Tenant's guest to stay in your spare room as a live owner?

As a live in landlord, just want to know people's opinions on whether it is fair to charge your tenant's guests who want to stay in the spare room for a week or more?

I am fine with allowing guests to use the spare room for 2 nights for free but more than that I think it will add to wear and tear of the house and such. It is also hard to know how many times the guests will come in a year and for how long. The charge I am thinking is only $20 a night though.

What are your thoughts?

Cheers!

 

Assuming I’m reading this correctly, and you have tenants renting a room in your house, then I wouldn’t be accepting their guests at all. They rent a single room, and have access to communal parts of the house / shared facilities - that’s it. If they want to have accommodation options for their guests, then they should probably look for more suitable places.

Context: I’m too old these days to want to live in a share house so I’m prob in a different situation to you. We rent out our (completely separate) granny flat but I wouldn’t want randoms IN my house. That’s probably colouring my judgement.

 

@wylie yes, I am renting out some rooms in the house and still have a spare room left.

 

@hobo yes, I understand completely. I am only doing it for a while.

 

Have a chat to the tenant and set clear boundaries.

1. I'm happy for you to have guests for up to 2 nights but you must always discuss with me atleast 2 weeks in advance as I may have plans to use this room for my own guests

2. If guests are staying for over 2 nights they will be required to pay me $20 per night. As above I will need at least 2 weeks notice

 

Then I agree with the posts above, that you shouldn't be giving the rooms for free, and that it would be quite reasonable to lay down some ground rules for lengths of stay, expected extra contributions etc.

I'd also make sure that it was the TENANT who was responsible for the extra costs, on their guests' behalf, just to avoid the situation of the tenant's friend "forgetting" to pay you.

 

@wylie , yes, that's what I think too but they didn't offer anything but want to put two of their guests in. They have done that once before just in Oct and I thought it is only once. Now they want to do it again. So, planning to set this rule now. I have put style ground rules before they move in but didn't think of this before.
@John Sullivan, yes. This will be one my ground rules from now on before new tenats move in. The only thing is I didn't mention this to existing ones before as I didn't think of it.

 

You shouldn't need to mention it. If they are only renting one room then they are not entitled to guest/spare rooms. Never too late to have a chat and set some ground rules

 

@hobo , thanks for your suggestions. Yes, I will discuss with the current tenants and put it as a rule from now on.

 

@John Sullivan, thanks a lot for your suggestions. I will be having the discussion with the tenants.

 

I have a different view from some expressed above.

I shared rental,places for years and lots of times people 'crashed' with us. We would never charge them for the room because it wasn’t costing us extra, really. In the days of shared landlines, it was expected that they pay for any toll calls, however.

Usually guests would buy us a gift of alcohol or food or offer to contribute to the cost of power if the visit was more than a few days.

I think it is perfectly normal that a person might want to have a guest over if they are visiting from another city etc.

If you want to charge extra for guests then you probably need to specify the conditions as part of the lease agreement.

Be careful,that it doesn't tip you over into the rooming house category though.

 

You rent by room.
If room is used, user pays. Pretty simple.
If tenant guest stays in tenants room, slightly different story, but time limits do apply and extra costs will be levied for periods greater than 2 days.

 

@Joynz , I get what you mean. We have been ok with their guests coming to stay in the spare room for a few nights in the past but they just recently had a guest stay there for a week and we didn't say anything though they didn't offer anything for the free lodge.

Now, they want to have another guest coming in Dec for about 9 days and another one for 4 days. I am not sure their guests pay them or not but not to us.

We are only renting out by the room and never said anything about using the spare room for their guests. We would be fine if the guest stay in their room.

We didn't want to rent out that spare room as it will overcrowd the house but if they constantly have guests in that room, it defeats our purpose.
Also, the guest can damage the room and wear and tear etc.

 

Um, they are definitely trying it on / pushing the boundaries.

Push back.

 

You are too nice, this is out of line. Your generosity was taken advantage of.
I would have a serious talk with your tenant and kick out their guest right away. It is basic human decency to at least notify the live-in landlord in advance and ask for permission.

 

Sounds like you don't want them there, but don't want to upset them.

On another note, you got a bit of spare money in your bank account.... do you mind if i borrow a few hundred bucks? Its just sitting there anyway

 

@Ouchmyknees , Actually, they asked my permissions for their guests and I was ok with a few days every now and then.

I just think it is too much when the frequency of guests visiting is more frequent and the stay is getting longer. I think that they should at least offer to pay for their guest bills.