Mould, timed showers and no cooking with onions: The reality of being (and having) a lodger today

In the cost of living crisis, more people are taking in lodgers to make ends meet. With a quarter of all rooms available to rent in shared accommodation, it’s a trend that looks set to stay, but what is the reality of both being a lodger and taking one in? Radhika Sanghani reports

Zooey Deschanel moves in as a lodger in ‘New Girl’ (Fox)

My dad had been helping to support me and my two children financially, but after he died, I needed to supplement my income,” explains Sarah*, 49, a single mother of two living in London. “I have a two-bedroom flat, but it has a separate annexe with a bedroom and bathroom, so after talking to friends, I decided to take in a lodger. I thought it would be great because it was short-term, flexible and apart from using the kitchen, they wouldn’t be in my actual flat.”

Her first lodger – a single mum with a baby – turned out to be a “nightmare”, bringing baby equipment into Sarah’s flat, then struggling to pay her rent. “She ran out of money and gave me a sob story,” says Sarah. “It was difficult because she was going through a divorce. I ended up having to listen to all her problems.”

But the experience didn’t put Sarah off. She continued to take in lodgers, mainly young women with busy lives who kept to themselves. She currently has an accountant in her annexe – “the children won’t even remember her name because they hardly see her” – where her only gripe is how much of her fabric softener she uses, and how her long hair keeps clogging up the vacuum cleaner.

“I don’t mention 90 per cent of my issues to her, though,” says Sarah. “For me, having a lodger is all about weighing up the money versus picking your battles. I step back and say, is it worth it? I never see this person who’s giving me money to live here, and I need the money. The other stuff doesn’t matter.”

Sarah is part of a growing phenomenon. A quarter of all rooms available to rent in shared accommodation in the UK are now offered by lodger landlords, according to flatshare site SpareRoom, which helps more than two million users each month. From 2021 to 2024, there was a huge 89 per cent increase in new people taking in lodgers, a figure that has since stabilised to a growth of 1.5 per cent in the past year.

“The numbers are still high because the financial return is unrivalled when you consider all the different ways to monetise your assets,” explains Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom, who points out that based on the average UK room rent of £749 per month, taking in a lodger could earn you £8,988 per year – £7,500 of which is tax free. “Financial pressures on households are pushing people to consider secondary income streams. If you have a spare bedroom and you’re willing to share your home, rental income can be a significant earnings boost.”

A sizeable proportion of lodger landlords are retirees with spare bedrooms, along with first-time buyers struggling to make mortgage payments and faced with high interest rates. The lodgers themselves can range from students to divorcees and young professionals.

Alice Wilkinson, author of How to Stay Sane in a House Share, spent two years living as a lodger in Hackney in a two-bed flat, after breaking up with her boyfriend and moving out of their home. She paid £1,000 a month for her room with an en suite, including bills – much the same as she would have paid for a four-bed houseshare in Clapham.

“I wanted to move in somewhere that already felt like a home,” explains Alice, 33. “It was a well-looked-after house where I didn’t have to worry about anything.” The pay-off was that it never felt like her home, so much as her live-in landlady’s space, and Alice had to live by multiple guidelines.

Alice Wilkinson lived as a lodger for two years after a breakup (Stephie Howard)

“The thing that was most difficult was having visitors. She wanted 24 hours’ notice before anyone came over. At first, I thought, fair enough, it’s your lovely home. But as we lived together for longer, I found it difficult to live by those rules. If my mum came to stay, it felt like we were treading on eggshells.”

When Alice started dating somebody, she still had to give that same advance notice before he could spend the night. She also struggled to use the communal space – “Living there kind of felt a bit like I was visiting someone.”

For Sofia*, 25, a barista in Hampstead, the strict guidelines she’s faced as a lodger have affected both her physical and mental health. In her first experience as a lodger, she paid £995 for a room in a five-bedroom apartment in a luxury mansion block, sharing with her landlord – a woman in her seventies – and four other lodgers.

“She had a written list of rules and would stick long notes with them on doors, fridges and cupboards of how to live your life in the flat. It was very unpleasant, like: ‘you can’t cook with garlic and onion. You can’t use the kitchen during these times. You can’t operate the heating system. You have to wash your dishes within 15 minutes, and if you don’t, I’ll put them at your door. If you don’t wash them, then I’ll put them on your bed.’”

Things became even worse when Sofia discovered mould growing in her bedroom. Her landlady told her it was her fault for not opening the window enough – “I couldn’t because it was winter and she hardly put the heating on” – and even when Sofia bought a dehumidifier, the situation worsened.

