Agreement for friends to live in my house

[CStevens]

You might as well grant them an Assured Shorthold Tenancy ('AST')because, unless you charge them less than £100 a year, it's going to be deemed to be an AST in any case. Perhaps grant it for 2 years then it can be a rolling periodic for the 3rd year if needed. Friend or not though you are going to have to comply with the AST requirements - EPC, How to rent book, gas certificate as well as the AST before you let them take up occupation.

I cannot tell you how many calls i get at work which start with 'my mate' or 'i had a friend who' If you need some help with it then message me and i will come back to you as soon as i can. Best, Charles

[OneSmallStep]

I don't mind whether there is a rental fee or whether I allow them to live for free. What I am concerned about is that with reasonable notice I can retrieve my property when I return to the UK after about 2-3 years.

I think you have answered your own concerns with this statement.

These are 'friends' that you are prepared to live in your house for FREE for 2-3 years, yet you still have doubt as to how you can retrieve your property when you return to the UK. If they are that close friends then why is this concerning you?

If this isn't setting alarm bells off in your own mind then I don't know what else you could read that would help? I suspect you already know that this is a bad idea and could leave you losing your 'friends' and a whole heap of issues in 3 years time. We don't know where the PRS will be in 1 year let alone 3. Plus who knows what the economic climate will look like.

Do you really want phone calls from your friends that the heating isn't working? tap dripping? fence blown down? roof leaking? etc....

Don't let to friends or family !!!

If you really must and feel the need to help them, then use an agent and have a separation between the landlord and tenant. But be prepared to lose your relationship and a stack of cash if things go wrong. Plus it sounds like you are going to have to spend quite a bit getting the property up to rentable standards.

good luck.

[Tippy]

Apologies for not checking back in earlier to respond or to thank members who responded. Default settings do not include email notifications so I thought no one had responded. Settings now changed and thanks to everyone.

In this instance could they not be deemed lodgers or unsecured tenants? My stuff will remain in the house and I will continue to pay the council tax and presumably I would not need to carry out the electrical checks. As they are a family of three, two adults and a child, I suppose this might make it an HMO as I don't think you can have more than two lodgers in a property at any one time.

I take it there are only two options: AST or unsecured tenancy (lodger).

I've got say that all your comments make perfect sense and I am struggling to find a way this can be achieved with a degree of peace of mind.

[jpkeates]

In this instance could they not be deemed lodgers or unsecured tenants?

They can't be lodgers because you won't be living there.
They don't meet the requirements for unsecured tenants that I can see.

Even if your friends pay no rent, they're probably providing a service to you of some value, which could be taken as a form of rent.

If they're not on an Assured Tenancy, getting your property back seems (to me) to be more complex than if they are.
You might find that a solicitor can answer that better - you can exclude the arrangement from being an assured tenancy simply by saying that it isn't.
Which makes it a common law tenancy, and the rules are different.

My stuff will remain in the house and I will continue to pay the council tax and presumably I would not need to carry out the electrical checks.

While you might continue to pay the council tax, it's possible that they'll actually be liable to pay it.

And the electrical checks are probably some thing you might want to consider.

The problem with the issues we're all raising is that, basically, you and your friends could very probably come to whatever arrangement suits you both, live quite happily and then they hand your property back in a couple of years and all would be well.

The issues only arise when something goes wrong - you need to move back in six months, someone dies, someone electrocutes themselves, there's a pandemic, the place burns down, the council won't rehome the family after a change in circumstances.
All those cheery thoughts.

And who's going to insure the place and on what basis?
If there's a mortgage would they allow the change?

As they are a family of three, two adults and a child, I suppose this might make it an HMO as I don't think you can have more than two lodgers in a property at any one time.

A family is one household and an HMO needs more than one household.
And there's no way this can be a lodger arrangement.

[DoricPixie]

Unsecured tenancy? Lodgers in England and Wales are excluded occupiers not unsecured tenants.

Lodgers lodge in their landlord’s only or main residence and this would cease to be your main residence whilst you’re living elsewhere.

Your option is to charge no rent at all, and that includes rent in kind, or you will create an AST.

Have you thought about how you will insure the property whilst you’re away?

[Tippy]

"Which makes it a common law tenancy, and the rules are different."

Having looked at this form of tenancy, I believe it is for Agricultural or Business lets of greater than £100k per annum. But I'm happy to research further.


"The problem with the issues we're all raising is that, basically, you and your friends could very probably come to whatever arrangement suits you both, live quite happily and then they hand your property back in a couple of years and all would be well."

It is not really my style to leave things open to chance but in this situation I might well just come to an amicable arrangement that is fully discussed beforehand and written down and signed by both parties because the alternatives are so fraught with regulation. I did find it funny when someone referred to friends as 'fiends' and I totally follow the insinuation. I don't say that the family in question are saints but they are definitely not the type of low life that can come from all walks of life and who one would associate with abusing such a situation. My concern is not whether they pay the rent or damage the property but is really only about retrieving the property when I return as I don't want a sitting tenant.



"And who's going to insure the place and on what basis?
If there's a mortgage would they allow the change?"

There's no mortgage. I'm not sure whether I should speak to my insurance company or the occupiers would insure the property independently and what an insurance company would require of either of us.

Sorry, not sure how to do window quotes.

[Tippy]

Unsecured tenancy? Lodgers in England and Wales are excluded occupiers not unsecured tenants.

Lodgers lodge in their landlord’s only or main residence and this would cease to be your main residence whilst you’re living elsewhere.

Your option is to charge no rent at all, and that includes rent in kind, or you will create an AST.

Have you thought about how you will insure the property whilst you’re away?

What kind of agreement is it called it if no rent is charged?

[theartfullodger]

Suggest you do some basic education in being a landlord. No offence but there's some very basic questions.

I thought I knew what I was doing when I started. Oh my stupidity, oh the hubris! Expensive, painful, long drawn out mistakes. Education usually turns out cheaper than ignorance.

[jpkeates]

What kind of agreement is it called it if no rent is charged?

It's an occupier with basic protection.

You would still need a court hearing to recover protection, but most of the more onerous terms of a tenancy don't apply.

You'd still have responsibility for the property to be safe and for maintaining the fabric of the property.

You might find that either a bespoke agreement from a solicitor which makes it clear that you're lending them your home for an indeterminate period for no money might address the issue. Leases can't be for an indeterminate amount of time, so it might swerve being a tenancy (at which point you hit the buffers of my legal knowledge!).

Or it might be that the advice is that it should be a full blown AST with some rent in case there's some maintenance needed (say you had to buy a new boiler) and the provision of the Housing Act section 8 means that, should it all go horribly wrong, you could recover your property though the courts with some, but not excessive pain.
Which, shouldn't happen, but there we are...