Cut your costs by sharing your home

If you currently live alone in your rental property and there’s space for another person, you could make significant savings on your living costs by having a partner or friend move in. Just some of the financial benefits:

• Even if the landlord raises the rent slightly to account for the extra wear and tear on the property, you’ll only have to contribute half.
• Although you’ll lose the 25% single person’s allowance on your council tax bill, you’ll only be paying 50% of the full charge, rather than 75%.
• Two occupants will result in slightly higher utility bills but, again, your share is half.
• You’ll probably save money on groceries, as you’re more likely to be able to take advantage of multi-buys in the supermarket, and there’s often less wastage when cooking for more than one person.
• Your travel costs might reduce, as you can share car and/or taxi costs.

And because you would have company at home, you might not feel the need to go out and socialise as regularly, so you could save some money on that front as well! If the idea appeals to you, here’s what you need to know about the process:

1. Speak to your letting agent or landlord. You can’t just move someone else into the property, as that’s classed as sub-letting, which is likely to be prohibited in your tenancy agreement. In addition, every occupant must, by law in England, be checked to make sure they have the right to be living in the UK.
   
   So, the first step is to ask your agent or landlord whether it would be possible to move someone in.
   
   

2. The new person will have to go through application checks. Whoever is moving in will have to go through the same referencing and affordability checks as you did. It’s likely that you will both be jointly and severally liable for the rent, meaning if one of you were to move out in the future, the remaining tenant would have to pay the full monthly rent themselves, so it’s important they can prove they would be able to afford it.
   
   

3. You’ll have to sign a new tenancy agreement. Your current tenancy agreement will be for single occupancy, so a new agreement will have to be drawn up, naming you both. This will give you shared responsibility for paying the rent and the property’s condition while you’re both living there. Note that because you have requested an amendment to the tenancy, you are likely to be charged for the administration of this.
   
   

4. If the property would become an HMO, your landlord will probably refuse. Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) are subject to different minimum property standards and licensing conditions to ‘single household’ lets and each local authority area in England has the power to set its own rules for this. While some councils simply enforce the national mandatory rules, which don’t apply until you have five unrelated people living together, other require smaller houseshares to be licensed.

For example, landlords in the Oxford City Council area must obtain an HMO licence for any property that has more than two tenants from more than one household. And in some cases, the council will even refuse to permit a property to be an HMO at all.

If there would only be two people living in the property, this is unlikely to be an issue, but if there are already two or three of you, it’s quite possible another occupant could tip the rental into the HMO category. And in that case, because of the extra cost and hassle, it’s likely that your landlord would refuse.

If you’re currently renting through us and you’d like to discuss the possibility of someone else moving in, please do come and chat to us as soon as possible so we can talk you through the process.