Lodger agreement: what to put in it (and what to leave out)

A lodger agreement is a licence granted by a resident landlord to someone who lives in their home and shares living accommodation with them. It should cover the room and which areas are shared, the rent and what it includes, the deposit, the initial period and the notice each side must give, the house rules and the services provided. What it must not do is import clauses from a tenancy agreement — "assured tenancy", "section 21", "deposit protected in a scheme" — because those describe a relationship the parties do not have.

The nine clauses that matter

1. The parties and the property. Landlord, lodger, address, and the express statement that the landlord lives in the property and shares accommodation with the lodger. This is the foundation of the licence.

2. The room and the shared areas. Identify the room, then list what is shared: kitchen, bathroom, living room, garden, parking. Say expressly that the lodger does not have exclusive possession of the whole property.

3. Rent, when and how. Amount, payment date, method, and whether it includes utilities, council tax, broadband and cleaning. Bills are the most common source of lodger disputes; a line each removes the argument.

4. The deposit. State the amount and what it may be used for. A resident-landlord lodger deposit is not required to be protected in a tenancy deposit scheme, because the lodger is an excluded occupier — but that also means there is no scheme adjudicator, so the agreement is the only record of what was agreed. Keep it proportionate to the rent.

5. The initial period and notice. A short initial period (commonly one month) followed by a rolling arrangement works well. State the notice each side gives — usually one rent period. Because there is no statutory minimum for excluded occupiers, silence here means arguing about "reasonable" notice later.

6. House rules. Guests and overnight visitors, smoking and vaping, pets, noise and quiet hours, cleaning rota, use of the kitchen, whether the room may be used for work. Specific beats polite.

7. Services. Whether the landlord cleans the room, changes bedding or does laundry. Beyond convenience, retained access and services reinforce that the arrangement is a licence rather than a tenancy.

8. Access. The landlord retains access to the room. Say so, and say when it will normally be exercised.

9. Ending it. Notice, what happens to the deposit, and the date by which belongings must be removed.

Before the lodger moves in

• Right to Rent check under the Immigration Act 2014. It applies to lodgers, and the penalty for skipping it falls on the landlord.
• Check your permissions. Mortgage conditions, buildings and contents insurance, leasehold covenants, and — if you rent — your own agreement may prohibit or restrict taking a lodger.
• Council tax. Taking a lodger normally ends a single-person discount. Budget for it.
• Rent a Room scheme. Rent from a lodger in your only or main home is tax-free up to a set annual threshold; above it, you choose between the scheme and ordinary expense-based accounting. Check the current threshold before relying on the figure.

The mistake that turns a licence into a tenancy

Using a lodger agreement for a property you do not live in. The status depends on the facts — resident landlord, shared living accommodation, no exclusive possession — not the heading on the document. If you let a self-contained flat and call the occupier a lodger, you have an assured periodic tenant with the same rights as any other, plus a written agreement that misstates the law. Ending it on "one month's notice" would then be unlawful eviction under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.

Same trap in reverse: if the lodger has their own kitchen and bathroom and you never enter, calling it a licence will not hold.

Draft it in a few minutes

Our guided template produces a lodger licence for a resident landlord in England — room and shared areas, rent and bills, deposit, initial period and notice, house rules, services and Rent a Room — and warns you if the arrangement described is not actually a lodger arrangement.

→ Lodger Agreement

Related: lodger vs tenant explained.