Renting part of your own house....good idea?

We have the same stand in the issue of sharing our home with tenants. Our main concern is privacy, of course, and do not forget that when you live with some people, especially if the house is yours, then those tenants would somehow become your responsibility. No matter how you deny it, there is the moral obligation to be concerned with them. In other words, their problems in life will also be your problems somehow and in any which way you see it.

 

I have done this in the past. I rented a room to a man who was from out of town. He would stay at my place through the week and go home on the weekends. I knew him but I still felt uncomfortable having somebody staying in my home. He paid me well and it was nice to have the extra money but for me it wasn't worth it. I missed my privacy. When he was done the job and went back home I never rented it out again. I tried it and it just wasn't for me. If a person is comfortable with the living arrangements then it could work.

 

Yesterday I was watching a movie on tv, it is a local film about a boarding house. One tenant was kinda weird, a quiet man who rarely talks. But since he pays rent on time, there's no problem. And there was this tenant, a sophisticated woman who looks rich. And it turned out that the woman was a vampire and the quiet man was a vampire hunter. It's just fiction, all right, but it is food for thought. Why the need to let other people enter your house, stay in your house, live in your house? Those are strangers whom we do not really know.

 

Even background checks can't guarantee anything. A person who has an impeccable past could change overnight. Much as it [renting part of your house] can make you some extra money, some risks aren't worth taking.

 

Although I've never shared a house with anyone else than my former girlfriends, and therefore I can't give a honest opinion, I can give you an advice that will someday save your ass: before actually starting to find tenants, check the local laws. What happens if they don't pay? When can they be evicted? What are the costs of evicting someone?

 

Great advice @111kg. There are tenants who know the law quite well and would take advantage of a landlords relative ignorance. Hand him an eviction notice and he'll sue you. The court might allow him to stay for a while at your house and you'd have to see this person you hate every day. Not worth it, IMHO.

 

Well, it's better to play the safe card, especially if we're talking about your own house. I've seen a lot of horror room mate stories on Reddit (and some extremely gross pictures on /r/wtf), this is I feel the need to give this advice.

In my country, a lot of folks rent without sign contracts and there are lots of "professional" scammers. They rent, pay rent a couple of months and then flee without paying the bills and the last rent. Unfortunately, without signing a contract, the owners can't do nothing against them.