How to rent out your parking space

In recent years, a new craze of renting out parking spaces and driveways has swept across the UK, helping people to make some extra cash. Anyone who has to park regularly at airport or railway station car parks knows how quickly costs can run up, so this solution is a great alternative for all parties involved. The person requiring a space tends to save money compared to using an established car park, with homeowners making extra income.

 

 

This varies based on where you live as people don’t want to rent out a parking space in the middle of nowhere, as it’s likely they’ll then have the added expense of a taxi on top to get them to where they need to be. If you live close to an airport, railway station or city centre, your driveway or space will be much more valuable. 

 

In some parts of the country you could make in excess of £200 per month. This may also increase if you have a garage that can be used rather than just a parking space, especially if someone is looking for long stay parking while they’re out of the country on holiday.

 

It’s worth noting right from the outset that you need to own the driveway or parking space – you can’t simply sell a residents permit.

 

 

 

More and more websites are starting to crop up so we’ve picked our top three services below – you may also find it useful to use local noticeboards at prime spots like supermarkets near train stations.

 

Park On My Drive

ParkOnMyDrive.com is one the simplest services and doesn’t charge any commission fees so it’s completely free to use. You can add your space for rent in a matter of minutes by listing the location and providing a rough idea of the size available. There’s also useful templates including a owner/parker contract to make sure you have the basics in place.

 

It’s a great service if you’re just looking to rent out your space once or twice, but you may not find it as suitable as some of the larger services if you’re looking for long-term rental income.

 

 

 

Park At My House

Claiming to be the world’s largest online parking marketplace, ParkAtMyHouse.com is certainly one of the most established and offers a much cleaner website than ParkOnMyDrive.com. After listing your parking space, all transactions can be handled via the website service it’s easy to manage all of the bookings so you know who to expect and when. 

 

There’s also a nifty price guide tool to get an estimate of how much you can rent out your parking space for based on the average rates that other members are charging in your location.

 

As Park At My House doesn’t charge for listing your parking space, it makes it’s money by adding a bit extra on top of your listed price. This means you get the full amount you’re after, as well as a guarantee that you’ll also be paid if the parker doesn’t turn up. It’s a great site to try if you’ve never rented out your parking space before due to the amount of support provided in terms of payment security, contracts and reach it has for advertising the space.

 

 

 

Your Parking Space

The website for YourParkingSpace.co.uk may look rather basic, however it has one of the largest amount of users looking for spaces as any of the big sites in the UK. This means you’re more likely to get the space rented out but without the hefty commission charges. There is a £15 annual fee (which is refunded if you don’t manage to rent out your space within 45 days) but absolutely no further charges on top. 

 

You will need to sort out the payment directly with the parker which may put some people off, so this service is much more suited to anyone just looking to rent out a space a few times a year and for longer periods of time than just one or two days. 

 

 

 

• Make sure you know the full dimensions of the size available and that it is actually yours to rent out
• Check your building insurance cover – it may be that you need to add liability cover in case there are any structural issues that could cause bricks etc to fall and cause damage (in this case to someone else’s car)
• Decide when you’re prepared not to use the space – the parker is effectively a tenant within the contract, which means they can come and go as they please. If you rent out your space for two weeks, you wouldn’t want the parker pulling up at 2am and causing noise for you and the neighbours. Further causes can be added to the contract if needed to cover these potential issues.
• Double check all aspects of the contract and make sure it is signed by both parties – if it isn’t you may have major issues when it comes to payment terms.
• Try it for a couple of days before committing to rent out your driveway for a long period – you may find it a nuisance and wish you’d never rented it in the first place.
• After you’ve made the decision to give it a go, declare any income you receive from renting out the parking space as it’ll count as income from your land, which means unfortunately that it is taxable. Make sure you include this within the calculations of what you can earn net per year from the space after taxes have been deducted.