Lodger Landlord 21 days of tips – the first week

Tessa's 21 tips for Lodger LandlordsThe first week of tips for Lodger Landlords have now been published on my Lodger Landlord web-site.  The daily topics are as follows (the headings are links which will take you to the posts):

Day 1 – What is a lodger?
This looks at whether there is a legal definition of a lodger and gives advice on avoiding creating a tenancy.  There are some interesting comments on this tip.

Day 2 – Have you got permission to take in a Lodger?
This looks at the various permissions necessary before you can rent out a room in your home.

Day 3 – Have you got proper insurance?
People don’t always realise that taking in a lodger can invalidate your insurance.  This tip looks at how to avoid this.

Day 4 – Is your property in a proper condition?
Altough lodger landlords are not bound by the landlords repairing covenants as set out in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, this does not mean that they have no obligations at all …

Day 5 – Have your gas appliances been tested for safety?
Lodger landlords are bound by the gas regulations, and this tip sets out what needs doing and also has some safety advice

Day 6 – Do you have the right furniture and furnishings?
This tip looks at getting the room ready for your lodger, and discusses your legal obligations

Day 7 – Will taking in a lodger turn your property into an HMO?
Something very much to be avoided if at all possible,  this tip explains how

The daily tips continue on Monday 8 February with a post on tax and council tax.  Please do visit (www.lodgerlandlord.co.uk), and if you want to leave any comments on any of the posts, we would love to hear from you …


Back to top
>> Follow this link to read our comments policy

Foxtons withdraws appeal

Two property web-sites have been reporting that Foxtons have withdrawn their appeal to the Court of Appeal against the High Court decision against them last year.  You will find a summary (as at October 2009) of my previous posts on the OFT v. Foxtons case  here.
The two articles that I have seen are on the PainSmith Blog and [...]

Read the full article »

Government makes new announcements on the Private Rented Sector

There has been a positive flurry of tweets and emails crossing my computer screen today, preceding and then following, the announcement from the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Dept. about their plans for the Private Rented Sector.
You can read the news item here, and the report itself can be downloaded from here.
This follows on from [...]

Read the full article »

Tenancy Deposits – Lettings Today get answers from the CLG

There is a very interesting post over on the Estate Agent Today news web-site.
It seems that back in November 2009 they asked a number of questions of the Communities and Local Government (CLG) department (whose remit covers the tenancy deposit scheme) about the workings of the scheme. After two reminders and three months later, the [...]

Read the full article »

Lodger Landlords 21 days series – Day 1 – What is a lodger?

What is a lodger? “Thats a silly question” you will probably say, “Everyone knows what a lodger is!”. Someone who lodges. Indeed the free online dictionary defines it as ‘One that lodges, especially one who rents and lives in a furnished room’. So that clear. Or is it?
As a lawyer [...]

Read the full article »

HMO planning law changes causes consternation among landlords

HMO landlords be warned – the government has announced that the law is to be changed from 6 April, introducing a new planning category for HMOs (the definition to be based on that set out in the Housing Act 2004):
we have decided to amend the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) order 1987 as amended [...]

Read the full article »

Fast Trak to the rescue for social housing tenants

An interesting article in the January / February issue of Residential Property Investor looks at Fast Trak, a new company tackling the problems of too many social housing tenants, not enough social housing to put them in, and not enough private landlords willing to take a chance on them.
There are a myriad reasons why private [...]

Read the full article »

The Landlord Law Blog from Tessa Shepperson

Tessa is an English solicitor who specialises in residential landlord and tenant law.

Legal Services

Tessa's legal services are provided via her online service Landlord Law which can be found at www.landlordlaw.co.uk. This service is provided as part of Tessa's legal practice TJ Shepperson, which is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority No 78852.

Note that any readers wishing to instruct Tessa professionally to do legal work, should do this via the Landlord Law service. Tessa's one-to-one legal work is now limited to the fixed fee services provided exclusively to Landlord Law annual members.

Disclaimer

The purpose of this blog is to provide information, comment and discussion. Although Tessa may from time to time, give helpful comments to readers' questions, these can only be based on the information given by the reader in his or her comment, which may not contain all material facts. Any comments or suggestions provided by Tessa should not therefore be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice from a qualified lawyer regarding any actual legal issue or dispute.

Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice or perceived as creating a solicitor-client relationship.

Acknowledgments

This blog was created by Gill Bishop using the Headway theme. The photos of Tessa were taken by photographer Ryan Watts. Most of the other photographs on the site were taken by Tessa.

Back to top

blogarama - the blog directory Local Directory for Norwich, Norfolk Real Estate Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory BritBlog British Blogs Blog directory Blog Search Engine