How to find the perfect flatmates: finding the right tenant for a shared house is worth the long drawn out process

A chap emails me, wanting to view a room I have available. He says he’s a 44-year-old smoker who comes with a Jack Russell dog, which is fine. Except that I advertised for a 21- to 30-year-old non-smoker and stated that no pets are allowed.

I’ve also had viewing requests from a 50-year-old woman — who kept emailing me from different accounts after I rejected her first request to see the room — and several students, even though I specified that the room was only for professionals.

It’s not that I am ageist. I have nothing against people under 21 or over 30 but I am just trying to find people of a similar age to the existing tenants, who are in their early to mid-twenties.

It’s tempting to ignore the tenants’ preferences and let the room to the first person who wants to take it, but I know from past experience that if I don’t get the mix of personalities right, it won’t be long before they fall out and one or more will leave.

They have told me they definitely don’t want to share with students because having recently been students themselves, they know the chances of them respecting other people’s peace and quiet are nonexistent, and they say they’d feel uncomfortable sharing with someone close to their parents’ age.

I once made the mistake of letting to two Mormon sisters who drove more than one tenant away by constantly heckling them about their life choices and banning them from bringing alcohol or caffeinated drinks into the flat.

Nothing wrong with Mormons, I’m sure, but I should have checked that they were happy to live with coffee-drinking, alcohol-swigging girls with more flexible morals than their own before letting them move in.

Then there was the older guy who saw off several tenants with his obsessive-compulsive cleaning. I loved the fact that he kept the flat cleaner and tidier than it had ever been previously, but I had so many complaints from other tenants about his behaviour that I had to ask him to leave.

And then there was the student who didn’t give a damn how often she woke up the other tenants in the middle of the night. She wanted to have fun and couldn’t understand why it mattered that the others had to get up for work when she could sleep off her hangover. I lost three tenants in a year.

I am sick of the churn in this place, so this time I am trying my best to find people who will all get along and stay happily for at least 12 months. But narrowing my options means I haven’t received as many enquiries as I usually would for this room and it’s taking much longer to let.

In the past, I have rarely had to market it for more than 24 hours before finding a taker. This time I have been advertising for a couple of weeks and I’ve shown only two people around.

I did have one guy who seemed ideal — a professional, late twenties, tall, dark… sorry, I’m getting carried away. Anyway, we had just made an appointment for him to view the flat when he said: “Er, there’s just one small thing. I have a little dog.”

Drat. I can’t let tenants keep pets in a shared flat, even if they tick all the other boxes. It’s not fair on the other tenants and anyway, I don’t want a dog messing up the place. I will find someone suitable soon, I’m sure — but being fussy requires patience.

Victoria Whitlock lets four properties in south London. To contact Victoria with your ideas or views, tweet @vicwhitlock.