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Renting out space
budec
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have a few room in my house that I would like to rent out to help with the bills. I could probably go on craigslist or post around college and get some roomies cause I could offer the rooms fairly cheap - but the thing is, I don't want to get all screwed on this. I don't want some guy burning down my house or starting a meth lab in the bathroom.
How do I protect myself from this?
Do I have to get special home owner's insurance?
How do I write up a rental agreement?
If shit hits the fan (say they fuck up my shit, start stealing my booze or pee all over the house) what recourse do I have?
I'm pretty good at filtering out the weird-o's but would still like something to cover my ass in case they get all crazy.
How do I protect myself from this?
Do I have to get special home owner's insurance?
How do I write up a rental agreement?
If shit hits the fan (say they fuck up my shit, start stealing my booze or pee all over the house) what recourse do I have?
I'm pretty good at filtering out the weird-o's but would still like something to cover my ass in case they get all crazy.
budec on
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For rooms or shares, craigslist is really the best spot.
If they fuck up your stuff, you can always sue them. And yes i think you need insurance to have a tenant, so if the house does burn down, you will be covered. They will need seperate renters insurance, unless youre going to consider them a roommate and list their stuff on your insurance policy.
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If you've got a tenant, you've got to abide by all sorts of laws and things when you want to kick them out; 30 days notice, you have to get court orders to stop them from doing things, etc.
What he wants is a boarder. You can tell a boarder "be out of my house tomorrow," and if they're not, you get to call the cops and have them arrested for trespassing.
If you don't get people to sign anything, you can treat it like a friendly agreement, where when you're sick of the person you sit them down and say that they need to find a new place to live, that you're just not used to having someone around. or you're getting serious with a girl but you can't invite her to stay with this other person around.
Honestly, unless you're looking to snag college students, the likelihood of getting someone who pees on stuff and steals your booze is pretty slim. Most people who do shit like that can't get past the interview process of renting *anywhere* and usually end up mooching off some other friends (getting the friends to sign leases, for instance).
If you want a truly legal document detailing your rights and the situation, talk to a lawyer or some sort of landlord organization in your area. They'll be able to help you write and (hopefully) certify something that would actually stand up in court. Or, if you don't mind being a jerk, potentially threatening someone with legal action if they don't shape up or get out after screwing something up in your house. Not that being a jerk is always a bad thing, as in such a case you'd have to be a jerk to get anything done. It's just not always easy to demand someone leave after they've been paying you "rent" for a year.
If I recall correctly, you've asked similar questions here before, like a year or so ago. Another option to save money is to move into a house that more suits your space needs.
and hopefully the two of them shall never meet ... sorry bad joke.
um, so I want to keep the house cause of that. It's a nice house and a nice area... this place is prime time for raising a family, not that there is anything wrong with that.
The mortgage is killing me though. It takes a good amount of my monthly income and would like to lessen that burden.
If I could rent out 2 or 3 rooms , I could do it for fairly cheap (since I don't use them anyways) so it would be a good deal for the renter, but even then I would still get a decent amount of cash (even at $400 a piece, that's $1200 a month and 400 is a good price around these parts)
Just worried about people fucking with my stuff Specially my computers or books.
Or defecating in my dish washer then turning it on "dry" using high heat while I'm at work and leaving it running for 8 hours... then when I come home I find it AND that they ate all my food and used my underwear as a napkin. I'd a way to recover loses from that. You know how much dishwashers cost these days?
It came with the house, but still - it's the only dishwasher I have and why would someone do that anyways?
However, this means you don't have a security deposit (probably, though this will depend upon your state laws), and you have less recourse to go after them for any money they owe you.
Dishwashers are cheap. We just bought one last summer, and you can get a pretty nice one w/ a stainless steel front for under $400.
Anyway, why do you think anyone would do that to you? Most people aren't depraved and many people looking to live in nice neighborhoods aren't sociopaths. I understand why you'd want to cover your ass, but it sounds like your worries are a bit exaggerated. Unless you happen to know that this family-oriented neighborhood has a lot of booze-stealing, dishwasher-defecating sociopaths. In which case it may be better to move, anyway.