Most of the questions from readers on this blog seem to be regarding problem lodgers and how to get rid of them.

I am therefore planning to do a problem lodger kit, to give people detailed guidance and sample letters and forms.  If this would be of interest to you, can you please  sign up for the special problem lodger pack mailing list.

I will then know whether there is any demand for this (if no-one signs up for it I won’t do it!) and will allow me to tell you when it is available.

(Note – we may also send news of other products and services we think may interest you, but if you get fed up you can cancel at any time).

Are you about to look for a new lodger?

If so, you may be interested in our New Lodger pack.

The forms pack includes :

• a telephone enquiry form
• a lodger information / application form
• a set of letters you can use when requesting references (including employer, bank etc)
• our housing benefit letter of authority (normally on sale for £5)
• a checklist to use at your interview with prospective lodgers
• detailed guidance notes

That is the standard pack.  If you buy the full pack for an extra £6 you also get our lodger agreement thrown in, which normally sells for £12.

You can read more and buy the pack online >> here.

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 and ministers about ‘studentification‘ in various parts of the country.  This is where a particular area, generally within walking distance of a college or University, is used largely for student housing.  This will generally be normal houses converted into student homes, with up to six or more students sharing a property.

This creates problems for the ‘normal people’ living nearby – loud parties, properties not being looked after properly, local shops and pubs losing trade when they all go home in the holidays, that sort of thing.  Apparently this type of problem is only severe in a relatively number of locations.  However local residents in those areas are vocal and Something Had to Be Done About It.

The thing which was done, was to change the planning rules, to require planning permission to be necessary if a property is used in a way which complies with the definition of an HMO, ie three or more unrelated people sharing a property.

In the Day 7 post I discussed the implications of a property coming within the HMO definition.  All of these properties will be bound by the management regulations, and some of them will need to get a license from the Council.  To this can now be added, obtaining planning permission!  Which will of course involve paperwork,  and the paying of a fee.  Plus no doubt a long wait for permission to be granted.

It does seem a bit odd that someone wanting to rent a room in their own home to more than two lodgers will need to get planning permission, but this does appear to be the case.  In the published guidance on the new planning rules on the Communities and Local Government web-site, it says

Properties containing the owner and up to two lodgers do not constitute HMOs for these purposes.

Which presumably means that properties containing the owner and three lodgers will.  It is even odder, as whether a property is considered an HMO, is not related just to the number of people  there, but whether they are a ‘household’ or not. So if you take in six brothers as lodgers, they (probably) will count as one household as they are related.

Note that if you already let to three or more lodgers you will not need planning permission.  Only if you started doing this after 1 April 2010.  If you stop letting to the lodgers, you will not, apparently, need permission to change the planning class back again (but will if you later decided to take more than two lodgers again).

I am not a planning lawyer, so cannot advise fully on the ramifications on this new legislation (and would welcome comments from anyone who knows more about planning law and practice than I do).  However I would suggest that unless your lodgers are related in some way, you confine yourself to just taking in two at any one time.  Then you will not have a problem.

Do you take in more than two lodgers?  Is this rule likely to put you off taking lodgers?  Has anyone had any practical experience of applying for planning permission in these circumstances?  If so please do leave a comment, I would love to hear from you.

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 they stay?’.  Hotel accommodation, particularly in London, is expensive, and people have not budgeted for the cost of this beyond the period of their holiday.

However as always in times of  trouble, people are offering to help.  Spareroom.co.uk reports  flood of people offering short stay accommodation in spare rooms across the country.  Says Spareroom.co.uk director  Matt Hutchinson:

“We have been staggered by the response from our users since this drama unfolded. The number of people who have contacted us to offer their spare rooms to people who are stranded in the UK has been overwhelming, and many are happy to offer special rates to victims of the ash cloud drama as a good will gesture.”

The web-site has set up a special page on their site – so if you want to offer your spare room to stranded travellers go to www.spareroom.co.uk/stranded.

Ironically the Spareroom founder, Rupert Hunt, is trapped in Tokyo and may not be able to return for up to a month!

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.

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Back in November 2009 we launched a campaign called Raise the Roof with the intention of asking the government to increase the tax free amount people can earn by renting out a room in their home.

We’ve been running flatshare websites for over 10 years now; our first, www.intoLondon.com, started in 1999 and SpareRoom followed in 2004. In that time we’ve spoken to a lot of live in landlords, and one of the issues that comes up most is how to rent out a room without straying into the realms of having to fill out a tax return.

The Rent a Room Scheme currently lets anyone renting out a room in their home earn up to £4,250 a year tax free. The problem is almost 60% of rooms let in the UK have a rental value higher than the threshold. This leaves the landlord with 2 options: either charge less than the room is worth or fill out a tax return for the remainder. Most PAYE taxpayers are worried about the implications of self-assesment, especially if the return is for a few hundred pounds a year.

As the threshold hasn’t been changed at all under the current government (the Conservatives last changed it in 1997, just before losing the election to Labour), and rental prices have soared in that time, it seems only fair to increase the limit to a reasonable level. After consulting with Shelter and comparing figures we decided to ask for a new limit of £9,000. With Shelter’s backing, along with that of the National Landlord’s Association and Sarah Beeny, we hoped to raise awareness and bring the issue to the attention of those in power.

We began by writing to MPs, Treasury officials and members of the House of Lords to outline our proposals and gauge support for the campaign. We received many positive responses as well as requests for more information, from both the Department for Communities and Local Government (who invited us in to go over the details) and from the housing minister’s office.

Public support for the campaign has been excellent as well. So far we’ve collected 6,800+ signatures on our petition. A poll asking whether people would be more likely to rent out a room if the prospect of filling out a tax return wasn’t an issue returned an overwhelming 89% majority saying yes.

The next step was to get an EDM (or Early Day Motion) tabled in the commons. This is basically a means of getting MPs to voice their support for an issue. Paul Keetch, Liberal Democrat MP for Hereford tabled EDM 860 ‘Raise the Roof Campaign’ on February 2nd and it has so far been signed by 60 MPs. It’s interesting to note the split of parties: Labour account for 50% of the signatures and Lib Dems a further 25%. The rest is divided between the Conservatives and others.

It will be interesting to see how the election affects the issue. One thing is for certain – if we want to encourage people to rent out rooms we have to make sure the incentive remains valuable and serves its purpose.

To find out more visit http://www.spareroom.co.uk/raisetheroof.