renting a three bed house as 3 single rooms with one family member living in

[sean46mc]

Good evening all.

Not sure if im in the right place, im from the uk,

Anyway, this is what i would like some help with,

My girlfriend lives with me now and has a 3 bedroom house, with her son occupying 1 bedroom

My gf no longer lives there, but we still pay the mortage and keep the phone going and internet so we have contact

with her son.

What we would like to do is rent the property out as 3 single bedrooms, with shared kitchen bathroom, and the likes

the part we are not sure on, is we can rent 2 rooms out and the resident, will be claiming housing benefit, which is not

a problem.

the thrird room is occupied by her son, can he claim housing benefit for that room as he is a family member

but his mother no longer lives at the property, his age incase u ask is 26, he is on job seekers allowance.

please ask anyquestions u like, or give us some advice, as we cant afford to keep 2 places going and do want to put her son

on the streets, also, she owns her own house the one we intend to rent, our stumbling block we not sure of

is can her son claim housing for his room, which we expect to set at 65.00 per room, with phone and internet.

the phone and internet has limt restrictions,

thanks

sean

[Grampa]

The council do pay HB to tenants who are related to the landlord but they ask a lot more questions and make you jump through a few more hoops. This is to make sure it is a genuine tenancy and you have to make it clear to the council that you will evict him if the rent isn't paid and the rent is the going rate.

If you can get over that hurdle you have a choice of just putting him on a assured shorthold tenancy with the permission to sublet and any others who move in as lodgers who pay your son. The advantage of that will mean you can get them out quicker as lodgers have a lot less rights than tenants on a AST. The downside to this situation is any income from the lodgers will effect his benefit entitlement (if he declares it) even though he will pass the lodgers rent onto you.

You could put all three people on individual AST'S but then the property becomes a HMO and comes under the HMO rules and regs which means you have to have hardwired smoke alarms, electrical cert and i think a number warning notices in the communal areas. It also means if the council tax isn't paid a HMO landlord can be chased for any council tax not paid. (So increase the rent proportionally and pay it yourself) If a HMO isn't registered correctly you will also not be able to serve a section 21.

One final thought is to speak to the council first (you dont have to give your name or any details at this stage) about you son renting the property in full but having the right to have lodgers to offset the large rent I am sure the council do cover that situation.

Note: I am sure there are a lot of other rules & regs for HMO's I just listed some of them.

[Carryon Regardless]

My first concern is of you turning the property into a DSS hostel, but that is your choice.

The son, as a relative of the owner is unlikely to get HB, but it is a possible, claim to find out.

House share isn't a problem, again your choice.

However if your gf was able to demonstrate her use of the property as her residence then the 'shared' situation with the owner would mean the tenant/s have very few rights if / when things go wrong.

No rent paid, which is common with HB claimants, means they don't live there any more, no complicated, expensive repossession proceedings.

[sean46mc]

all tenants would have full tenacncy agreement

they would have an assured shorthold agreement of six months

sean

[sean46mc]

fist of all its not a dss hosrel, its an idea, that we seeking to help pay cost's

or we sell the house off leaving gf son homeless

we are looking to do whats right in the law

sean

[Grampa]

all tenants would have full tenacncy agreement

they would have an assured shorthold agreement of six months

sean

Then it will be a HMO. Speak to your local council and ask to speak to the HMO officer to find out what you need to do to comply. Big fine if you dont.

[Carryon Regardless]

I used future tense regarding the Hosrel.

The suggestions you have are within the law, with thought to better advantage for you (or gf).

If I might humbly suggest, as part of the consideration of your idea a good read of landlords experiences with HB claimants may have benefit.

Weighing the pros and cons of possible returns and adverse situations, and your own ability to deal with them, within the law, may be a surprise or maybe not.

It is you asking for pointers though.

[sean46mc]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the great comments, im sorry about the youth hostel bit, i didnt explain things to well in a earlier post, i was working

and rushed my posts abit,

we want to keep son in law in the property, for one its his home, but he only ever spends time in his bedroom, he is 30 years old and

with that, can keep an eye on the property as well for us, which left 2 spare rooms.

we are paying well my gf is paying £510 a month mortgage, and insurances on the property, so its important to us to keep a roof over

my my partners son's head, the paying for two properties my own and her's has become a struggle, we dont want to sell, but hope it will either

pay for itself by renting, or pay part of the cost by renting.

