Have you ever had a lodger in your house? Was it a mistake or good.

I had lodgers for several years while children young and I couldn't get out to work. In summer I did B and B.
The only prob I had was one young man who had awful b. O. I left toiletries in his room but he was so bad my parents didn't want to visit as house smelled, so he had to go!

We have had friends of our children from abroad lodge with us for several weeks -several months whilst they studied/worked in London. These included an ex French monk who had had second thoughts re the monastic life. We acquired him through our youngest DD who lodged with the monk's mother in France where she was studying and, having heard of the young monk's crisis of conscience, suggested he come to live with us and improve his English. He stayed for a year, then returned at intervals. We also had a young Australian couple for nine months-- it was meant to be for a couple of weeks but they could not find shared accommodation in London that accepted a couple. We now call them our Australian children. Enter soon afterwards a series of young Italians. We have never asked for rent but most of our past lodgers have
become life-long friends and we are constantly invited to their family events abroad.

This is all lovely but there is a downside: now that the reputation for our "open house" is established, we are constantly being asked if we can have someone's child/ grandchild/ daughter/son/cousin/ cousin of a cousin, and recently the child of a French friend's neighbour's sister-in-law! Having to resort to restraining the hospitality as we get older( and busier) now that all our children are settled elsewhere. Difficult to say no due to all the past "visitors!"

narrowboatnan I took in a 15 year old language student from Taiwan - he was supposed to stay with me for a week while the homestay family he was living with had a holiday, but he refused to go back to them so he stayed with us for the rest of his time in the UK and eventually I became his legal guardian; he finally returned to live in Taiwan eleven years later. Even though he comes home to visit me as often as he can I still miss him very much.
I've never been without some sort of lodger for thirty plus years and I've never had any real problems to speak of. In the last 18 months we've had people from Korea, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, France, Iraq, Vietnam and England staying here. I have no internal door locks and, as far as I'm aware, I've never had anything stolen.

We've had lots of lodgers over the years, most of them good ones. The best one of all was a young Taiwanese Buddhist who was attending his last year at uni. He was lovely and we learned a lot about Buddhism from him. He bought and cooked his own food, and his room was the tidiest one in the house. He was enchanted one day to discover a light sprinkling of snow on the ground - "Ah! Snow! Plenty snow!" He and his friend, who was lodging nearby, had Christmas dinner with us. They had never experienced an English Christmas before, so we had 'turkey and all the trimmings'. In exchange, they, plus a Tai girl friend, took over my kitchen in January and prepared a feast enough to feed the entire street as they celebrated the Chinese New Year with us.
When his uni course was finished and it was time for him to return home we really missed him. We stayed in touch for a while, but, of course, his life and ours moved on. I will never forget him though, he brought so much into our lives. My children still remember him too.

Apologies that my post was duplicated - I don't know what happened.

We had a young Japanese girl stay with us when her original place to stay broke down .We originally met her whilst we were staying in st Ives on holiday .She was visiting the area to visit a famous potter museum ( I've forgotten who it is!) Apparently she was then going on to stay with a lad she met in Japan whilst he was on holiday . But when she arrived she discovered he had another girl living with him and distraught, contacted us . She turned out to be quite a difficult lodger ,wanting to prepare her own food in our small kitchen at the same time as I was trying to prepare ours ,she didn't want to eat our food .Being Japanese, she showered and then filled the bath to the brim every day leaving us with no hot water. The plan was that she was to use our house as a base whilst she travelled around various parts of the UK and Europe , but that never really happened much . I felt a bit sorry for her as I think her plan was to come to the UK and marry this chap she had met . But the three months she stayed with us made us realise we would not do it again !

Yep I also had actors, ballet companies, stage crew from local theatre - all brilliant except in those days they tended to all smoke and i worried about them setting us all on fire -so they smoked out of the windows !!!!

My aunt had a lodger, a conniving old man, very manipulative. My dad was supposed to inherit the house when she died, she had told him this as he was her only living relative. He did everything for her, taking her out etc even before she told him about the house, he was very fond of her. Enter the lodger who sucked up to her and deliberately pushed my dad out of the way when he wanted to help. When she became ill, he took over completely and made himself indisposable. When she died, we found that he had persuaded her to change her will so he got the house. He sold off all her goods, jewellery, furniture etc and lived in one room. When he became ill, he left the house to some woman he met in the hospital who looked after him. I think she knew what she was doing as he was always bragging that he had a lovely big house in Bournville, Birmingham. It was on the market not long ago for £270.000.

I had foreign students when my children were small. Most of them were really good to have in the house and I learnt a lot about other countries and made quite good money.
More recently I had a lodger, a friend of a friend, who stayed a couple of years but he was quite unpleasant. He did pay his rent on time but did argue with me, interfere when I was cooking and not keep his room clean. In the end I gave him notice. I'd never have another lodger.

I had foreign students when my children were small. Most of them were really good to have in the house and I learnt a lot about other countries and made quite good money.
More recently I had a lodger, a friend of a friend, who stayed a couple of years but he was quite unpleasant. He did pay his rent on time but did argue with me, interfere when I was cooking and not keep his room clean. In the end I gave him notice. I'd never have another lodger.

I had foreign students when my children were small. Most of them were really good to have in the house and I learnt a lot about other countries and made quite good money.
More recently I had a lodger, a friend of a friend, who stayed a couple of years but he was quite unpleasant. He did pay his rent on time but did argue with me, interfere when I was cooking and not keep his room clean. In the end I gave him notice. I'd never have another lodger.

