Lodgers don’t aways stay all week. Some lodger like to go back home at the weekends.

This is good for them, as they pay a bit less, and good for the landlord, who gets the use of the room back at the weekends.  Sometimes for their guests, sometimes to use for things like drying clothes, or sometimes they just like to have their house back to themselves for a few days.

As with all lodger situations, it is a good idea to have a lodger agreement signed up.  However there are not many lodger agreements drafted specifically with the Monday to Friday situation in mind.  I know when I went looking I could not find one.

So when one of our customers suggested that we provide one it seemed a really good idea.

Although the agreement is referred to as a Monday to Friday one, it can actually be used for any periods.  So if you lodger is going to stay Wednesday to Monday, or even Friday to Sunday, this is not a problem.  You just put the relevant days in the space on the form.  Making it very flexible.

Like all our lodger forms it comes with extensive guidance notes telling you how to complete the form and explaining the clauses.  Plus there is a generous area at the end where you can put in your own clauses or ‘house rules’.

The agreement is priced the same as our other lodger agreement at £12.  However if you buy it before 9 November you can get a £3 discount (and buy for £9) if you input the voucher code LLBlogMonFri.  You can get it >> here (you will need to scroll down the page a bit)

By the way, if you want to find a Monday to Friday lodger, a good place is the Monday to Friday website.

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.

Your Law Store

If you click the shop link in the navigation bar below you will find a difference.  It will take you to a completely new site!  This is the new Your Law Store ecommerce site I have set up with my long term web designer Gill Bishop.

This is an exciting new venture.  Gill and I have been working together for years, mostly on my Landlord Law website, but this is a completely new business. It is run through a new company we have set up together called Zollch Ltd.

As we have a nice new sophisticated ecommerce store, it made sense to use it to sell the Lodger Landlord products.  But don’t worry – if you find you have gone there by mistake you can always get back here by clicking the suitcase logo on the top right of the page.

As we have this new service, I am now looking to do some more lodger landlord products.  If there is anything you would particularly like me to do – in the way of forms that is, please leave a comment and I will see what I can do.

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 some of the advice I gave him:

To prevent a tenancy being created you need to ensure that the occupier does not have ‘exclusive occupation’ of the property/rooms.  This means that you have to have built into your contract, reasons for you to go in and out of them (respecting your occupiers privacy) as of right (ie without having to ask permission first).  Here are some suggestions:

• Tip 1 – Provide clean sheets (and perhaps towels)  You do not need to make the bed. but it gives you a excuse to go in and out of the room/s without question.  Make a practice of actually going into the rooms rather than just leaving the sheets in the passage outside
• Tip 2 – Provide room cleaning.  If you do not want to do the cleaning yourself, employ a cleaner (and set the rent so the cleaner’s costs are covered).  Make it clear to the occupier that the cleaner is part of the deal as you want to be sure that the property is being properly looked after
• Tip 3 – deal with putting out the occupiers rubbish for them.  For example provide black bin bags and say that you will be going into their kitchen area to collect them once or twice a week (depending on when the bin men come).
• Tip 4 – require access to test the smoke alarms regularly.  Needless to say, you will have to have smoke alarms fitted for this, but you should have this anyway
• Tip 5 – provide breakfast and /or other meals from time to time, which can be served in their rooms if you prefer.

Where you are renting out self contained rooms in your home, where you do not share living accommodation with the occupier, you do need to be careful to prevent a tenancy arising (particularly if it is important that there is not tenancy, for example if this is a requirement of your mortgage company).

However so long as provide at least two services such as those listed above (ideally at least clean sheets and cleaning, and preferably more than two) you should be all right – so long as you continue to provide them.  If you stop, the occupation may convert to a tenancy.

Note also that as you do not share living accommodation, the eviction procedure set out in Day 20 of my 21 days of tips, cannot be used.

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 my 21 days of tips.  Well you can’t cover everything!

To a certain extent what you do will depend on whether or not you have a lodger agreement, and if you do, what it says.  But here are some suggestions:

Make sure that you have a lodger agreement in place (such as the Lodger Landlord agreement) which says that the lodgers right to live in your room will end automatically if they stop living in the property.  Then if you have heard nothing, you can just bundle up any stuff remaining in the room, store it, and re-let the room (we’ll talk about the proper way to deal with property left behind in another post).

But what if you don’t have an agreement, or your agreement does not say this?

If you have a contact address for your lodger (for example if he is a student, this will be his home address, or in other cases use the address of any next of kin or people who you think will be in touch with him – you should have this on your application form) write to him and ask him to contact you and let you know whether or not he intends to return.  Give a time limit of say, 14 days.  If you hear nothing, again, you should be safe to re-possess and re-let the room.

