Joint tenants or single tenant plus lodger?

The way I would go about this is as follows:-

1) buy the property in my name.

2) rent it to the child on a standard AST.

3) agree to the ” sub let ” and place it on the rent a room scheme for tax break.

4) pay any profit into my pension fund.

5) have a life policy in place to cover B2L and deposit in place But written in trust.

6) SIT DOWN IN THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY AND WONDER WHY THE DIDLY-SQUAT YOU HAD KIDS IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!

Thanks for all the advice. My daughter has finished university and has been living at home for two years while she tries to establish her career. She probably wants to move to London in the next year or so, so does not want to own a house yet. My husband and I are buying the apartment for investment and have offered to rent it to her at cost. While she has it we do not expect any net income from it but when she moves on we will rent it to tenants at the normal market rate. We were upfront about all this with our BTL mortgage lender – NatWest – and they are fine about it.

So thanks again for all the advice. I think we will go with the sole tenant plus lodger option for our first foray into buy to let.

Reply to the comment left by “Corinne Walsham” at “17/08/2013 – 14:21”:

Hi Corinne

It will not be legally possible for you to have your daughter’s friend as your lodger.
This is because you are not a resident landlord.
If the friend has a legal relationship with you, it will be as a formal tenant, whatever you both call it.

However, it will be possible (with your permission) for the friend to let from your daughter.
This would mean that your daughter is sub letting.
Your daughter will of course have your permission to sublet, thus she is not breaking the law.

Your daughter would thus become a landlord herself.
As a resident landlord, your daughter is free to evict the friend with reasonable notice and without any court orders.
If your daughter makes any agreement (written or not) with her friend, she is then obliged by law to stick to that agreement.
Hence it may be useful for your daughter to outline to her friend that the arrangement is one of resident landlord and lodger.
It may also be useful for the friend to accept that in writing, before moving in.

I’m in my last year of university myself, as a mature student, and wish her all the best.