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

jackieb

He's very lucky to have got a placement and now a job. They're quite hard to get into. He works for 2 weeks then gets 3 weeks off as well. I only charge board for the weeks he's at home - £40 a week for 3 weeks = £120 every 5 weeks. I don't think it costs anymore than that from him to live here. We still have to eat and heat the place and pay the mortgage if he's here or not. One extra mouth doesn't make that much difference when you've got 5 already.

elfen

If your son is on a F/T wage, then do the £50 increase. From the age of 16 I paid my parents rent, it was the money they would have had for me being in education and covered bills and rent and food. It was only small amounts but I still contributed.

As I got older and earnt more I still paid, it went up to £250 a month which I knew was reasonable as I had seen the spreadsheet my dad uses for the finances each month, so knew my share was being paid on everything (rent/bills/internet/phone/food/washing/cleaning)

Even when I was on benefits after having a breakdown I paid rent, only £40-60 a fortnight depending on what prescriptions I had but I still paid. When my money went up, the amount I paid went up, and I still pay now I live in my OH's parents house. I'm waiting to get the Council Tax form for the student reduction and that may or may not bring my rent down.

Jowo_2

edgex wrote: »

er, i dont really think they would have found places to live.
the older one possibly, but a 19yr old? even a full-time wage for someone that age is not going to enable them to move out.

..
the idea that children would move out when their 16/18, or even 20, is quite simply no longer realistic.

I moved into lodgings when I was 18, earning £90-100 per week and paying rent of £35. It was a shock to me to have to spend all my income on essentials with no luxuries but that's the real world for many people. I took up free activities for my social life and acquainted myself with charity shops.

The minimum wage for an 18 year old is £4.77 so someone working 35 hours a week will gross £167 per week and net £152 of this. It certainly won't go far as I've checked where I used to live and the cheapest room is £65 per week so is a slightly higher percentage of income. It would leave that teenager with £87 per week to cover all other expenses, doable with good budgeting skills but quite tight.

edgex

Jowo wrote: »

I moved into lodgings when I was 18, earning £90-100 per week and paying rent of £35. It was a shock to me to have to spend all my income on essentials with no luxuries but that's the real world for many people. I took up free activities for my social life and acquainted myself with charity shops.

The minimum wage for an 18 year old is £4.77 so someone working 35 hours a week will gross £167 per week and net £152 of this. It certainly won't go far as I've checked where I used to live and the cheapest room is £65 per week so is a slightly higher percentage of income. It would leave that teenager with £87 per week to cover all other expenses, doable with good budgeting skills but quite tight.

but how many 18yr olds have got a consistent 35hrs a week?
you have a week of 20hrs, & its down to £86

rental has gone from 35% to ~40% of pay
i wonder how other expenses have changed over that time?

Person_one

I had to move back home after finishing uni. I had studied in expensive places and while I only had a minimal overdraft and a student loan I had no money available to live off while I looked for a job.

I was charged £100 a month once I started working (it took several months to find a job, being a graduate is no guarantee) and expected to contribute to chores, my food costs etc.

It wasn't a lot, but it helped towards some of their bills while I was able to save about 50% of my wage each month. I'm shortly moving into my own flat after two and a half years at home. If they'd charged me more rent, they'd have been stuck with me a lot longer!

My parents have always told us children that their home is the 'family home'. Any of us are welcome to come back at any time and can contribute according to their means and situation.

Jowo_2

edgex wrote: »

but how many 18yr olds have got a consistent 35hrs a week?
you have a week of 20hrs, & its down to £86

rental has gone from 35% to ~40% of pay
i wonder how other expenses have changed over that time?

Well, I believe food is much cheaper these days in relative terms these days. I couldn't cook then and I think i struggled to get a cheap shopping basket until flat-mates introduced me to italian and vegetarian cooking. I expect the same problems confront most teenagers leaving home with inadequate domestic skills. I can now bash out a chilli, a curry, a pasta dish or omelette and get change out of a quid.

This is why it might benefit the OPs son if the OP agrees not to put up their housekeeping but buys them a few cookery books for novices and instructs them to buy their own groceries and make their own meals.

If the OPs son had any budgeting skills, he should be able to live on £200 to £230 net per week in London. After all, many of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants that flock to London to work in the low and minimum waged industry do this on less and wire their savings back home.

silvercar

Surbybird wrote: »

My children are 19 and 22 so they are adults, rather than children, and the trading down wasn't my choice.

Until earlier this year we were living in a large house which I'd shared with my partner until our relationship broke down. He then, not unsurprisingly, wanted to cut the ties as he was in a new relationship and the girlfriend was pressuring him to get me out. Therefore I had 2 choices - buy him out and stay where I was or let him buy me out and move. I couldn't afford to buy him out so he bought me out instead.

I had little choice but to downsize because that's all I could afford to do. I also had to move 30 miles away because house prices where we used to live were out of my reach on a single salary.

As a result, I am now burdened with a much larger mortgage than I had before and I'll be paying it off until I am 65! I could have told both daughters to find their own places and bought myself a little house somewhere and cleared my mortgage off in a few years, but I didn't. I chose to saddle myself with a huge pile of debt so that they could live a cheap and cushy life at home instead.

So what part of that is being unfair to them?

Why does their father suddenly have no responsibility to house them, just because he has a new girlfriend?

The "unfair to them" bit is blaming them for you having a huge pile of debt when the reality is that its your relationship breakdown (and I'm not blaming you or your partner for it) that has meant you got persuaded to move out of the family home and to have sole responsibility for housing your children.

FuzzyMoose

property.advert wrote: »

I left home at 16 but went once or twice. I'd never have still been there at 20+ in a month of Sundays. I think the kids should be out before that but if someone was on £1000 net a month, I'd probably want £500 and I'd put what it didn't really cost extra into a saving account so it would provide for a deposit on their own place.

I think it is unhealthy for kids to remain at home too long. They should get out and do their own thing. I would expect most kids to want to leave unless they have been brought up as vegetables in front of the TV and Playstation. Most people of my generation couldn't wait to leave home.

All I can say is that I am damn glad your are not one of my parents - "Right you have had your 16 years now bugg3r off" :rolleyes:

Jowo_2

FuzzyMoose wrote: »

All I can say is that I am damn glad your are not one of my parents - "Right you have had your 16 years now bugg3r off" :rolleyes:

But its more the case that the majority prefer to flee the nest of their own volition or make plans for future independence in conjunction with the support of parents rather than an arbitrary turfing out of teenagers.

When I thought back to where I was at the age of the OPs son, I remembered that I was serving in the regular armed forces during the gulf conflict, much of which was spent sharing my room with between 4 and 15 others.

So its all very heartening to hear of the support given to ease adolescents into adulthood and out of the nest, taking into account the economic circumstances of parent and child, but this could account for my bafflement on why this level of indulgence is expected.

tek-monkey

Discussing this with my OH a few days ago, and I think we just put up with a lot more when we were younger. Things like wearing 3 jumpers because you couldn't afford the heating bills, I don't think many people have that issue anymore.

Or rather, I think people are unwilling to sacrifice luxuries in pursuit of self reliance. I just HAD to be independant, I wanted to stand on my own 2 feet regardless of the cost. People nowadays seem happier to stay at home, I couldn't wait to get out. Might just be a personal thing though, rather than a generational one?