But what if you have no contact address?

Well he can’t expect you to hang about forever!  But wait a reasonable time before taking back the room.  What is a reasonable time?  Well, if the room rent is paid up, you should do nothing.  You should only re-take and re-let the room if the rent is in arrears.  Ideally wait until the rent is in two months in arrears, but if you can’t afford that, I suggest you wait at least 28 days.

For example your lodger might be justifiably annoyed if he had an accident and was in hospital, and came out two days after his rent ran out, to find that you had re-let his room and thrown away all his things!  In fact in those circumstances he could probably sue you for compensation.  So be careful.

Have you had any situations where your lodger has just vanished?  How did you deal with it?  Did you ever hear from him again?

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.

Lodger Agreement: As discussed on Day 15 a lodger agreement is important to keep a record of what was agreed with your lodger and to set out clearly the terms and conditions of the contract made.

Housing Benefit letter of authority: This is for landlords with lodgers on benefit.  The letter needs to be signed by the lodger and sent to the benefit office, otherwise they will refuse to speak to you about your lodgers benefit application, citing the Data Protection Act.  Even though the application is for your rent!

All our forms and documents are electronic – we do not sell any printed forms by post.  Payment is via pay pal, and then you will then be directed to a page where you can download the form that you have bought.  Simple!

An additional feature is that if we carry out any upgrades to a form within 12 months of the date you bought it, we will let you have the new version free of charge.   All you  need to do is contact us with details of your purchase and we will either email the form to you, or send you a link to where it can be downloaded.

I will be drafting more documents for the shop and loading them up in due course.  If there is anything you would particularly like, please do let me know.

Taking in a lodger is not the same as taking in a tenant, and a formal lodger agreement is less essential. Many lodger landlords never use a formal written agreement, and operate on a handshake and mutual trust.

However although this is fine when things are going well, if there are any problems, it is a great help to have a formal agreement setting out your rights and obligations. Unlike tenancies, these things are not normally ‘implied’ into agreements by statute, so if there is no written agreement, it can be difficult to know how to deal with problems that may arise (for example see Day 19).

A formal agreement drafted by a lawyer is therefore a good idea, in addition to any ‘house rules’ list you may draw up (discussed on Day 14). The formal agreement will cover things you may not have thought of, and will protect your position.

For example, a helpful clause, often found in lodger agreements, makes the lodgers license to occupy the property end automatically, if he stops living in the property or fails to pay rent for two or more months.

Other standard clauses cover

• termination and notice periods,
• prohibitions about damaging the property and anti social behaviour, and
• details of any services you will be providing.

I also like to include a clause reminding the lodger that he is personally responsible for the behaviour of his guests (for example if they cause any damage).

The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999
These are regulations which all of us who draft tenancy and other occupation agreements need to take into account when drafting. They apply to all contacts (not just those for occupation of a property) between someone acting in the course of a business and a consumer (you can read more about this on >> the OFT web-site here).

In most situations where a homeowner (or tenant) is letting a room to a lodger, these regulations will not apply, as they are aimed at businesses not people making a bit of money from renting out a room. However if you have several lodgers, particularly if it is your main source of income, you might be classed as a business. If so, the regulations *will* apply to you.

This is why, when drafting lodger agreements, I try to stick to the principles of the regulations, although perhaps not as rigorously as I would for a tenancy agreement.

Generally the thrust of the regulations is towards clarity and fairness. This is no bad thing, and if your lodger sees that the agreement you are using is evenhanded and doesn’t try to take advantage of him, he will be happier about signing it. It is also a good idea to try to get an agreement which is written in plain English as this will be easier for both of you to understand.

Practicalities
If you decide to use a professionally drafted agreement (and on balance I think this is best), be careful to fill it out properly, making sure that all spellings are correct, and that the property is correctly described.

As with all such agreements, there should be two copies. You should end up with one signed by the lodger, and he should end up with one signed by you. It may be easier if you both sign both of them.

If there are any other documents involved, such as house rules (Day 14), and an inventory (Day 16), these should be signed at the same time, and attached to the main lodger agreement (for example by stapling them together or using a treasury tag), which should refer to them.

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What is your experience of the things in this section? Do you use a formal lodger agreement? Have you had any situations where you have needed to refer to it to resolve a dispute? Are there any particular clauses you would want to see in a lodger agreement (for example if we provide one)?

Note: You can buy our standard lodger agreement in the Lodger Landlord shop for £12, or get it cheaper as part of our >> New Lodger Pack plus.