“The mould started taking over the furniture, the bedding and my belongings,” she says. “My clothes in the wardrobe started growing mould flowers. The dehumidifier was collecting litres and litres of water, then it stopped working. I ended up getting pneumonia from living there.”

I was told to wash my dishes within 15 minutes and if I didn’t, they’d be put them at my door

Sofia, lodger

Her contract was for eight months, but four months in, her landlord asked her to leave so she could renovate her flat. She gave Sofia a week and a half’s notice. “That’s not enough time to find a new place in London. When I challenged her, she said, it is what it is. I called the Citizens Advice Bureau, but I was told she’s allowed to do that. As a lodger, you have fewer rights. I found that out the hard way because technically they can kick you out at any point.”

In the UK, renters sign tenancy agreements, which give them specific rights. But homeowners who let rooms to lodgers do so under a licence, which sets out the conditions of their stay in the property and outlines house rules.

“The law recognises homeowners aren’t regular landlords and that sharing their home requires a different set of rules,” explains SpareRoom’s Hutchinson. “For example, a homeowner doesn’t need to serve their lodger a standard notice period if they want them to move out – they’re only required to serve ‘reasonable’ notice. This is usually 28 days, but it can be shorter. There’s also no minimum term required by either party by law.”

The short notice period given to Sofia meant she ended up in another lodging situation, which is also becoming untenable. She now pays £1,250 for a “tiny” room in a three-bed flat, sharing a bathroom with her landlady and another lodger, but has to live by extreme guidelines.

“At first, it was fine, but she then started setting up more rules, like ‘finish the shower in 10 minutes’. A few times, she turned off the boiler while I was showering. She’s told me I need to cook faster. It would take me 15-20 minutes to make a salad and she’d say I could do it in five. She monitors how often I use the hairdryer. I’m not allowed a mini electrical heater and she doesn’t really turn off the heating. She’s very controlling with what I do in the space.”

Last year, Sofia stopped using the kitchen due to anxiety caused by her landlady’s comments, instead having takeaways or not eating at all after her 10-hour shifts. This year, her new year’s resolution has been to cook at home and “get over the fear of sharing the space” with her landlady.

“You’re always at risk as a lodger,” she says. “I wish people wouldn’t go for lodging as much as they do, so landlords would be forced to live by higher standards. As lodgers, you’re not going to be able to have a rolling contract. Landlords aren’t legally obligated to put your money in a deposit protection scheme. They can put as many boundaries in place as they want, changing the rules. The anxiety my landlady has caused me in the last year is probably over £5 or £10’s worth of energy bills. I would have paid her that to not deal with this.”

Lodging properties are generally cheaper than traditional rentals – they can cost around 17 per cent less in London, according to SpareRoom – but as Sofia found, they can come with unreasonable ground rules and short notice periods. It means lodger landlords typically have the upper hand – although they can also face risks from letting a total stranger into their home.

Consultant Elliott*, 44, rented out a room to a lodger in his three-bedroom property in east London a few years ago. One night, when his children were visiting, he found the chain was on the latch, meaning they couldn’t get in.

“It was evening and I needed to give them dinner. My lodger wasn’t answering. I had to go to my dad’s to borrow a bolt cutter to cut through the chain on the door. While I finally got in, I went to his room, and he was passed out with alcohol all around him and an open KFC box with chicken bones everywhere.”

He didn’t ask the lodger to leave – instead, they had an honest conversation about his problematic drinking – but when their agreement came to an end, his lodger requested a loan of £250 to help with moving costs. “He’d done that before,” explains Elliot. “His sales job meant he was paid at unusual times – but he always paid me back. Only this time, he never paid me back. He just disappeared.”

Now, Elliott is more cautious about taking in lodgers. “I think it’s very much a roulette. You can interview people and get your best feelings, you could go and step further and do a criminal record or financial check. That’s the most robust way to go about it. But would I recommend it? I think, given a lot of people can’t sell in this economy, it’s an option people are having to do.”

It’s an equally tough decision for lodgers. “If people are doing it short-term, it’s a good thing to consider,” says Alice. “You step into a ready-made home. But the longer you’re there, the less space you have to fill. There’s a ceiling as to how much you can relax.”

She’s grateful for the two years she spent as a lodger because it meant she could save enough to buy her own flat in Sydenham – all without having to think about making a home.

Sofia is looking forward to finding a flatshare where she has a tenancy agreement, rather than a lodger’s contract, so she can finally use the kitchen and bathroom as much as she wants. “I’m going to cook myself the nicest roast dinner and have the longest shower.”

*Names changed to protect anonymity