How to File a Lodger Agreement When You Live in the Home

The spare room is already promised, and the rent, the bills, and the notice still live in a chat. Before the occupier moves in, file one signed lodger licence: you live in the home, they share living space with you, and the paper names the room, the shared and private areas, the rent, whether bills are included, the notice you both accept, and a deposit receipt if money was taken. Each of you then keeps a signed copy with the check-in notes.

A letter that permits an extra person in a tenant’s home, a folder for an assured tenancy of a home you do not live in, a licence for a house in multiple occupation, and a count of keys are different files: permitted occupier, assured tenancy, house in multiple occupation, keys and fobs.

Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.

Does this room share belong on a lodger licence?

This licence is the right file only when you live in the home and the occupier shares living space with you. You are a resident landlord when you let part of a property that is your only or main home in England. GOV.UK puts it that way on the resident-landlord overview. The practical test beside that definition is on the tenancy-type page: the occupier lives in your home, and you or a member of your family share a kitchen, bathroom, or living room with them. When both are true, they are likely an excluded occupier. You give reasonable notice, and you do not have to go to court to evict them. Reasonable notice usually means the length of the rental payment period. The only example on that page is monthly rent, which is one month’s notice.

If you do not live in the property, stop. The resident-landlord test has failed, and the agreement you need is the one for a home you do not live in. If the occupier lives in your home but shares no kitchen, bathroom, or living room with you or your family, stop as well. The same tenancy-type page treats that person as likely to have basic protection, which means a court order if they will not leave. A shared-living licence is the wrong paper for that arrangement. A heading that calls the paper a licence does not decide the status. The longer guide for resident landlords says only a court can be certain.

The agreement may be a tenancy or a licence. If you never agree how long the let lasts, it becomes periodic, and a licence can stay open-ended when the arrangement is informal. The lodger overview uses the same share test. The National Residential Landlords Association, on a page published on 6 October 2026, describes a lodger as someone who rents a room in the landlord’s main residence and, where living space is shared, is generally an excluded occupier. That note also says the Renters’ Rights Act does not generally apply to lodgers.

One signed licence for the room, the rent, and the notice

Sign one licence even though writing is not legally required in every case. The longer resident-landlord guide says a written agreement is not required unless the let is a tenancy for a fixed term of more than three years, and that writing is still advisable. Section 2.11 of that guide names how long the let lasts, the rent and any review, the notice each person will give, and any meals or services. Citizens Advice, on its England page for people taking in a lodger, says a signed agreement is the better record, and that a spoken agreement still makes you the landlord. A missing signature does not, by itself, undo the arrangement.

Agree the rent before they move in. You can charge what you both accept. Write whether bills are included and which ones. If you pay the utility bills for the whole house, you can include a charge in the rent or fit pre-paid meters. If you recharge gas or electricity, the resident-landlord page on rent, bills and tax allows only the amount you have paid, plus VAT. A higher charge can lead to civil proceedings. The same page requires a rent book when the rent is paid weekly. Council tax for this kind of let stays with you. You can include part of the cost in the rent, and you tell the council if a lodger ends a single-person discount. The longer guide treats a flat rate inside the rent, or an all-inclusive rent, as different from reselling gas or electricity. Maximum resale prices apply to a resale. They do not apply to a flat rate that covers use, or to rent that already includes the bills.

Write the notice you both accept. For a shared kitchen, bathroom, or living room, reasonable notice usually matches the rent period, and the short guide’s example for monthly rent is one month. You may agree in advance that the notice is shorter or longer. An excluded tenancy, unless you agree otherwise, needs notice at least as long as the rent period, ending on a rent day, with no four-week minimum, so a weekly tenancy can end on a week’s notice. An excluded licence uses the longer of the length you agreed and what is reasonable, which a court decides. Notice that matches a similar tenancy would normally be treated as reasonable. Once notice has been given correctly and an excluded let has ended, there is no legal requirement for a possession order. Using or threatening violence to get back in is an offence under section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, which the longer guide cites.

The first of those sentences is from the resident-landlord guide on rent, bills and tax. The second is from the lodger page on deposits and rent.

Both signed copies and the check-in note

On the day they move in, each person keeps a signed copy of the licence. With those copies, file a short note of the furniture in the room and the condition you both see. Photographs of that room can be kept with the note. Keys and fobs are a different file.

If the lodger pays rent, check the right to rent before they move in. Citizens Advice says the check applies whether you own the home or rent it yourself. Shelter says it is done before move-in. The copies, and any date when you have to look again, stay on the right-to-rent diary you already keep.

Any gas appliance needs a check each year by a Gas Safe engineer. Shelter states that duty for lodgers. The record sits beside this file. It is not a clause of the licence. Tax on the rent is a separate job from the licence. If several unrelated people share the home, ask the council whether you need a licence for a house in multiple occupation, and leave this file as the room share. That licence pack is the other paperwork.

IziRento can hold the signed licence, the deposit receipt, and the check-in note with the property. It does not send the notice, protect a deposit, check the right to rent, file a tax return, or apply to the council. It is still pre-launch. Open a workspace if you want those papers stored against the home.

The file is finished when it holds the signed licence, with the room, the shared and private areas, the rent, whether bills are included, the notice you both accept, and the deposit receipt if money was taken, and both copies are kept with the check-in notes.