Comments on: Five tips on how to avoid creating a tenancy when renting a granny annex

By: Tessa

Tessa — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:33:49 +0000

@Nigel I can see why you are worried. I don’t think that allowing her to have her own furniture will affect her status so long as you continue to enter the flat as of right.

However I would not be happy if she replaced the WHOLE of the furniture with her own things and asked you to move your furniture out. Its a moot point though.

By: Nigel

Nigel — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:31:11 +0000

We let a converted garage (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom). It joins the house via a shared utility room (our washing machine here, which lodger uses weekly, shared vacuum cleaner here too), we wash the sheets and leave them on the lodger’s bed every week. We regularly enter our house via the utility room and use it a lot, but we also lock the door between it and our kitchen. Now a prospective lodger wants to bring her own bedroom furniture. Does this risk creating a tenancy?

By: Tessa

Tessa — Sat, 21 May 2011 07:38:13 +0000

@gina you can find out all about renting property as a tenancy on my Landlord Law site here: http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/home-page. Note that you will be a resident landlord so it will not be an AST. The site has suitable tenancy agreements you can use.

By: gina

gina — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:12:13 +0000

Hi
I am buying a three storey house and the lowest storey is a self contained flat with own access by side gate and no internal access to the house. It has its own council tax banding. If I rented this out would I have to create a tenancy agreement and if so what type? and are there any websites that I can get further advice on dealing with the accounts for this. My mortgage has said I can either holiday let or short term let the flat

By: Tessa

Tessa — Thu, 05 May 2011 17:24:20 +0000

@Grant I am afraid I do not do planning law and cannot answer questions on planning matters. Sorry! It is a completely separate area of law.

By: Grant Anthony

Grant Anthony — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:41:12 +0000

Please can you tell me the rules on renting out an annex which is part of the main house ie a granny annex linked by a door through the conservatory. The annex is an extension and has the condition about it only being used ancillary to the house. The annex has its own kitchen/bathroom/living room/bedroom. If I keep this door but put perhaps a bookcase across the door is this ok? Does this planning condition apply to what I want to do? I would never want to sell the annex as would need the income.

By: Tessa

Tessa — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:40:22 +0000

It sounds to me as if it is a tenancy rather than a lodger situation. You would need to speak to your mortgage company to see how they would feel about your renting out the annex.

By: Sherry

Sherry — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 11:30:34 +0000

Hello,

I am looking at buying a property with an annex linked detatched to the main house(but has its own entrance). I would like to rent the annex out to a lodger but am mindful that I have two young children so would want to put a lock between the main house and the annex. I was also going to give the lodger their own garden. Would they still be classed a lodger with the lock in place if I provided at least two of the listed services for them?

By: Tessa

Tessa — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:34:12 +0000

If it is a tenancy and you do not live in the same building it will almost certainly be an AST. You can’t really prevent this. Using a common law tenancy agreement won’t make any difference. Any more than sticking a label on your son’s head saying ‘I am a girl’ will turn him into a girl.

I don’t give help on tenancies on this blog which is just for lodger situations – you need to go to my Landlord Law site for that http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/home-page

By: jamie

jamie — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:28:32 +0000

many thanks for the reply is this the case even though I enter the annex to collect rubbish and check the electric box.I do not want to rent on an AST so cant I use a common law agreement