Letting a flat by the room: not a problem but an opportunity!

Renting single rooms has been enduringly popular for years. In the face of rising prices, it is often chosen by young people starting university or taking their first steps on the job market. For flat owners, in turn, it is a tempting way to earn money: we explain when it is worth choosing this option and how to go about it.

When is it better to let a room than the whole property?

When preparing to let our property, it is worth looking at it through the eyes of potential tenants. Who will be interested in renting the whole flat? And whose needs will renting only a room meet? The latter group most often includes students coming to a big city: without sufficient means to rent a studio flat and wanting to live in a good location, they very often decide to rent a room in a shared flat. People who have already finished their studies and are starting their careers also choose this solution. For them too, savings and a good location are key. So if we own a large flat with excellent transport links or close to the city centre and can thus meet their needs, it is definitely worth considering letting out single rooms.

Owners of flats in cities popular with tourists are also increasingly choosing to let rooms. Why? Many visitors planning a city break of a few days do not want to overpay for a hotel room or for renting a whole apartment; they would rather spend their money on the attractions the city offers or on further travels. So they choose to rent a room, which is cheaper and meets all their most important needs: after all, tourists do not come to spend the whole day indoors, do they? So again, if we own a property in a large city that attracts tourists, letting a flat by the room can be a very profitable solution.

Agreements with tenants: how to put them together?

If we decide to offer letting "by the room", we must expect that we will probably be responsible for a larger number of tenants, and we will have to sign a separate agreement with each. This issue may put some owners off, because how do you divide the service charge and utility bills? How do you establish responsibility for repairs and for cleaning the shared parts of the flat? An experienced estate agent can certainly help with these questions and assist in drawing up a precise, comprehensive agreement.

These matters need not turn out to be as big a problem as they might seem, however. There are various ways of dividing costs among our tenants. A good idea is, for example, to divide costs by the number of rooms: if we let three rooms, each of them accounts for 1/3 of the utility bills and service charge. Difficulties may arise when not all the rooms are occupied: then we can divide the costs among the remaining residents, taking into account, of course, the lower use of utilities. The details of the settlement in such situations must be included in the agreement; we cannot leave them to guesswork or change them during the term of the agreement.

Several rooms let also means several different tenants who do not know one another. In everyday life, especially in a shared flat, disputes arise over keeping things clean or responsibility for repairs. As owners we should not get in the middle of any conflicts; we can, however, set rules that bind the tenants and encourage them to look after the rented unit together.