Renting rooms out: a Doper's guide?

My wife and I are going through the painful process of buying a house. If the sale doesn’t fall through, and there are no surprises for us in the structural survey and in the legal searches, we’ll be moving there soon.

We have a room to spare, maybe two, and we’re thinking of renting them out, as Newcastle has a big student population. We would give them use of a separate bathroom, and share the kitchen, as well as washing machine and fridge.

We never did that before, and although we’ve rented places for ourselves before we usually opted to rent whole houses. Is there anything we should be aware of, any advice you could give us?

We are in UK, but experiences and tips from Dopers abroad would be great too!

If your wife and you are both okay with it, it could be a good thing. Especially if you and the roommate are polite people who like each other.

I would inform myself at commercial student room trading agencies. Also at Consumers magazine. When I rented, that is where my landlord and me got our standard contract. That contract was a good mix of protecting tenant and landlord both, and is was legally sound.

Your best bet may be to work through the University’s own Housing Services. That’s one of the first places for students to look for ads and in many locations it gives both parties an agency that can be called if there is a need for a re-placement. Note that this doesn’t have to mean anything… horribilis: it can be something as simple as “there is a cat in the house and it turns out the renter is allergic to cats and didn’t know it”.

Check your local laws for any possible distinction between a boarder or lodger and a tenant.

[ol]
[/ol]If as you say there is a large student population where you are then finding a fellow doper shouldn’t be a problem.If they’re anything like the students in the U.S they’re probably high 98% of the time.:wink:
Oh my! I’ve reread your post.I thought what you meant by dopers…
Never mind.:smack:

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If you don’t need the money I would say don’t do it. Having rented rooms to people before and having signed leases with roommates in the past a couple of those experiences were good to neutral but the large majority were very, very bad. If it isn’t a source of much needed income you would probably be better off turning one of those rooms into an office and the other into a game room or something. If you decide you do want to rent out the rooms just be sure to put everything in writing and be as clear as possible with your renter about everything up front. Your quirks, your habits, the things you cannot tolerate in a roommate, etc. should all be made clear before they sign a lease and move into your home.

I second contacting the university or universities in the area. You may have more luck talking to their graduate student council, if there is one, if you’re looking specifically for older and (theoretically) more mature tenants. Many universities are constantly looking for situations like this to which they can refer graduate students, along with nontraditional students who may be wanting a room to commute to weekly, or visiting young Ph.D students or adjunct professors who may only be in town for six or eight months.

I’ve been on the other end of your renting situation and it’s always worked out nicely. Contact the university and get yourself listed. Don’t be afraid to turn people down! Seriously, if you feel like it won’t be a good fit, don’t feel like you “have to” rent to that person. Don’t be afraid to list “male tenant only” or “female tenant only” or “Klingon tenant only” or whatever. Be very straightforward with the people looking for rooms–tell them straight-up that you can only allow them to do laundry on days that start with T, or that you absolutely can’t tolerate fragrance, or whatever it is.

Good luck! There are plenty of people out there who will be looking for space. If you play your cards right, you can definitely do this right. The folks I’m renting from right now have been renting out their basement for ten-plus years and they’ve overall had very positive experiences with many tenants that they still keep in contact with. This can work for you!

Check your local zoning laws to make sure that you are allowed to let a room. You may also need a fire inspector to sign off that the room is safe – basement bedrooms that do not have a second escape route generally are not permitted, for instance, for safety reasons.

Oh, and you’ll have to declare the income on your taxes.

I heartily endorse the idea of putting every tiny detail in writing so there is no misunderstanding where the boundaries between your family and your renters lie. I grew up in a house where we rented out one or two rooms most of the time, and you can not possibly overestimate the potential for a stranger’s “personal style” to disrupt your life and vice versa. We had roomers who turned the heat up to 88, stashed boxes of dirty dishes in closets, stole things, peeked at bathing children, expected the women/girls of the house to do their laundry/prepare their meals, bathed too much or not at all, charged up thousands (yes, thousands) of dollars on long distance calls to talk radio shows across the country. We did have a few lovely people rent rooms too, but I’d say it was about 1 of 10.

I’d never rent out a room in my house, but I am definitely biased due to my childhood experiences.

Well, people have cell phones these days, so no more having to worry about racking up the long distances charges. lmao. I don’t think you need to write in a rule about not peeking at kids in the shower, either. That’s common sense. But there’s other good stuff, like if they can turn the heat or a/c on/off, can they have guests or overnight guests, when they can do laundry, when they can use the kitchen, where they need to park, and what rooms are off-limits that are good to get in writing beforehand.

I’ve been a “boarder/lodger” with four different landlords over the last few years, so maybe I can give you some perspective from my side of things. Make sure the contract is crystal clear about what is/n’t allowed. I wouldn’t have gotten into one of my rooming situations if I’d known that she had a “rule” against eating in my room beforehand. The lease didn’t forbid it, so I kept doing it anyway. Early on, the same LL (I call her “megabitch,” I think she was literally bipolar) had told me I was free to change the thermostat anytime I wanted to. A couple months later, she put nasty notes all over the thing, saying not to touch it unless I wanted to pay the heat bill (which she also would not have legally been allowed to do, according to the lease we both signed). So, my first piece of advice is to not be insane, and to be consistent.

