Room Rent Living with Landlord - Type of Lease

Pythia

Hi,

Myself and boyf have rented a room in an apartment owned and lived in by the landlord (he has one bedroom, we have one).

He is trying to get us to sign a lease. It looks like the lease is one that you would use if you were renting a whole house to tenants, just that he defines the premises as everything except his bedroom.

Googling tells me that living with a landlord is subject to different rules and we should have a 'Licensee Agreement' instead.

See:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/housing/buying-a-home/owning-a-home/rent_a_room_scheme

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/housing/renting-a-home/landlord-and-tenants-rights/sharing-accommodation-with-your-landlord

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/News/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-2007/renting-a-room-in-your-home

I don't really want to sign this lease as it's saying we're liable for all damage, all bills, etc and basically doesn't seem to be correct. This is the first time I've had to sign one of these and I don't want to get into something that's not suitable.

The landlord says it's the right kind of lease but I don't think so.

Does anyone have any idea or experience?

Thanks!

antoinolachtnai

You are right in principle. The problem is really for the landlord though. The lease gives you a load of rights that you would not have as a licensee. For example, once you stay six months, you will be entitled to renew for a further 3 years and 6 months.

Also (I think) the lease would give you a measure of exclusivity over the use of the house. I can't see that working.

Really, the lease militates against him, not you.

You could call threshold and ask them for suggestions.

It is hard in these situations though. It's not as if it's really a big deal and you don't want to get outside legal advice involved.

If he really wants to go the lease route, I would suggest that you go through it with him paragraph by paragraph. I would suggest you specifically address clauses which refer to your rights to use the house and your notice period. You should explain that you would prefer a short notice period (one month) for the simple reason that you may not all get on well in the house. Also, the splitting of bills has to be resolved properly. You have to get clarity on whether you have exclusive or any use of the part of the house outside your bedroom.

At the end of this, you will end up with something which isn't really a lease, it'll be more like a licence. You are going to have to point out to him (by showing him one of the renting guides I suppose) that calling it a lease will give you a lot of rights, and that he needs to be sure if that's what he wants.

Make sure not to fall out over this if you have found a nice place!

The_Conductor

If the guy intends to make use of the rent-a-room scheme, as Antoin says- you will be living in his house under licence, without the rights normally attributed to a tenancy. Further- as he is resident in the house, if you do sign a lease, contrary to it confering additional rights on you- legally it could be questioned as to whether it is valid at all.

Normally in cases like this there would be an agreement drawn up- detailing what your monthly rent is, what bills are additional to this (gas, esb and any other variable bills would be the norm), along with any other house rules that may be determined- like turn off immersion after use, visitors to be gone after 9PM week nights (whatever......)

It sounds like it might be a good idea to print off some stuff on the rent-a-room scheme from the Revenue Commissioner's website for the guy- you'll be doing him a favour.

S.