Everyone loves inviting friends around for a weekend of fun. Or maybe your bestie is in town to look for a job and needs to sofa-surf for a week. Both are reasonable ways to show your friends some hospitality.

But when is the line crossed and when do guests become occupiers or sub-letters? And at which point can a landlord, if they find out, ask them to leave?

Until recently most landlords didn’t care. As long as the rent was paid and the property was looked after, many turned a blind eye to friends staying over for a few weeks or even months.

Right to Rent

But the recently-introduced Right to Rent rules mean all landlords must check the passports or other identity documents of all the adults who move into their property to ensure each one has a right to live (and rent) in the UK.

If people are caught living in a property who haven’t been checked then the landlord can be fined up to £3,000 per unchecked occupier.

The whole argument hinges on the difference between an occupier or tenant and a guest.

Occupier vs guest

An occupier has a legal right to live in a property set in stone with a signed contract which is normally an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement.

On the other hand a guest can live in the same property but has no legal right to be there. If your landlord finds out a mate has been sofa surfing for a prolonged period then they are entitled to ask them to leave. A good yardstick of ‘prolonged’ is more than the length of a holiday; e.g. two weeks or more.

You won’t be in trouble though - it is only if your sofa-surfing mate has paid you rent (and is therefore subletting from you) that you will have broken the terms of your AST.

Bedroom rule

One rule of thumb that housing professionals use is to guage whether a ‘guest’ has access to their own bedroom, are keeping personal belongings and clothing there, and are contributing to the costs of running the property. In which case, they are occupiers.

Another situation to avoid is if you’re renting a property ‘jointly and severally’ as a group and then one person decides to leave but the others invite a friend to take their place... but don’t tell the landlord.

This is a common (but incorrect) practice, and dangerous. By doing so the other tenants are probably breaking the terms of their contract by sub-letting the room, and the friend has not been checked under Right to Rent.

CreditLadder can help you improve your credit score

If you want to improve your credit position by reporting your rent payments, CreditLadder is the only way to improve your credit score and position across all four of the main Credit Reference Agencies in the UK, namely Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Crediva. Building up a high credit score has a lot of benefits, including helping you access finance at better rates - this can also help save you money.

CreditLadder also runs a free mortgage application service in partnership with Tembo which will tell you how much you could borrow.

Remember the information provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be considered as advice.