Adult children as 'lodgers' (long, sorry)

northern_star

My daughter and her partner are asking to come and live with us for a while until they can save a deposit for a house. They have been renting for 2 years but the landlord is now selling the property. If they move to another private rent, they will be stretched financially and so saving towards a deposit would be a very slow process. They don’t have enough deposit to buy anything at present, plus now is not a good time to buy.

We don’t have a problem with them coming to stay – we get on very well (although we all recognise the reality of living together will be challenging sometimes) and we want to support them in their endeavour.

Our dilemma is what to charge them???? Currently they pay £300 each per month into a joint account which covers their rent, utilities, food etc. The remainder of their wages (they both work full-time) stays in their individual accounts to pay personal expenses (car, phone, clothes etc) and to save towards the deposit.

Here, they would have their own bedroom but have to share all other living spaces and facilities. They will be invited to share evening meal with us (though due to their working patterns – or simple choice – they may not do this every day). I only work part-time so would be amenable to doing their washing alongside ours (providing they do their own ironing) and they would have to agree to doing their share of chores.

So what do we charge? We want them to be able to reach their target deposit ASAP so we don’t want to ask for too much. Conversely, it needs to be realistic – or they might just get comfy and never want to move, lol. We anticipate an increase in some costs as a result of their stay (using more gas, electric etc) but many other things (Council Tax, internet etc) will remain the same.

If it helps, they earn 13k and 18k respectively.

We would be grateful for any suggestions on an appropriate charge and also any advice as to any obvious ‘ground rules’ we may need to establish.



Thanks in advance
NS






nb We're looking to gather as much advice and info as possible on this so Board Guide please move if you feel it would be better in another board

Glamazon

I guess it depends on whether you want a bit of extra money coming in or whether you would just want them to pay for the extra bills that would arise from having 2 extra people in the house.

Gas/Elec - this could double so do you pay by DD or when bill comes in?
If DD why not double your existing DD and ask them to cover that
If when bill comes in split it 50/50

Water - are you on a meter? If so, the cost of this will double whereas if you're not it won't make a difference.

Contents Insurance - will you need to boost the amount covered if they are bringing their own Flat screen TV etc?

C.Tax/Internet - as you say no difference

Food - guess you would need to decide whether you are all eating as a family or cooking seperately. It wouldn't be fair on you if you decided to have different meals and buy food seperately but they were using all your bread and milk!

I think you need to

1. look at all your bills and decide which ones will increase with 2 extras in the house - double these and charge them half.
2. Decide if you want them to actually pay 'rent' for living in your house and add this on
3. Make a decision on food and add this on if required.

At 25, If I went to live with my Dad now (he lives alone and has a high mortgage) personally I would pay half of all the bills including internet as I'm still using it, I would pay rent i.e. a bit towards the mortgage (but not a lot as it's his mortgage) and probably half the food as we would eat together or one would cook and the other reheat later on.

I don't think anyone could give you an exact figure as there are so many variables. Good luck though - can't imagine either or my parents would do this as they enjoy their space!!

HTH

Mojisola

Good advice from Glamazon. I would add that it can help to arrange meetings between you all on a regular basis for household stuff to be discussed. That way little niggles don't grow into big irritations - perhaps once a month until most issues are solved and then less frequently, but set the date each time for the next one so that it doesn't drift too far.

flutterbyuk25

I still live at home - but not for much longer! - and I pay 20% of wages as rent. This includes all bills and internet. I eat dinner at home maybe 3-4 times a week, often do the top-up shop. My mum does my washing (she works from home part time) so puts it in with theirs, and I iron my own.

x

skintchick

There is an amount you can earn tax-free under the rent-a-room scheme which I think is about £250 a month.

When I had lodgers, I charged £300 a month plus bills on top, so I think any more than that would be unreasonable.

As for ground rules - that depends on you. And it will be harder as it's family.

barnaby-bear

skintchick wrote: »

There is an amount you can earn tax-free under the rent-a-room scheme which I think is about £250 a month.

When I had lodgers, I charged £300 a month plus bills on top, so I think any more than that would be unreasonable.

As for ground rules - that depends on you. And it will be harder as it's family.

The tax allowance is for rent - so they might want to actually call bill money separately rahter than inclusive rent. Divide the cost of the all the bills equally between all adults in the house like a flat share and invoice them so they know the costs for when they move on. You can always set aside the money for things that haven't increased like CT and give them it back as a lump sum when they leave.

kr15snw

I think the best way to do it would be to work out how much them living home at would cost you.

