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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Tenancy deposits and lodgers Although I wrote about this on Day 16 of my 21 days of tips for lodger landlords, I think it is worth repeating. The tenancy deposit regulations only apply to assured shorthold tenancies It is legally impossible for someone renting a room in your home to have an assured shorthold tenancy…
The nice people at Spareroom have kindly allowed me to post an update here from their excellent ‘raise the roof’ campaign to increase the rent a room tax exemption. Tessa. ********** Back in November 2009 we launched a campaign called Raise the Roof with the intention of asking the government to increase the tax free…
Avoiding a tenancy in a self contained letting I did an advice recently for a client who wanted to let out some self contained accommodation in his house (effectively a ‘granny annex’) but was anxious to avoid creating a tenancy. Although this is covered in part here, I thought that it might be worth repeating…
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.
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…
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