Furnished lodgings are generally hired by the week; unfurnished, by the year or quarter. Payments are made according to arrangements between the householder and lodger.

One of the greatest objections to living in lodgings has been removed by the recent Act to protect lodgers' goods. Formerly, if the householder did not pay his rent to the superior landlord, the lodger's goods could be seized for it. The new Act remedies this injustice. By it a lodger, if a distress is levied, is to make a declaration that the immediate tenant has no property in the goods distrained. Annexed to the declaration is to be a correct inventory, and if the lodger shall subscribe the declaration or inventory knowing either of them to be untrue in any material particular, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour. If after such declaration and inventory, and after the lodger has paid or tendered the rent, if any due, the superior landlord shall levy a distress, he shall be deemed guilty of an illegal distress, and the lodger may apply to a police-court for an order for the restoration of such goods; besides which, the superior landlord is to be liable to an action at the suit of the lodger, in which action the truth of the declaration and inventory may likewise be inquired into.

The Act is not to extend to Scotland.