What sort of rent do people charge 18-25 year old children

NJW69

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Off topic but have you remembered to reclaim child benefit and tax credit for him?

Yes to the child benefit and no to the tax credits as I think there is an earnings cap. Never got them before. Also sent his P45 parts 2&3 to the tax office for a refund of what he has paid this year.

caeler

In 1999 I was 18 years old just out of full time education I earnt £12,000 per annum and paid £250 keep, excluding BT/Broadband/Sky/mobile. This was in Surrey.

AbFab

It depends on so many factors.

We all have different characters and different circumstances.

I am the eldest of three, raised for the most part by a single mother where money was tight.

I left for university, and returned home afterwards. I wanted to go travelling for a year, so needed to save as much money first as possible. My mother supported my desire to go travelling and didn't charge me rent for the time I was back from uni and I left for travelling - I guess she saw it as a sensible, life-enhancing thing I was doing, and she was all for it. I truly appreciated that - had I had to pay proper rent or bills, it would have taken me twice as long to save enough to go travelling.

When I returned from travelling, she welcomed me home. I paid a very nominal amount for my upkeep, as the alternative was throwing money down the drain (as my mother put it) to rent elsewhere, as I was not yet in a position to buy. I was always very sensible with money so she felt no need to teach me a lesson. She knew I was saving for a deposit for buying a home.

It wasn't ideal, living at home; my room was tiny, I didn't have friends over much, it was out in the suburbs a bit, I had to abide by her house rules, but I respected that, and it was worth the sacrifice. On top of that, my mother had recently experienced a serious illness and though recovered, it truly made me realise how precious our time with our parent(s) is - luckily she is still going strong now, but I am so glad I had that quality time with her when I was a young adult - it was different to just being with her as a child. Also, I think she actually enjoyed having me around.

My middle brother was unwilling to 'sacrifice' his 'freedom' for a couple of years so when he returned from university the year after me, frittered money away on rent elsewhere. He is only just now in a position to start looking to buy a property of his own, whereas I've been on the property ladder for several years.

My younger brother was at home when I returned from university, but wasn't as good with money as I was. My mother chose to charge him rent, to try to better teach him the value of money (so she was charging one child and not the other, due entirely to our individual circumstances and personalities). My younger brother was not made aware I was paying only a nominal amount as he'd have kicked up a fuss about how unfair it was, but she did it for his own good. I think she probably gave him the money back when he bought his first property, bless her.

I am now in my thirties, and married - but I will always be my mother's child. She didn't give birth to me only to be shot of me the moment I turned 16.
She'd offer her spare room to me/us now if I/we needed it.
And should she get to a stage where she doesn't want to/can't live on her own any more, she knows she will always be welcome to live with me and my husband. We would of course not even consider charging her rent.

Not sure if that helps the OP at all!

sapphireeye

I've just turned 22 and I pay £250 a month, plus £15 towards the Sky TV. I buy all of my food for lunch, snacks, breakfast etc but I have whatever everyone else is having for dinner most nights of the week. My parents do all of the washing but that's because they only do washing on two days a week and run it all together as there's 5 of us in the house and we're on a water meter so it saves money! I have no problem with paying this amount, even though most of my friends pay less or no rent if they live at home. I also pay almost £300 a month on my season ticket loan to get to work and until last month I was paying my dad back £250 a month for what I'd borrowed to get a car.

I'm now looking to get a new job so I'm closer to home so I can get rid of the travel costs and hopefully move out so my parents don't have to put up with me any longer, but that's another thread!

sazzie_sue

Hi,

I think £250 is more than fair,on OP sons income and the fact he gets all his food ect... I just move bk home and me 24 pays £200 a month and my brother 17 £100 per month. This is because I have a net income of £1200 a month and my brother only £400 as he studies too. I don't have a problem paying more than my brother as I know if he gets a fulltime job he would pay the same as me and vice versa if I worked PT my mum would charge less, I think she is very fair. When I was 21 I was out of work for a few months and she took nothing from me she is very understanding like that.

I also get everything done for me washing, meals and lunches for work, internet sky ect... But then also if I see things that need doing I will help, if she had a busy day at work I will wash up after dinner ect. I think things like this have to be a two way relationship, my mum is understanding on our circumstances and I help when and where I can. Were quite lucky as we all get on and work well as a family but if my mum asked me for more money I wouldn't have a porb with this as things are going up and as well as working full time she work hard to provide a clean home and fresh cooked meals everyday I'm really thankful for all she does. Were also still here 'babies' lol we still get little treats even though were grown up, odd magazine or sweets from the supermarket LOL.

