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 having launched in 1999), they clearly know what they are talking about.

If you are looking to flat share or rent a room, particularly if you are looking for a place in London, this is an excellent book. It provides all (or nearly all) the information you need to have, in an accessible manner. There are also insets giving the personal experience of landlords and tenants, as well as the authors.

Helpful chapters include:

• Basic information
• Finding a flatshare
• A special chapter devoted to lodgers
• A chapter setting out the terminology (which will be particularly helpful for those from outside the UK)
• A chapter on financial matters
• And a chapter on contracts, rights and agreements

The book ends with a special section on London, and some useful resources and links (although they could have included Landlord Law).

The book emphasises staying safe (a most important topic with flat shares), and usefully has a very good section at the end on staying safe online and reducing the risk of fraud (a subject we have also touched on here, at at the Landlord Law Blog, and on Day 10 of our 21 days of tips for lodger landlords). Their rules are worth mentioning again here:

• Never use Western Union (as it is easy for fraudsters to run off with your money)
• Never rent a room with out seeing it first (tenants), or (landlords) to anyone you have not met personally
• Get receipts
• Don’t leave sensitive documents lying around if showing someone round a flat
• When visiting flats, take someone with you or let them know where you are going

The book can be purchased (of course!) via the spare room web-site, or on Amazon here.

(Note that this review first appeared on my Landlord Law Blog.)

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 to Taking in a Lodger.

There are many similarities of course between the book, and the guidance you will find on this web-site.  The subject matter is the same and it is therefore inevitable that the same things will be discussed.  However the book goes into rather more detail, particularly on lodger agreements.

There is also a template lodger application form, and quite a lot of precedent letters set out in the book which you can copy and use.  For example there are a lot of sample letters for you to use for problem lodgers.

It is also often more convenient to have a book.  Something you can slip into a pocket and read on the bus.

You can download the book from Amazon here.

“The great thing about this little gem: every page a different thing you though you already knew” National Landlords Association.