'Excluded Tenancy' draft agreement - tips needed

[ThePancakeMan]

Hi All,

I own a 2-bedroom apartment. I am planning to find a Tenant to fill one of the bedrooms, thus making me a ‘live-in landlord’, and making any agreement between us an ‘Excluded Tenancy’ (that's my understanding). I have already given lots of thought on how to organise this, and have almost completed a draft agreement based off:

• A paid (£20) template I downloaded online, which was very basic 
• A previous contract where I was the Tenant,
• The leasehold agreement for the apartment itself, and
• Some of my own common sense & judgement.

I think I’ve done my best as far as reasonable, and could use a word of advice on a couple of details that I’ve struggled to figure out by myself:

1. If the ‘Tenant Fees Act’ banned all types of ‘management fees’, then in principle, what recourse does the Landlord have during the course of the Tenancy if the Tenant breaks the Agreement in any way? (apart from obviously terminating the tenancy, which I could do at a month's notice anyway). 
2. Particularly for live-in landlords, how do you lawfully charge the Tenant for cleaning fees, if they fail to clean common parts of the property to acceptable standards during the Tenancy (and not just at the end)?
3. Are the Tenant’s repayments of utility costs taxable same as the rent? (Electricity, Internet, Burglar Alarm, Council Tax, etc.).
4. I expect not (for practical reasons), but am I also allowed to include ‘Service Charges’, ‘Ground Rent’, and ‘Building Insurance’ for the Property as ‘utility costs’? (this would in theory allow me to pay less tax). 
5. Is the following clause lawful? I wanted to copy it from my previous rental agreement, but now have doubts:
   1. “It is agreed that if any items are left at the Property by you after the end of your tenancy then they are deemed abandoned and that we can dispose of them in any manner we see fit without compensation to you. Any monies earned by us during such disposal will be kept by us as our fees for arranging such disposal. If the costs of the disposal exceed the monies recovered by us during the disposal of items then you agree to reimburse us for the difference.”
6. What is people’s opinion on the following clause? I don’t want the Tenant forwarding our agreement onto other people, or discussing how much rent they pay with others: 
   1. “The Tenant agrees to NOT disclose any content of the Agreement to non-statutory third parties, except when seeking legal counsel. Upon entering the Agreement, the Tenant agrees that they have NOT disclosed the content of the Agreement to non-statutory third parties.” 
7. Again, in light of the ‘Tenant Fees Act’, what is people’s opinion on the following clause?
   1. “The Tenant will pay to the Landlord, on a full indemnity basis, all costs and expenses awarded by the Court or incurred by the Landlord for the following:
      1. a.       Recovering or attempting to recover any Rent or other monies owed to the Landlord in accordance with this agreement
      2. b.       The enforcement of any obligation of the Tenant under this Agreement
      3. c.       The service of any notice relating to any breach of this Agreement whether or not court proceedings are brought 
      4. d.       Recovering possession of the Property including possession proceedings regardless of any default by the Tenant”
8. I will also be consulting a solicitor to check the final draft of my agreement. I am budgeting about £300-400 for that (not having researched yet how much it costs to get a good one). Does that sound reasonable? The agreement is about 20-25 pages long including attachments such as ‘house rules’, DPS, inventory, etc. 

Thanks

[fionaf]

You are over complicating this. A 25 page agreement for a lodger sounds too much. I never expected my lodgers to clean common areas except after themselves when they used a shower or cooked. Tenant Fees Act doesn’t preclude legal fees but see that mostly to protect those with a STA and as a live in landlord you are highly unlikely to need to go to court as you have much more control over eviction than under a STA. Invest most of your energy in picking the right person. 

[Melboy]

I agree with Fionaf.    You have far more control over a person living with you as a live in landlord. As always picking the right person to live with you under a shared roof is the key here for you.

[Richlist]

Yes I agree, you are making it far more complicated than it needs to be.

You are taking in a lodger. Lodgers have few rights. So you really only need to concern yourself with :

* Does the applicant meet my criteria ?

* Set the rent, can they afford it, will they pay on time ?

* Will they keep the place clean & tidy ?

Nothing else really matters.

[ThePancakeMan]

12 hours ago, Richlist said:

Yes I agree, you are making it far more complicated than it needs to be.

You are taking in a lodger. Lodgers have few rights. So you really only need to concern yourself with :

* Does the applicant meet my criteria ?

* Set the rent, can they afford it, will they pay on time ?

* Will they keep the place clean & tidy ?

Nothing else really matters.

I agree with what you and others have said, and that would have been my original intention. 

But the leasehold requires anyone paying me rent to be a Tenant, for a contractual period of at least 3 months. Even that is a stretch according to the wording of the lease, but I got permission in writing from the Freeholder nonetheless. I believe the idea is that they don't want the apartment block turned into a B&B, with a high turnover of occupants & potential problems arising from that. Which I actually agree with. It's a nice & quiet community. Much like the Freeholder, I'd like to keep it that way. It's a matter of building security as well. 

I hope that what I'm doing makes more sense with the context provided now. I've also had 1 or 2 bad experiences already, and prefer things to be demonstrably in writing. Not to fleece or corner anyone, but the opposite. And in plain English. Upon a better tenant/landlord relationship developing I can waive those details & be less pedantic, but otherwise not, and would rather not have people try to blame me retrospectively for not spelling out certain things. 

[Richlist]

So all you need is a contract. You already have one of those. Find a suitable tenant, get it signed, Job done. 

I wouldn't bother with anything else contained in your original post.