Renting Out Your Spare Room? Here’s Why Your Lodger Must Pay A Deposit

Back in April I moved into my spare room and handed the keys to my old bedroom over to a lodger. Given my income had plummeted since I was made redundant last summer, I figured this would be a smart way to make some money, do fewer hours at the supermarket, and free up time to focus on writing.

Overall, it’s been worthwhile. My lodger is a key worker and usually works office hours, meaning she’s not around much in the day. I try to stick to evening shifts as much as possible so that when she is home, she has the place to herself. Thanks to our very different schedules, we don’t get under each other’s feet. She’s not really noisy, she doesn’t keep me awake at night and we both have a similar standards of tidiness and cleanliness. All in all, I’ve struck lucky.

But things haven’t been 100% smooth sailing and I’ve learned some lessons over the last few months that I’ll be able to carry forward in life.

The number one lesson that I’m going to share with you today is this: take a deposit from your lodger and protect it under a tenancy deposit scheme.

In early May, I refunded my lodger’s deposit. After viewing the flat back in February, she quickly offered to take the room on one condition: I protect her deposit in a tenancy deposit scheme. Sure thing, I said. I’m an honest person and had no intention to keep her deposit unfairly, so it was no skin off my nose to get a third party involved in the event of a discrepancy.

There’s just one problem… a few weeks went by and I’d forgotten to protect the deposit as promised. It was an honest mistake.

When I eventually sat down to protect it under an official scheme, I learned that landlords have to protect a tenant’s deposit within 30 days of receiving it. Failure to do so means they have to return it.

Technically, a lodger’s deposit doesn’t have to be protected at all and I was well within my rights to keep hold of it myself. But I felt this would be unfair given how concerned she was about getting ripped off to begin with.

So, I refunded the deposit. I foolishly told myself she’d be unlikely to cause much damage. I couldn’t imagine her going on a rampage and trashing everything. I figured there was a risk of accidental damage such as a broken lamp or spillage on the carpet but since the flat’s not immaculate anyway, it probably wouldn’t be the end of the world.

But then the problems began…

Oil on the driveway

I looked out my window one morning and saw dark splodges on my driveway where my lodger parks her car. I have two car parking spaces. One is used exclusively by her and the other is used by any visitors whether that’s my boyfriend, parents or mates. Further inspection suggested that her car had been dripping oil onto my driveway, causing damage to the brickwork. When I mentioned the damage to her, she thankfully didn’t get defensive or deny her car was to blame. Instead she admitted that she’d been having various issues with her car for ages and would look into either getting it repaired or buying a new one.

A few weeks have gone by and her car still seems to be leaking oil onto my driveway. It’s not the end of the world but the stains are really ugly and it’s frustrating that I’ll have to get it professionally fixed eventually.

The burned window frame

Next, my lodger managed to burn the window frame in her bedroom. When she first moved in, I noticed she kept a magnifying mirror on her windowsill and the worrier in me immediately started panicking that she’d burn my flat down. To be on the safe side, I reluctantly warned her how dangerous magnifying mirrors can be when left in the sun. She apologised and promised not to leave it there again.

Minutes after this conversation took place, my boyfriend picked me up to drive me to work. I told him about the mirror and how I’d awkwardly asked her to remove it and we laughed at how much of a worrier I was. “Do you think I’m being a bit controlling?” I asked. “She’s only been here a few days and already I’m being a nag.”

In the weeks that followed I sometimes saw the mirror on her windowsill when walking past the flat. When I eventually checked the window myself, it was too late. Damage had been done.

When she got home from work I calmly confronted her about the damage and she offered to pay for it. My mum recommended a window guy who would be able to fix it and I got in touch with him for a quote. He said he’s only working on emergencies at the moment, as opposed to cosmetic damage. Given the circumstances, I obviously think that’s fair enough and wouldn’t expect him to come out unless he was in need of the work. I told him I’ll get in touch again once things have calmed down to book him in. I’ve got my fingers crossed that it doesn’t work out too expensive to fix because I’m not sure how much my lodger is willing to pay exactly.

I’ve not written this post to moan about my lodger. After all, I’ve caused silly damages myself such as spilling Koppaberg on my cream armchair seconds after thinking “I probably shouldn’t leave the bottle there because it will fall over” and melting a pair of gym leggings onto my electric heater that has ‘do not cover’ written on it.

Instead, I’ve written this to emphasise that when you rent a room out to a lodger, there’s a risk that potentially-expensive damages will occur that you’d be well within your rights to take out of their deposit. Not charging a deposit may seem like the right thing to do, especially if you’re trying to do the right thing by your lodger, but it could prove costly in the long run.

Although I initially told myself I wouldn’t charge her for accidental damage, I realise now that there are some accidents that are the result of sheer carelessness and a lack of respect for another person’s property. Thankfully, I haven’t seen the mirror on the windowsill since then.