The property is in excellant condition and well maitained, with all the mod cons, central heating, good sized kitchen, bathroom shower

smoke alarms fitted, plus wireless internet, washing machine and all the usual stuff.

A point was raised about lodgers, which was something we had not considered, and was a very viable solution to what we were looking for

is there any pointers or advice you could give on this,

what we need

regulations

what our responsibilties would have to be

anything like that, as i say its new to us

the age range we would be letting a room to would be 30 plus,

and again, thanks for some great advice. i would highly recomend this forum to anyone who is looking in

sign up

regards

sean

[Carryon Regardless]

Gaining permission from you mortgage company to do as you envisage may be a problem.

'Rent a room' is generally considered acceptable and has an attractive tax free benefit.

I have less knowledge on the criteria for what constitutes HMO as I would have no interest to go through the hoops required to meet legislation.

When you understand the requirements you may well find it daunting also.

If you were to consider professionals you would be reducing your risk.

[sean46mc]

Gaining permission from you mortgage company to do as you envisage may be a problem.

'Rent a room' is generally considered acceptable and has an attractive tax free benefit.

I have less knowledge on the criteria for what constitutes HMO as I would have no interest to go through the hoops required to meet legislation.

When you understand the requirements you may well find it daunting also.

If you were to consider professionals you would be reducing your risk.

Hi guys,

first of all thanks for the great info, which we have mulled over, but still at a loss of the best coarse of action.

my partners son is living at said address, on job seekers, we are paying mortgage and the like, he pays his bit of boerd.

we have given a few options some consideration,

1 sell property

2 rent propety out, and a house (means moving son in law out)

3 rent rooms out, which would keep son inlaw in property, with roof over his head, but i expect there

will be song and dance from housing about tthat so we loose cost of room.

4th point, he would be happy to move into place of his own, ie bedsit or flat, is that any help he can get to relocate

as we dont have the money to give him to relocate, but if push come to shove we would loan money.

5. we find money set him up in a place and use a lettings agent, to deal with it all, advise us and carry

any work that needs to be done under the law.

at the minute we are at a loss, and struggling to pay for 2 places, we dont want to sell, but make it pay for itself

what do u guys thinks is best coarse of action for us.

thanks

[Carryon Regardless]

Considering your comments and from what looks to be your preferences.

Be very careful of who but rent to a family situation, working and the most stable, honest living situation you can realistically expect for the area / property.

The son (young adult) will one day have cause to create his own future, of course assistance is always useful. Having been there with a stepson I found I had limits as to my responsibility but others affairs aren't my own.

The state will of course contribute more to an independent let, next year there are new rules due to reduce assistance for the younger. Now there are grants and assistance toward furniture, deposits and probably more. If you are good g'tors on paper a LL may find him to be an attractive proposition for a rental.

Renting rooms is something I haven't experienced but would envisage in house disagreements, transient tenancies and fly by night lost rents as very possible.

Renting houses isn't much better at times but by reducing the risks it may be. Read here and other forums as others bad situations can forewarn.

Of course the extra conditions / penalties that may be imposed by the lender may well change the overall view.

[sean46mc]

Hi again.

we have been given another idea of renting the place as a house share, or renting the rooms out as

room 1

room 2

room 3.

also as a house share,

what i would like to know, is how the bills would be paid,

lets say house share, would i incorporate the gas, elc, and council tax in with rent.

should i let by room, again, how would the bills be split, and council tax

cheers

sean

[Richlist]

In this scenario you will almost definitely be classified as an HMO (House in Multiple Occupation). This requires you to meet lots of extra rules and regulations. Contact your local Council who will have someone dealing with HMO's and will probably be able to provide you with a booklet of their requirements.

With HMO's I believe that normally bills are paid by the landlord.

[cathyr]

if you rent the 3 rooms to unrelated people you are an HMO, but not a LICENSABLE HMO. it means less rules and regulations, but if you talk to you council make sure you state that you are talking about 3 sharers in a 1/2 storey house, not 4+ in a 3 or more storey house. In the latter case you have to pay to get a licence, big fines if you don't comply. an ordinary HMO is less onerous.