Author Archives: Tessa

Tessa Shepperson is a solicitor specialising in residential landlord and tenant law

Book review – The Essential Guide to Flatsharing by Rupert Hunt and Matt Hutchinson

The Essential Guide to Flatsharing

This book is written by the owners of the popular SpareRoom.co.uk flatsharing web-site. It is addressed to ‘sharers,lodgers, and everyone renting out a room’, and is very much a companion book to their web site service. As the authors have been working in the field for such a long time (their London flatsharing site, intolondon.com…

The five main differences between a lodger and a tenant

If you provide meals your lodger cannot claim a tenancy

I did a talk recently at the Landlord & Buy to Let Show in London (5/3/10), and it was clear from some of the questions asked, that, even though I covered this topic on Day 1 of my 21 days of tips, people are confused about the difference between a lodger and a tenant. I…

How to deal with a disappearing lodger (and get your room back)

Disappearing like a Cheshire cat

When I mean disappearing lodger, I don’t mean one who fades away like the Cheshire Cat!  I mean the tenant who just goes off and never comes back.  Generally owing you rent. I had an email from a reader about this just the other day, who said, quite rightly that this is not covered in…

Welcome to the Lodger Landlord web-site!

21 days of tips for Lodger Landlords

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…

The Lodger Landlord Advice Service

Are you worried about your lodger?

Are you worried about your lodger?  Do you need some advice? Although our 21 days of tips series will answer most people’s questions, there are always those tricky situations where you need some professional help  If you have a difficult problem and need to know what your legal rights are, you may want to consider…

Lodger Landlord Documents Shop opens

Buy your legal paperwork at the Lodger Landlord Documents shop

I am pleased to announce the opening of the Lodger Landlord Shop!  This is a separate part of the site where you can purchase documents, forms and letters. At present the only items there are a lodger agreement and a letter of authority.  Although these are arguably two of the most important documents you will need….

21 days of tips for lodger landlords – summary of posts

21 days of tips for Lodger Landlords

Well the 21 days of tips has now concluded.  If you are a lodger landlord, I hope you have enjoyed it and found it useful. To help you find your way around it, here is a list of all the posts published in the series: Day 1 – What is a lodger? This looks at…

My book – The Quick Guide to Taking in a Lodger

Lodger book

As well as writing this  web-site, I have also written a book on lodgers,  published by Lawpack.  Previously it was only available as a download from the Lawpack web-site, but excitingly, it has now been printed, so you can buy it in the shops or download it from Amazon. It is called The Quick Guide…

Day 21 – What should you do when your lodger leaves?

Day 21 Sometimes it is good to get your home back again

Our last few tips have looked a problem lodger situations, but of course this is not the norm.  Most lodgers get on very well with their landlord.  However all good things have to end, and sooner or later the day will come when your lodger leaves. There are many reasons.  Most of my lodgers, for…

Day 20 – How do you evict a lodger who won’t go?

Day 20 - You should not use any force when evicting a lodger

Although hopefully this will never happen to you, very occasionally lodger landlords will need to evict their lodger. Todays tips give guidance on this. Caution – todays tip only applies to lodger landlords who share living accommodation with their lodgers. The guidance given here regarding eviction, will *only* be applicable to landlords with lodgers living…

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.