I am a single woman and in 1999 when I was 41 I bought a three-story terraced Victorian town house with four double bedrooms, with the intent to have three lodgers and live on the income.
Not one person supported my decision. Every friend or relative I told expressed grave concern and issued dire warnings to try to persuade me not to do it. All they could see was gloom and doom. Some said I was sacrificing all my privacy just for the sake of money. My closest friend expressed disgust that I would have to share a toilet [oh horror!] with "a load of strangers". I'd do better to get a job, they said.
Thank God I didn't listen to them.
Despite the difficulty I am in with one of my current lodgers (which is my fault -- I have been too lenient and let her get into rent arrears) having lodgers has been the best financial decision of my life.
Free from SHT restraints, you can make up your own rules so long as whoever presents her or himself agrees to them. You can keep a constant eye on what they are like, how they live, and if you don't like it you can pipe up and they have to change or they have to leave, with only the notice stipulated on the contract. In my case, I put two weeks notice either side except in what according to my definition has become an intolerable situation, when I reserve the right to make them leave at once. Nobody has ever refused to agree to that. Big difference from the 6-9months, even a year it takes to remove a tenant.
The only time I "threw someone out" was five years ago when one lodger, who'd never previously caused me the slightest problem, became verbally abusive to another, because he was gay. The latter came to me in tears, and I told the offender to leave at once. When he refused, and repeated his turade against gay men in general, I called the police. I didn't expect them to do much except tell him to keep the peace or something, and was pleasantly surprised when they ordered him to pack and leave, and stayed in his room as he did so, and got the keys off him as well. He kept on about his rights, and I was surprised when they (correctly) told him that, as he was living under my roof, and I wanted him out right now, he had no choice. They escorted him off the premises. I never saw him again and still have his deposit.
When I think of the large number of lodgers I have had, compared with the small number of difficulties there have been (you can count them on the fingers of one hand), it amazes me that more people don't do it.
My lodgers have stayed for as little as eight weeks and as long as four years. I've never had anyone leave because they didn't like living here; only because their jobs or lives took them elsewhere.
I have a sequence: I advertise in the local paper and when people phone I have a chat with them and get a feel of who they are and what they do. I tell them it's a no smoking house, that drunkenness isn't allowed, that they have to be working to live here. Then they view, and we "interview" each other. I monitor my gut instinct about the person, study their personality and ask myself if I could get on with someone like them.
I always choose people with a cheery manner and friendly disposition because they are nice to have around and make for a pleasant atmosphere in the house.
I found that people who have a fairly shy, unassertive personality have on the whole turned out to be the best lodgers - they are quiet, have few friends round, and obey the rules. Having said that, one of the best I ever had was a very chatty, extrovert, gay man who is still a close friend even though he moved out to share a flat with a friend four years ago.
Going back to my "sequence" - if they say they want to take the room, I give them a lodger application form which tells them what to do next, which is to fill it in and return it to me with a cash deposit of £280 (equivalent to a month's rent) and once I get that, I will reserve the room for them and refuse to let anyone else view it. We then set a date for them to move in, and on that date they have to pay me the first month's rent, in cash, before I give them the keys. The form includes a place for employer's and landlord's references, emergency contact number, their mobile and work phone numbers, car registration, and how long they imagine they might be living here. I take up the references the same day I get the deposit.
However, there are parts of this sequence that go to the wall if I have a good feeling about someone. For example, a Chinese lady phoned me from 150 miles away. She wanted to take the room, sight unseen. She wanted to give me the deposit and move in on the same day, a week later. She had no landlord's reference as she was sleeping on a friend's couch; she had no work reference because she was coming to my town to take up a job as carer to an elderly, disabled lady who I didn't want to disturb by phoning her. Based entirely upon making judgements about her from the way she spoke to me, I decided to take a chance. Sure enough, seven days later she appeared on my doorstep and slapped £560 cash in my hand. She was a perfect lodger, clean, cheerful, respectful, educated, helpful, and, even better, when she left three months later (to join her husband) she passed the room to her aunt, who still lives with me a year later. Although a qualified midwife, in the UK she's a home-carer, and she's so sweet: every fourth Friday she knocks quietly on my living room door and asks may she please pay her rent? I always have a silly joke with her and pretend to be weighing up whether or not I am going to accept it, and we both have a good laugh. She tells me she intends to stay living here all her life, if I will let her.
I've never had any references for aunt or niece, yet people with perfect references have turned out to be bad lodgers. On the whole I now don't set much store by character or landlord's references; my gut instinct has served me better. I need to know they are employed, however; but then again, anyone can lose their job the day after they move in (that has happened!) I have a rule that if someone loses their job, they have to tell me at once and I will give them two weeks' notice to leave. If they find another job in that time, then they can stay, unless I've taken a deposit from a replacement lodger, then it's too late. (Even that rule I have broken because I have to be adaptable to special circumstances. A posh teacher has made redundant, but he had a good deal of savings so I let him stay.)
