Boyfriend staying over in owner occupied house, rent a room scheme

Sarahon

Dear all,


I am renting a self-contained flat under the "rent a room" scheme: the landlord lives in the ground floor of the house and I live on the top floor. In our contract, it says that I'm not entitled to have more than one person (me) living in the house, but a visitor may stay on a short visit.

My boyfriend lives far away and once or twice a week he spends the night in my place and leaves early in the morning. No parties/noise/drinking involved. He arrives at 10pm and leaves at 7am in the next day.

I have been getting very nasty looks from the landlord every time my boyfriend comes in or leaves the house.

What is going on here? Am I breaking any clause of the deal? Does he have any right to ask me to leave because of this? Is it unreasonable to have your bf spend a night at your "self-contained flat"?


I would really appreciate your opinion.

Thank you very much.

GerardKeating

Sarahon wrote: »

Dear all,



I am renting a self-contained flat under the "rent a room" scheme: the landlord lives in the ground floor of the house and I live on the top floor. In our contract, it says that I'm not entitled to have more than one person (me) living in the house, but that occasional visitors in a short stay are allowed.

My boyfriend lives far away and once or twice a week he spends the night in my place and leaves early in the morning. No parties/noise/drinking involved.



I have been getting very nasty looks from the landlord every time my boyfriend comes in or leaves the house.

What is going on here? Am I breaking any clause of the deal? Does he have any right to ask me to leave because of this? Is it unreasonable to have your bf spend a night at your "self-contained flat"?


I would really appreciate your opinion.

Thank you very much.

Depends on the Landlords understanding of "occasional", one or twice a week or more than "occasional" imho...

ricman

if theres more than 1 tenant there landlord has to pay tax,it depends on how easy going he is.rent a room is tax free up to x amount.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

GerardKeating wrote: »

Depends on the Landlords understanding of "occasional", one or twice a week or more than "occasional" imho...

It's pretty obvious that the OPs other half is not staying there for very long. It's obvious that he has another place to live. OP, your landlord is an asshat if he/she has a problem with it. Next time you get a dirty look ask him/her what the problem is.

Sarahon

Hi, thank you very much for your reply.

I added up more details to it. The contract actually doesnt say occasional, that was my adding, sorry. It says "visitors may stay in a short visit".

I just don't get it why it could be a problem, if he literally just spends the night there - it's not like he's using the house appliances/adding to bills or anything.

Besides, I go to his place fri till monday (leaving the house empty), was never late in rent, take care of the house, work full time everyday... It's like, am I such a bad tenant because of him? To the point that landlord wud prefer kicking me out so no one would spend 8h extra hours in his property per week?

Thanks for your input

ricman

You sound like the perfect tenant ,hes lucky to have you as a tenant.
I see no point in worrying about it.IF landlord is annoyed he,ll bring up the subject.

Sand Wedge

If it is a self contained flat that he is renting to you, i don't think that qualifies for the rent a room scheme!

mylittlepony

Maybe he is just plain jealous.
You sound like the perfect tenant, he should be very grateful.
You are not even there for a few days when you stay over your boyf place.
And he stay with you just once a week.Whats the big deal??

I live at home and stay over my boyfriend's flat up to three nights in a row, never had a problem with landlord.

Next time he pull a face, ask him whats his problem?
You have a right to know and put a stop to his attidude.

jelly&icecream

ricman wrote: »

if theres more than 1 tenant there landlord has to pay tax,it depends on how easy going he is.rent a room is tax free up to x amount.

Its the amount of rent that is the limit (10k a year). The number of tenants is nothing to do with it.

Sand Wedge wrote:

If it is a self contained flat that he is renting to you, i don't think that qualifies for the rent a room scheme!

I thought this too but it seems if its in the same building you can (see linky)

You landlord sounds like a bit of an ass and is being completely unreasonable.
Unless ye are having incredibly noisy sex or something I don't see why he/she'd have a problem with the situation! Has this person seemed reasonable when you've previously interacted with them? If so then explain what the situation is. Maybe they think that your boyfriend is there most nights in which case they would have grounds to be pissed off.