So the extra gas, electric, water. Plus equal sharings of things like phone, internet and sky. Then theres groceries (including washing powder if your going to be doing their washing) to add onto that. Plus I would also add a bit more (not much mind you) on as I doubt theyll be doing the complete fair shair of all the chores.

As long as they are saving for a deposit I think you need to make sure your not loosing out financially ATALL, but that your not making much of a profit. lol.

lostinrates

My DH and I have been doing this with my parents. We pay half all bills and to resolve issues with housework we've divided the house up. we never need to go upstairs ....so thats my mothers to clean mainly, but I do everything downstairs. We are a bit relaxed about things like washing powder, whoever last uses it buys it really, and I buy more washing up liquid as prefer to ewash up buy hnd than use the dishwasher. Weekends I do most of the cooking (both my DH and Dad are away weekdays) weekdays my mother and I each shop/eat for oursselves, different routines and likes.

The idea for us was not to get away from normal bills etc, (in fact was more complicated than ourely saving too) but we also felt their had to be something my parents gained ...DH does all the stuff like clearing gutters, house maintainance...that my dad hated, and I do most of the housework (my mother only has their bedroom and bathroom to do now). It also means we're not forgetting what it takes to maintain a house.

By having quite defined things on the bills/our contribututions it made things easier. There are still disagreements but they are fairly minor. The main problem we now have is my parents really don't want us to go. They have even asked if we can consider buying with them, so they can have a granny flat or something. We all get strained at times, don't get me wrong, but its also been quite bonding.

Beware: four adults somehow use way more washing machine stuff than two sets of two adults!

emlou2009

if it helps at all, my friends mum owns a big house and rents it as a house share, my OH and i lived there for a while and paid £450 per month between the two of us, this covered our rent and all bills but we had to provide our own food and laundry products. our salaries at the time were similar to your daughters and her partners and we had plenty of money left over to play with, being young and naive we frittered it away most months TBH but in the two months before we moved out we saved £1100 between us and didnt really have to scrimp to do so. those were the days...!

sillylittlejill

northern_star wrote: »

My daughter and her partner are asking to come and live with us for a while until they can save a deposit for a house. They have been renting for 2 years but the landlord is now selling the property. If they move to another private rent, they will be stretched financially and so saving towards a deposit would be a very slow process. They don’t have enough deposit to buy anything at present, plus now is not a good time to buy.

We don’t have a problem with them coming to stay – we get on very well (although we all recognise the reality of living together will be challenging sometimes) and we want to support them in their endeavour.

Our dilemma is what to charge them???? Currently they pay £300 each per month into a joint account which covers their rent, utilities, food etc. The remainder of their wages (they both work full-time) stays in their individual accounts to pay personal expenses (car, phone, clothes etc) and to save towards the deposit.

Here, they would have their own bedroom but have to share all other living spaces and facilities. They will be invited to share evening meal with us (though due to their working patterns – or simple choice – they may not do this every day). I only work part-time so would be amenable to doing their washing alongside ours (providing they do their own ironing) and they would have to agree to doing their share of chores.

So what do we charge? We want them to be able to reach their target deposit ASAP so we don’t want to ask for too much. Conversely, it needs to be realistic – or they might just get comfy and never want to move, lol. We anticipate an increase in some costs as a result of their stay (using more gas, electric etc) but many other things (Council Tax, internet etc) will remain the same.

If it helps, they earn 13k and 18k respectively.

We would be grateful for any suggestions on an appropriate charge and also any advice as to any obvious ‘ground rules’ we may need to establish.



Thanks in advance
NS






nb We're looking to gather as much advice and info as possible on this so Board Guide please move if you feel it would be better in another board

Hi

My partner and I moved in 3 months ago with my parents, my mum is asking £100 a month for each of us when working, although as I only got a job yesterday (wooo!!) I haven't paid anything to them yet, although we do our own food shopping. We have a freezer drawer to ourselves and a shelf in a big cupboard as well as a little basket on the countertop!

I'd suggest times arranged for showers in the morning as it can get quite busy in the mornings round here!!

Just try to be understanding that it is VERY stressful for them both as they have ran their own household and it is difficult getting used to being back with your parents again.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

xxx

Lunar_Eclipse

If I were in this situation, I would charge somewhere between £100-250/month for both of them. I would estimate the increase in your costs to be around £100-150/month, so it all depends on how much you want to help them save.

Has a timeframe been discussed? I would suggest as low an amount as possible for a fixed time period (a year?) of £150/month for example, but an increase to say £400 after this period.