“It’s not weird,” says Nab Ali, 25, about being a lodger and helping pay his friend’s mortgage. “It’s more like we’re roommates. The money just leaves my account by direct debit every month.” Ali is a policy and assurance officer at a charity and has lodged with university friend Jordan Metcalf, 30, for two years in his flat in Croydon.
As part of the Government’s Rent-a-Room scheme, landlords can receive up to £7,500 a year tax-free from a lodger they live with, and the pair take advantage of this. “Tax-free money is hard to come by… We made sure the rent is below the tax limit,” says Metcalf, a business intelligence consultant. “Staying under the tax threshold means less admin and hassle more than anything else.”
