Taking in a lodger

All my life I have lived with others, from being a student to sharing houses all over the country as a contractor, I didn't think it would be too bad taking in a lodger after we bought our own house. And in reality it hasn't been - its been interesting though...

First problem is that in the months after purchasing the house, we have filled it - with all of our own stuff, it seems that if you have more space you expand! And so the second room became an office, a stuff room and a dressing room all in a very short period.

The finances

We don't have too much to worry too much about tax, as living out of London we can't get too much for our spare room - especially as its a single, so we are happy take less than £354 a month which keeps us within the "Rent a Room" scheme (you can earn through renting out a room upto 4,250 a year before tax is needed to be paid).

Logisitics

Getting beds, and wardrobes we picked them up from IKEA which did involve a bit of fighting through the crowds... but the prices overall weren't too bad and it didn't look too bad...

Advertising

That was the easy part http://UK.easyRoomMate.com made that part easier ... although I think if we hadn't been lucky we would probably have advertised in the local paper too!

All in all - its going ok, the gentleman we have living in our room is ok - relatively easy going but I would like my office back but An extra £4000 a year is going to help us cover a large part of the mortgage, do some bits around the house, give us a "buffer" or pay for a good holiday so it will hopefully be worth it ...