation but I am ignored. Is it legal to imprison me upstairs during the night??
Thats a bit of a difficult one. I can see why the lady wants to have her burglar alarm on but it is a bit restrictive for you.
One solution would be to agree times when she will switch it off and on, so that if she is a bit late she will have to accept that you will activate the alarm. The other solution is I am afraid find somewhere else to live.