Tenancy Restrictions Imposed by Mortgagor

I agree with Mick Roberts – yes, sharing with, and heaven help us, potentially much more trouble, actually renting a room in a friend’s home, can be a recipe for disaster! People who house share often fail to carry out due diligence as to whether the person is someone compatible with them, and into their background – this is when they don’t know them first. With friends, although the background check doesn’t apply, they often feel it’s unnecessary to agree on house rules first – with disastrous results! I had this experience when I rented a room from a friend, and when I let a room to a friend in the past – I’ve also heard firsthand accounts from other friends as to how and why letting a room to a friend went pear shaped. Google “friend lodger” if you want to explore this further.
However, having said this, if you have two people who want to rent a home together, how (in a secular, Western society) are you supposed to fully establish the nature of their relationship if you don’t know them? Even if it was acceptable to delve into people’s personal relationships, they can still lie. When I worked for the Department of Work and Pensions, believe me, the fraud investigation team were kept pretty busy trying to determine who was and who wasn’t a couple (though that’s another story!).

I drop meself right in it, when I ask if she’s pregnant (cause she’s put on some weight since the last time I’ve saw her), & she replies ‘No, why?’ How stupid I feel. I han’t done that for about 5 years now though, I always think that one through first.

Speaking as an agent with many hundreds of properties under management I can say that yes, sharers do sometimes fall out, or live lifestyles that make them something of a liability from a landlord’s point of view.

Then again, plenty of sharers are sensible responsible people, and they usually come with the added benefit of having two independent incomes.

Meanwhile a happily settled family can make great tenants. Equally they can split up, leaving you with a single Mum on state benefits as a tenant – a single Mum who may prove to be responsible and reliable, or alternatively could just stop paying the rent and refuse to go.

From experience, statistically speaking, gay men tend to be the best tenants of all.

Reply to the comment left by “Steve From Leicester” at “17/04/2014 – 10:53“:

we have gay guy tenants who are the best tenants ever. we mainly rent to sharers and they all seem to get along and keep the property reasonable. however, we do find foreign sharers are usually better at this than homegrown!

Don’t know if this helps but my agent allows sharers with the proviso that if one gives notice then they do so for all and the others have to make a new arrangement. Three sharers in a 3 bed flat is not an HMO. Maybe Coventry feels that one household is less risk.

I struggle to understand this prejudice amongst lenders against HMOS, whether students sharers or working people. In my experience the landlord’s income is more consistent due to the lack of voids – one person moves out or loses their job but three or four remain and are still paying the rent – whereas my biggest losses, and hence largest risk of mortgage default, has been with rogue single-family tenants where either the relationship breaks down or the main wage earner loses their job.

The underwriters presumably live in the real world. Where are they getting their negative data regarding HMOs?