Should the new person renting be a Tenant or Lodger?
My husband and I are about to buy a 2 bedroom flat for our daughter who will use the living room as a bedroom, the small bedroom will be used by us when we visit the city from time to time and we propose to rent out the other big bedroom. 
We have experience of renting properties and usually choose excellent tenants. However, in the circumstances of a shared flat if something went wrong it would be easier to ask the renter to leave if she was a Lodger. However, as this is not our main home but a place where we will visit and stay at times, technically can she be a lodger?
Could we rent the flat to our daughter and let her take the new person in as her lodger but all the rent received would be given directly to us. The annual rent would be in excess of the government’s Rent a Room Scheme so if our daughter received the rent would she be liable for tax even though she would pay it all over to us along with the smaller rent she would pay us.(She will be a poor student for the next couple of years!)
The other option is to rent the room as an AST and hope we make a good choice of renter!
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks a lot.
Marie
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Member Since September 2013 - Comments: 333
1:03 PM, 17th February 2014, About 12 years ago
Reply to the comment left by “Marie ” at “17/02/2014 – 12:16“:
Marie, Mandy,
I don’t want to make presumptions about what the council will say under your Marie’s daughter’s circumstances. But you, Marie, really do need to get a clear answer from the Council and the name of the person who has given it.
I agree it gets complicated when there is a change of circumstances.
They might say that your daughter will have to pay full Council Tax so it covers all eventualities. In other words apply a blanket rule.
They might say that because the lodger has no rights to stay at the property permanently in the long term, it does not affect your daughter’s exemption.
The answer might differ from one Local Authority to another.
Just some food for thought.