After your lodger has gone Your lodger has left, but she seems to have left half of her belongings behind. Or you may have evicted your lodger and be wondering what to do with all their things. The first thing to remember is that they do not belong to you. They belong to the lodger. …
Lodgers meals – my experience When I started taking in lodgers, they were mostly foreign students on short English courses at my local university. Part of the deal was that I would provide them with meals and talk to them over dinner. Talking in English with a ‘family’ was an important part of their experience….
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.