Rent to Family Member

P

PotterM

Registered User
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1
Can someone please clarify what needs to be done in order to rent a house to a family member

The house is currently vacant and not registered as a rental. There won't be a formal lease. Do the owner need to register this as a rental property in this circumstance?

thanks
 

I guess you have two options here; one, you can go down the legal route as with any other tenant - or two, you can rent it to them week-by-week/month-by-month if you trust them. Upside to this is that you'll have someone you know in the house who won't wreck it.

Tax and other obligations remain the same except if you do run up a rental-loss due to charging less than market-rates then you will not be able to offset this against other rental profits.
 
Why have you decided not to have a formal lease? A verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on and all that. Even with (or especially with) family members there can be misunderstandings. A formal lease should make everyone's obligations clear, what the rent is, who pays for what, who is responsible for what, under what circumstances the tenant must leave etc. I think it is in everyone's interest to do this. If you are worried about fixing a term on the lease, that can be addressed in it with a break clause setting out what notice is needed by either party to terminate the lease.
Just my opinion but so easy to have a falling out without it and as a family member is involved, there is more than money at stake.
 
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