However I don't think theres a lot you can do here bar move out if your landlord starts pushing you on this. You don't have a huge amount of rights in this situation.

the_syco

Sarahon wrote: »

I have been getting very nasty looks from the landlord every time my boyfriend comes in or leaves the house.

He could be an old fashioned biddy who doesn't like women and men being together before marriage?

jimmycrackcorm

I'd simply ignore the landlord. If he has a problem then let himm bring it up and day that you don't mind moving out to somewhere else where you can have a normal life. Is not the 1950's

Sarahon

Dear All,

Thank you so much for your replies, help and input!

I guess you are right, it might well be because my landlord is an elderly person and probably old-fashioned.

I thought about explaining to him in a nice way that my bf stays over because the drive home is so long, etc, but I guess as u suggested, I'll just wait till he brings it up. Fingers crossed it won't be a big issue!

Thanks a million again!

Duckjob

Sarahon wrote: »

Dear All,

Thank you so much for your replies, help and input!

I guess you are right, it might well be because my landlord is an elderly person and probably old-fashioned.

I thought about explaining to him in a nice way that my bf stays over because the drive home is so long, etc, but I guess as u suggested, I'll just wait till he brings it up. Fingers crossed it won't be a big issue!

Thanks a million again!

If the LL has a concern relating to the impact on rent-a-room and his tax status, then thats fair enough to listen and hear what he has to say. Would be worth your while researching the legislation in this area in advance, to be forearmed with info.

Don't go down the road of trying to justify your lifestyle to him. He's not your dad, and elderly or not, it's none of his business.

mathie

OP if you haven't explained to the landlord then you should just to clear the air.
Explain that it's once or twice a week and that no appliances etc are being used.

I know from personal experience where the landlord is coming from.
I'd a girl rent a room and her boyfriend was over a few nights a week.
I eventually found out the guy we staying in the house during the day with the heat on. As it was an old house the heating bills were astronomical and we'd previously agreed to split them.

It may be crossed wires in that your landlord think its more than just occasional.

conorhal

To be honest, you should have mentioned the situation to your landlord up front the way you explained it here.
When people don't say anything, often it's because they are hiding something. I had a flatmate that wanted to let 'a friend' coming back from abroad stay for a bit while looking for a flat.
Now what didn't get mentioned was, the 'friend' was his girlfriend and 'a bit' turned out to be three months.
She would have gone earlier except the two of them had done a deal behind my back with the other flat-mate who had decided to move out (he had told them but not me), so she hung about like a bad smell and dived straight into his room the second he gave notice.

Casual arrangements have a habit of evolving, and unspecified arrangements will breed a suspicion that you might be about to pull a fast one, so just go talk to the guy and clear the air, had you been up front in the first place I doubt he would have had a problem with it as I don't see that it infringes your rental agreement

ricman

SHE goes to his place friday to monday ,in my opinion she,s the perfect tenant .IF the landlord is annoyed he,ll bring it up.HE s probably abit oldfashioned in his views .

conorhal

mathie wrote: »

OP if you haven't explained to the landlord then you should just to clear the air.
Explain that it's once or twice a week and that no appliances etc are being used.

I know from personal experience where the landlord is coming from.
I'd a girl rent a room and her boyfriend was over a few nights a week.
I eventually found out the guy we staying in the house during the day with the heat on. As it was an old house the heating bills were astronomical and we'd previously agreed to split them.

That's why I operate a basic policy with other flatmates, 'if you're not there, then nether is your guest'. Some people really take the piss, the last time I was showing a room in the flat I share to prospective flatmates I actually had one person say "jeez that's a lovely room, I won't be always be here at the weekend but it'll be great for friends and family if they come up to Dublin for the day or come up for the match!"
I was just gobsmacked, like I was going to be willing to rent with sombody that would be giving the keys to a parade of complete strangers to party and crash there when he wasn't using the room.