OP I think asking £250 is not a big ask if my mum asked for the extra money I would pay it mean I would still have £900 a month to myself!!

SS!

mandragora_2

We, too got the 'but none of my friends pay anything like that much' argument when our son lived at home during his [STRIKE]doss[/STRIKE] gap year a couple of years ago. The amount we charged him was his portion of the household bills, excluding the mortgage, as we reasoned we'd be paying that anyway, and also take any profit from the house ourselves in the long run. When he moaned, I sat down and showed him exactly how it had been worked out, and, though he wasn't happy at the time, it was the end of his grumbles about it. As it happened, we saved his rental money in an ISA, and when he then went on to uni, it was a fund we dipped into to pay for things like his rental whilst away.

As we're now subbing him £45 a week (no work to be had down here over the summer, so he's penniless) and have always paid his accommodation and tuition fees, so that he doesn't rack up a debt on the student loan (I hate the thought of them starting adult life in debt, when we got grants to study, and I want my kids to have the same), I think he's done fine out of the deal overall.

You should charge a realistic rent, I think - otherwise you do them, and yourself, if you need the money, no favours. As others have said, if you don't need the money, by all means squirrel it away in a bond or something with a reasonable return against the day when it will come in handy for them - that day will always come around. Better there than in the pub landlord's pocket.

mbga9pgf

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Adult children should behave like adults and pay their own way.

What decent person wants to be kept by his/her parents as if still a small child?

If you old sods hadn't got so greedy, perhaps us youngsters would actually be able to afford a pLace of their own? Ftb affordability is still worse than at the last peak in 1991. That's with record low rates and prices having fallen.

Intergenerational theft isn't In it.....

mandragora_2

Suuure. Let's just have a wee think about that one, shall we?

'Intergenerational theft' ?? We lived in rented property when I was growing up - for me, it was married quarters, for many of my friends it was council houses. A generation earlier, when my parents married, they had to live with my grandparents for the first three months because they were homeless - desperation drove my dad to sign up, because at least that way he'd be housed, with some hope in the long term of a home for us all. Their first place was a 14 ft caravan, no running water or electric. They scrimped and saved all through my childhood, because 'people like us' weren't seen by building societies as being the sort who should be offered a mortgage. Eventually they saved up enough to be able to put down a 50% deposit on our own house when I was 15.

My grandparents lived and died without owning property, with varying degrees of security of tenure. My parents inherited only small ornaments, good pans and a lot of memories when their parents died.

When setting up home myself, with my husband, we were skint for years and years. We eventually bought a house that had no heating, no plaster on the walls, no hot water and a ruined cold water system. It was a repossession, and the only way we could afford to get on the housing ladder. For years we had a stream of people turning up at the door looking for settlement of debts against the former owners. We sank every spare moment and every spare penny into trying to make the house comfortable, and watched as the money we'd invested in it was always more than the house would have made had we been forced to sell it. We had a roof over our heads, and that was all we wanted, but my goodness we had to work for it.

Buying or renting a home has always, always been a struggle. You're not the first generation to have noticed this. The only difference now is that, over time, and if you're lucky, you may inherit some money on the death of property-owning grandparents which could come in handy during your young adulthood as you're setting up your first homes. Gook luck to you, I don't begrudge it at all. But never, never tell me I don't know how hard it can be.

jackieb

Well said mandragora. We've only recently managed to buy a house big enough for us all, and we've been married over 20 years. There was 6 of us in a 2 bedroomed house (where we later converted the loft so we had 3 bedrooms).
Not everyone is a property tycoon. Most of us just want a decent house to live in.

My son is going to be able to buy a house far sooner than we were ever able to.

space_rider

I used to pay half of what I earned for my keep. This was returned to me when I bought a house so it was a very decent deposit.

My daughter paid £25 a week when she was working and between uni. She`s had that back and more in helping her to afford to eat and more whilst at uni. I don`t think we do them any favours by letting them not pay for their keep whilst working and at home. Once they out of full time education then I don`t see why we should still be keeping them. I`m sure hardly any parent charges what they actually cost to keep when you sit down and work it all out!