If it turns out you make a rule that has an effect you don’t like, or you forgot to make a rule you wish you had, talk with them and attempt to resolve the conflict like you would with an equal roommate. Realize that nothing that isn’t in writing and doesn’t break the law is unenforceable. If you have to, put up with it until the end of the lease term (aim for 3-6 months) and then change the rule going forward. It’s a constant learning experience for you, tons of flux, and you’ll be starting over every single time somebody moves in.

One of my living situations was with a married couple who had two kids under the age of 2. I HAD to keep my door open all the time or else it would get over 90 in the summertime/under 55 in the winter (there wasn’t an hvac duct in my room and the window leaked badly). Their toddler would always come walking into my room because he was only 18 months old and little kids do that shit. And my computer chair faced away from the door, so I didn’t always notice him or what he was doing. My room was not baby proof! They didn’t think to put up a baby gate or anything to protect him (and they had extras, I wouldn’t have minded). One time, I was building my new computer and listening to some music, and he was sitting in the doorway quietly chewing on the wires of my old case for a couple minutes before I noticed he was there. His mom was fucking around downstairs or something. Goddamn lazy parents of fucking little kids! Anyway, make sure your kids understand to never go into the space your boarder is renting, and if they’re not old enough to understand that, then put up a physical barrier (if you have kids).

If you end up with someone you clash with constantly or absolutely hate, you really can’t evict them unless they break the law or break lease rules or fail to pay rent. And even then, it takes at least a month before they’ll be out, which is a LOT of time to do damage. And you can’t get blood out of a stone, so you could end up out of pocket for damages. So I’m not saying be “afraid” of your tenants, but have a healthy respect for what you CANNOT do. You are opening your home to them, but you cannot throw them out if they play loud music or leave cheetos fingerprints all over your nice white leather sofa. Once in, they can be very hard to get rid of. So be thorough when you write your lease contract, and be careful deciding who to let in.

Decide what (if anything) will be furnished in the room (bed? dresser? tv?), and don’t count on getting anything back in a usable format. If you do, it’s a bonus.

As you can’t get blood out of a stone, and contracts aren’t necessarily enforceable in other countries, you might want to stick with tenants based in the US instead of foreign grad students.

I strongly advise to collect a deposit (in the amount of 1 month’s rent) and give it back promptly after they move out, unless there are damages. It’s nice if you are willing to work out a payment arrangement for the deposit, I’ve had a couple LLs that were cool about letting me pay it over a couple months, which was was a HUGE help. Make sure it’s written down that deposits cannot be used to cover rent, and ideally they should be deposited into a separate account by you. It’s never your money, it’s theirs unless they cause damages, and you may owe them interest–if it earned any (read up on local laws). You have to return deposits within a certain amount of time (30 days in my state) or else they might be able to take you to civil court and get a judgment against you for 2-4 times the amount of the deposit.

Take lots of pictures in the room in its “before” state, preferably with a datestamp on them if possible. If someone caused damages, take lots of “after” pictures and get it repaired asap–like, yesterday. SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS and send them copies of everything you spent money on (labor, parts, etc). Very clearly document why they only received the remaining portion of their deposit. If they take you to court for wrongful withholding of the deposit, you will need those pictures as proof. Familiarize yourself with certain “damages” that are not claimable as damage, like carpet wear and tear, among other things. Be aware of this, especially if you’re going to have a bunch of short-term renters through the local university. You may want to consider a no-shoes rule to help mitigate carpet wear.

You can conduct criminal background checks and credit checks for prospective renters (most of my LLs have not, only the current one did, and it didn’t cost me anything). You can charge them for this, but it’s going to cut down on your potential applicants, since the people looking for a boarding situation aren’t able to afford as much and may not have a very good credit history–if they had better resources, they’d get their own place or stay at one of those live-in hotels, instead.

You will probably want to include utilities with the amount they’re paying for rent. Estimate how much they’ll cost you, quote an inflexible monthly rate, and make sure the rent is high enough to account for them. Boarders typically prefer stable monthly payments. They can’t handle costs that fluctuate heavily from month-to-month like utilities (and in this situation they wouldn’t be responsible for as much of the fluctuation anyway, since there’s only one of them and at least 2 of you).

Overall, boarding sucks. Being a boarder is a significantly-less-than-ideal situation for me. I’d much rather be living in my own apartment, but I can’t afford it with my debts (I’m in the process of rehabbing my student loans, and am making car payments at a 24% interest rate after my bankruptcy, for example). It will not be an ideal situation for most of your boarders, either. I mean, who WANTS to live with someone else’s rules hanging over their head all the time? Nobody. Don’t make it unduly unpleasant for them, but stick to your guns and lay it all out in writing ahead of time.

Being laid-back goes a long way to getting along in a shared housing situation. If you’re not, think thrice before doing this.

Yeah, now you only have to worry that they’ll steal your cell phone, your identity, and possibly those children they’ve been peeking at in the bathroom. LMAO.

Do you need the money? Really need the money? One of the benefits of owning your own house is the privacy that it gives you. Shut the door and you’re inside your inner sanctum. If you don’t mind strangers in your house (remember that your new roomie will have people visiting), go ahead and do it. OTOH if you’re renting to someone you’re very familiar and comfortable with, that’s a different story. All this IMHO.