Want To Pay Less Rent? Consider Becoming A Property Guardian
[Photo: Pexels]
In many places in the UK, the cost of renting continues to skyrocket. By the time you’ve finally got that pay rise, your rent’s gone up by 5 per cent, again, and many of us end up living miles away from where we’d actually like to be based.
But there are ways of skipping the typical private-renting life, even if you can’t afford a deposit on a house – one option being to become a property guardian.
In a nutshell, being a property guardian means living in an unused property for a short period of time for staggeringly cheap rent. Since you’re living there, the owner can sleep soundly knowing there are no dodgy-goings-on in their flat or house, and you can sleep soundly thanks to the crazy amount of money you’re saving.
[Photo: Pexels]
The pros
Obviously the cheap, cheap rent. You could be paying a mere £35 a week for a room – and that’s including bills. If we take into consideration how many people live in shabby shared houses in London for fives time that, that’s serious money you’re saving.
And if you want to leave, you only need to give two weeks’ notice, so you can always skedaddle if something better comes along.
[Photo: Pexels]
The cons
Unfortunately, a property guardian doesn’t have the same rights as tenants - guardianship isn’t your typical assured shorthold tenancy, which is what you’d usually expect while renting privately. Instead, it’s a non-exclusive temporary contract.
This means you can be given four weeks’ notice to pack up at any time, for example, and the organisation can access the building whenever they want. Which could get pretty exhausting.
And although the rent is absurdly cheap, there are a handful of fees to pay in a addition to the deposit and council tax, much like renting in the private sector. So you do need something in the bank to apply.
What it’s actually like
Expect life to be pretty simple. Rooms come unfurnished, though showers and cooking facilities are provided, and units can be just about any size - though they’re charged based on location rather than the space you’re renting.
If you fancy giving your living space a new lick of paint, you can ask, and you can pay to have a lock installed but you’d need to hand over a key to the organisation. And yep, couples can live together. Your significant other will just need to pay for their own license too.
All in all, property guardianship is one way of getting super-cheap rent, but, as with renting privately, it’s a gamble as to what your landlord will be like - only with this, there’s a lot more at stake.
Would you live as a property guardian? Or perhaps you already have? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.
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