Renting A Room & Couples

fireglo2020

Hello,

1. I am renting a room in my house on daft (my first time doing this)
2. I have selected that my preference is for one person (There is an option for "+1 Person OK" which I assume is for couples - see screenshot attached)
3. I've had a two people message/view and then slip in after a while - "Is it okay if my boyfriend/girlfriend stays over one night a week?"
4. It seems like there are a lot of couples out there stuck between wanting to leave home a a entering the private rental market / getting on the housing ladder but can't
5. Am I right in assuming that I put down an option for males only that the room is just for one person?
6. I tried to update the text on the ad to say "no couples" but daft won't allow me
7. Is it my right as an owner/occupier to set the rule with the tenant before they rent that no overnight stays are allowed (friends etc. are all Friends etc. are obviously allowed to come over and hang out.owed but not stay.over to hang out) or am I being unreasonable?
8. If a couple is looking to rent - I assume the price would be higher? How do couples normally do it?

Screenshot 2021-08-08 at 10.18.35.png

bren2002

Your house, your rules

fireglo2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117722840#Comment_117722840

That's what I assumed also but wondering why daft won't allow me to say it.

Peregrinus

Legally speaking, if you're renting a room in your own house, you can specify males only, or females only, or singletons only, or married couples only. You have a fairly broad exemption from the rules banning discrimination of the grounds of gender or marital status that would normally apply.

That's the law. But your question wasn't "is this legal?" but "am I being unreasonable?"

No, I don't think you are. This is your home. It's perfectly reasonable for you to say that you decide who gets to sleep there, and the person who rents a room from you does not get the right to invite others to sleep in your home.

Might be different when you have an established lodger who acquires a boyfriend or girlfriend whom, in time, you have met. You might then decide that, yeah, you are comfortable if that person stays over the odd Friday or Saturday - or more than that. But it will be your decision, not the lodger's.

I get that this is a bit hard for lodgers. But, really, it comes with the territory of being a lodger. A lodgers is not a co-owner. They have less rights than the owner they live with.

Caranica

You can't advertise for specific genders but you can choose one over the other as the 7 grounds for illegal discrimination don't apply to rent a room. You should be able to say no couples and absolutely don't rent to a couple unless you want to be outnumbered in your own home.

No overnight visitors is pretty unreasonable. One or two nights a week should be fair but you can stipulate that only one of those can be weekend nights so that you don't end up with them both being there all weekend, every weekend.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117733210#Comment_117733210

It literally gives him that very option. In a rent-a-room in someone's private home, I don't think discrimination works the way it does in a normal "commercial" setting.

OP; If you're asking about how reasonable you're being, then I think you're not perhaps being very reasonable. Part and parcel, in my opinion, of renting a room to someone is the expectation they'll live a bit of their life in your house. Beds are generally used for one of two things at a time. I think it would be a bit unreasonable to expect your lodger to never have sex.

If you treat them like an adult, they may well act like one. If you treat them like a teenager, then they may well act like one.

That said, the rules are very much laid down by you, in a rent-a-room situation. So you can make whatever rules you like, but just make sure you're upfront with the potential renters.

Caranica

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117734466#Comment_117734466

Yes you can discriminate on those grounds, I know!! What I meant was daft won't let you say that in an ad as they don't distinguish between absent landlords and rent a room so they blanket ban gender specifications.

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117733210#Comment_117733210

I don't think "no overnight guests" is unreasonable. If that's how you want it in your house, and the lodger is aware, then it's fair game.

Caranica

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117734492#Comment_117734492

It's more or less a way to guarantee short term lets. Lodgers have lives too. I'm on my third lodger now and of the three only one ever had a partner over. Just because it's permitted doesn't mean they will.

OP, something to be aware of, at the moment with working from home - an awful lot of Irish people who would have rented and gone home some/every weekend are simply working from their home towns so the vast majority of applicants will be from overseas and more likely to be around more of the time.