Annie Rimer has had lodgers in her Edwardian, four-bedroom, semi-detached house in Old Hemel Hempstead for over 50 years. “I bought this house in 1974 with my husband, when he was alive,” she says.
“A friend was working in a school and knew a German student who needed accommodation for the year. The mortgage on our house at the time was huge, and, as we’d only recently moved in, we agreed to take in the student as a lodger. They ended up becoming a good family friend.”
Since then, Annie has had “hundreds” of lodgers. “I’ve lost track of how many,” she says. “I’ve gone through periods of having no lodgers, but usually I have one at a time.”
Shorts
Annie’s lodgers pay £800 a calendar month (inclusive of bills), for which they get a double bedroom with a double bed, access to a bathroom, the kitchen and a sitting room in the evening.