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Not one person supported my decision. Every friend or relative I told expressed grave concern and issued dire warnings to try to persuade me not to do it. All they could see was gloom and doom. Some said I was sacrificing all my privacy just for the sake of money. My closest friend expressed disgust that I would have to share a toilet [oh horror!] with "a load of strangers". I'd do better to get a job, they said.
Thank God I didn't listen to them.
Despite the difficulty I am in with one of my current lodgers (which is my fault -- I have been too lenient and let her get into rent arrears) having lodgers has been the best financial decision of my life.
Free from SHT restraints, you can make up your own rules so long as whoever presents her or himself agrees to them. You can keep a constant eye on what they are like, how they live, and if you don't like it you can pipe up and they have to change or they have to leave, with only the notice stipulated on the contract. In my case, I put two weeks notice either side except in what according to my definition has become an intolerable situation, when I reserve the right to make them leave at once. Nobody has ever refused to agree to that. Big difference from the 6-9months, even a year it takes to remove a tenant.
The only time I "threw someone out" was five years ago when one lodger, who'd never previously caused me the slightest problem, became verbally abusive to another, because he was gay. The latter came to me in tears, and I told the offender to leave at once. When he refused, and repeated his turade against gay men in general, I called the police. I didn't expect them to do much except tell him to keep the peace or something, and was pleasantly surprised when they ordered him to pack and leave, and stayed in his room as he did so, and got the keys off him as well. He kept on about his rights, and I was surprised when they (correctly) told him that, as he was living under my roof, and I wanted him out right now, he had no choice. They escorted him off the premises. I never saw him again and still have his deposit.
When I think of the large number of lodgers I have had, compared with the small number of difficulties there have been (you can count them on the fingers of one hand), it amazes me that more people don't do it.
My lodgers have stayed for as little as eight weeks and as long as four years. I've never had anyone leave because they didn't like living here; only because their jobs or lives took them elsewhere.
I have a sequence: I advertise in the local paper and when people phone I have a chat with them and get a feel of who they are and what they do. I tell them it's a no smoking house, that drunkenness isn't allowed, that they have to be working to live here. Then they view, and we "interview" each other. I monitor my gut instinct about the person, study their personality and ask myself if I could get on with someone like them.
I always choose people with a cheery manner and friendly disposition because they are nice to have around and make for a pleasant atmosphere in the house.
I found that people who have a fairly shy, unassertive personality have on the whole turned out to be the best lodgers - they are quiet, have few friends round, and obey the rules. Having said that, one of the best I ever had was a very chatty, extrovert, gay man who is still a close friend even though he moved out to share a flat with a friend four years ago.
Going back to my "sequence" - if they say they want to take the room, I give them a lodger application form which tells them what to do next, which is to fill it in and return it to me with a cash deposit of £280 (equivalent to a month's rent) and once I get that, I will reserve the room for them and refuse to let anyone else view it. We then set a date for them to move in, and on that date they have to pay me the first month's rent, in cash, before I give them the keys. The form includes a place for employer's and landlord's references, emergency contact number, their mobile and work phone numbers, car registration, and how long they imagine they might be living here. I take up the references the same day I get the deposit.
However, there are parts of this sequence that go to the wall if I have a good feeling about someone. For example, a Chinese lady phoned me from 150 miles away. She wanted to take the room, sight unseen. She wanted to give me the deposit and move in on the same day, a week later. She had no landlord's reference as she was sleeping on a friend's couch; she had no work reference because she was coming to my town to take up a job as carer to an elderly, disabled lady who I didn't want to disturb by phoning her. Based entirely upon making judgements about her from the way she spoke to me, I decided to take a chance. Sure enough, seven days later she appeared on my doorstep and slapped £560 cash in my hand. She was a perfect lodger, clean, cheerful, respectful, educated, helpful, and, even better, when she left three months later (to join her husband) she passed the room to her aunt, who still lives with me a year later. Although a qualified midwife, in the UK she's a home-carer, and she's so sweet: every fourth Friday she knocks quietly on my living room door and asks may she please pay her rent? I always have a silly joke with her and pretend to be weighing up whether or not I am going to accept it, and we both have a good laugh. She tells me she intends to stay living here all her life, if I will let her.
I've never had any references for aunt or niece, yet people with perfect references have turned out to be bad lodgers. On the whole I now don't set much store by character or landlord's references; my gut instinct has served me better. I need to know they are employed, however; but then again, anyone can lose their job the day after they move in (that has happened!) I have a rule that if someone loses their job, they have to tell me at once and I will give them two weeks' notice to leave. If they find another job in that time, then they can stay, unless I've taken a deposit from a replacement lodger, then it's too late. (Even that rule I have broken because I have to be adaptable to special circumstances. A posh teacher has made redundant, but he had a good deal of savings so I let him stay.)
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