We have never had lodgers, only exchange students, which was OK ish, but some of them do come with 'baggage'. We took a young Frennch lad one year, as a favour, as his accommodation had fallen through. We told the people in charge of the group that he could only stay for a limited time, as we were due to go on holiday. Nobody had told the youngster this, and he was distraught. I felt dreadful and never did it again. My parents had a lovely lodger for several years, until he married. He was an air steward and used to tell Mum that when flying back into Heathrow, he could spot our house as it was painted white. Like several other Gn's I couldn't share my home now, too set in our ways.

We only had one lodger a French student who stayed for a week. He told us that his father was a pickpocket in Paris. After he had left we found out our children's money boxes had been emptied. Never again.

I've had lots of lodgers, mainly actors, or theatre people. All fab. I thoroughly enjoy the company and the gossip.

I had uni students to help out with money when my children were small. They were both friendly and polite but I learnt very quickly about explaining what ground rules meant. One would shower or bath in the morning and leave the bathroom a mess. When I reminded her of the rule she was a bit taken aback when I said it applied straight after use, not in the evening when she felt like it. She explained that 'at home Mummy does it'.

The other had her post addressed to Nosila Nudd leading my rather racist (40 years ago) postman to ask if I had 'one of those funny foreigners' staying.

Had a lodger recommended by a so called friend - for a few weeks only - to help the person through a difficult time in his life. Would never again do this without setting some ground rules first and an official agreement - he caused damage to our property and started to grow what I think were illegal substances which pushed up our electricity bills! We got rid of him pronto.

Having said that, my elderly grandfather, after my grandmother died, let out rooms in his home over many years to a number of young nurses or health auxiliary workers training at the local hospital. He offered decent accommodation at a low price - and knew if he had any health worries he could ask them for advice or assistance. He made many friends, and continued to keep in touch with them all after their marriages - sometimes being invited to their weddings. We lived a long way away, and I think this arrangement meant my parents were less worried about him as he grew older and frailer. However, he remained active and independent well into his nineties!

I used to take in foreign language students to make a bit of extra cash.
Some of them were more mature than others, the young ones were sometimes a nuisance.
I once had a young Spanish girl from Madrid, she used to stay out late and all sorts.
In the end her parents had to come over and take her home.
I've also had some lovely people from all different countries.
They always brought a little present.
The only downside was the fact that the English language schools didn't pay much, but you are supposed to treat them as one of the family.
Not has any long term lodgers. Only daughter.

I had a lodger (she never paid a penny) but she was the material for a book, as it turned out that she was a con woman who had been to jail for it, and was about to go again.

She was a good cook though.............and a diversion.

When I was a kid everyone had lodgers, it solved the hosing crisis, helped people eke out their money and provided an early form of IVF.....just be careful.

I had a lodger for about 5 years. An elderly man whose children I was friends with. I was still working full time so he kept the dogs company and we often watched TV together although I had one in my bedroom. He kept himself to himself and the extra money was lovely and we each felt like we were not alone in the world. I also had a young man lodger for about 3 years, also kept himself to himself and although he had to be reminded about washing up at times, he was also very pleasant. Ground rules need to be stated up front, rent collected up front, and key to own bedroom door. I have had a female friend lodge with me for about 6 months and she was a bit harder work than the men, but am considering sharing with her again, this time in her home as I travel a lot to see my grandchildren in the US and also petsitting for others, so would be nice not to leave an empty flat as I do now.

I was a mature student with a child and I had to have lodgers to make ends meet. It was awful. I listened to their sob story, they were about to be made homeless with their young baby so I let them have the run of the house for a small rent and a share of the bills. At the end of the first quarter when I presented them with the bills, they made a lot of fuss about how high they were even though their presence had made them high with continued use of heating, washing machine and tumble drier. About a week later when they knew I was going to be out til late, I came home and found they'd left, torn the pipes on the washing machine so the place was flooded and of course, hadn't left the money for the bills. Never again.

Before I left England to go to Germany I lived in the house I had grown up in and this was after the death of my mother.

I started with lodgers and the first were local junior school teachers. I cooked them breakfast and evening meal Monday to Friday. In return they babysitted for me 2 evenings a week whilst I was doing a course at a college and paid of course. Later I took in student lodgers from the eye clinic.
I can only speak positivley and it helped me over a difficult phase financially,but you have to lay down the rules of communal living straightaway and stick to them.

I had lodgers for years (big house, no money). Some were fab others were awful.
Have ground rules. Don't get too chummy.
Lock your own rooms. I'm still in touch 30 years later with the young American aged 21 who came to stay for a year while attending uni here !

We had a friend's boyfriend lodging here. He ate all his meals with her so didn't feel the need to pay us money! He used to come in at 2am and wake us up 'creeping' up the stairs. Both of us were working full time and we had two teenage children. After a fortnight we had had enough. He then found somewhere else to sponge off lodge and stayed there several months rent free. He didn't even give us so much as a bunch of flowers. Never again.

If I ever was left on my own- I would take in a lodger again, but choosing very careful and setting down ground rules- to have a companion and someone to share meals, outings, etc. But I have lots of space and my own bathroom.

Ive had lots of lodgers over the years and only ever had one problem a young lad who stole from me He was straight out of care and he had a lot of life problems I forgave him but when it happened a second time although he was mortified and cried and I did forgive him but didnt want to share my home with him any more All the others young and older and from a variety of countries were a joy to have

But like Shysal said I too am far too set in my ways after 15 years living alone and dont think i could adjust any more