Being a Live In Landlord: 8 Top Tips

In the current housing climate, live-in landlord home setups are popular. However, some advisories come with being a live-in landlord as you will be renting out a room whilst you also reside there. Here are some things to consider and be aware of if you are considering being a live-in landlord.

1. Have a contract in place

To ensure you and your tenant are on the same page, a signed contract from both of you will help prevent any confusion or disagreements in the living arrangement. Contracts are also a good opportunity to discuss anything listed in the agreement that your tenant may want to query or discuss further before signing. Contracts are a good way of filtering out serious tenants from those who are not serious. You can find several contract lodgers agreement templates online with clauses to guide you on how to write up the contract too. 

2. Respect your tenant’s personal space

Understandably when you are living in your property, you want to be completely free to do what you want with it. But it can be easy to get carried away and forget that you have a tenant there who is also paying rent. Try to be mindful of this and allow your tenant personal space and privacy in your property. Allow them some flexibility in the living arrangement. This will help ensure you have a longer-term tenant who wants to stay on when the contract renewal date comes.

3. Make sure you get the right mortgage for being a live-in landlord

Buy-to-let mortgages are well known when you rent your property out without you living there. But when you are living in the property yourself alongside your tenant, this slightly changes. So for live in landlords, residential mortgages are fine as long as your lender permits it in their standard terms or states that they just need to be made aware that you will be renting a room. Ensure you have the right mortgage type before being a live-in landlord.

4. Consider Rent Collection Options

When you’ve picked the right lodger you want to live with you as a landlord, you’ll need to consider what method you’d prefer to receive rent. Nowadays most payment transfers are virtual through bank transfer standing order or PayPal for example. But as you’ll be living with your lodger you have the added benefit and ease for perhaps asking them to pay rent in cash. Also, consider setting an agreed date each month to receive rent. As you will be living with them, hopefully, there will be no delays in receiving rent on time. 

5. Update your insurance

Before you allow any tenant to live on your property, ensure you have all the correct insurance in place and have updated it to make them aware of the people living in the home. Home insurance and content insurance are popular essentials. This will help protect both you and your tenant in an unexpected event where you’ll need to repair or perform home maintenance. 

6. Give your tenant a bedroom key

To help make your tenant feel safe in the home they will be living in with you, make sure that you offer them a key, not only to the front door of the property but also to their own personal bedroom. This can help make them feel secure that even whilst they are away from the property, there is some protection over their room and belongings. This will also help protect you as a landlord from any disputes of things going missing if you give them the key as an option to protect their belongings.

7. Consider a guest arrangement

Naturally, tenants will want to be able to invite friends and family over from time to time. If this is okay with you, just make sure you set boundaries around the arrangements of how and when this will happen. Would you be okay with them having overnight stays at your property? How many visitors would you be comfortable with at one time? These are all key things to consider before you accept a tenant to live with you and clarify before being a live-in landlord.

8. Security cameras

To ensure you’re on top of who is going in and out of your home, it’s helpful to have a security camera on the outside surroundings of your home. A video doorbell or camera that oversees your front and back doors can be very helpful to you feeling secure that your tenants and any visitors are respecting your house rules when they come and go. It also gives your tenant and you an extra sense of protection as security cameras can act as a deterrent for burglars.

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