question:- I'm mortgage free. should my girlfriend pay me rent ?

AdrianaPelham

In my opinion she should not be paying rent. I could never charge someone for rent once I had stopped paying! Obviously you should both contribute towards bills but I don't understand the thinking that she owes you anything if you are in a relationship.

kate83

If I was in a situation like this then I would expect to pay half the bills but not pay rent. In return I would sign an agreement saying I had no claim on his house.

In real life, I wouldn't even move into a man's house. I think if you're moving in together then you should start in a fresh house, split the deeds 50/50.
If one party has already paid off the mortgage on one house then I'd have an offset mortgage so the extra money would then be linked to offset the interest therefore keeping the advantage gained from paying off the mortgage, but each partner keeps control of their own money and has an equal share.

To move into someone else's house where they own everything is just asking for trouble (especially as a woman), she'd have to ask permission to do anything and he would always have the power in the relationship.
If you are going to ask for 'rent' then you also need to allow her some share of your house - otherwise she is a lodger and not a girlfriend.

Whatever you do, you need to speak to a solicitor

xxSaffronxx

epm-84 wrote: »

Careful on that policy. A letter in a recent issue of Moneywise was from a woman with children who had given up her job to look after the children and was living in a house owned outright by her husband. They'd spilt up and her husband wanted her out. The legal expert repiled that as she hasn't paid anything towards the house and it isn't in her name then she can't claim a percentage of the house. However, she could claim sufficient costs for looking after the child.

hmm thats an interesting point actually.
I was just talking from my personal experience, which granted is not the same as the issue here, was just giving him my example - dont want to go into too much personal detail tho

paintsplattered

Apologies if my comments repeat others... as a busy wife and mother, I don't have time to read every reply but I just had to express my opinion!

The simplest solution (and profitable if the tories get in) is get married :Aand then everything is shared (or should be). BUT in the meantime....

Split all the household bills 50/50 and then have a savings account(s) in which you put the savings on your bills that you will now be making and she puts in the savings she will be making by living with you. Yes you have worked hard to pay off the mortgage but you will be saving money by sharing your house :D and love & life-partnership is not primarily about money and material things.

SO...I'm afraid alarm bells are ringing,:eek: I don't think this is the relationship for you (or her) if these are your primary concerns about co-habiting. :wall:

And as for, negotiating doing all the chores in lieu of rent.:mad:.. you are a dinosaur! And this sort of idea will send most women running from you at world record-breaking speeds, IMHO!!!

trulymiserable

All i can say is while we may be miserable having debts i would rather have no money each month than be like that , Paying half the bills is fair yes course she should IF she live there full time but rent and your other ideas of arrangements your having alaugh. I do understand the whole if anything happens she might try and get the house then have it put in writing that she cant. On the other hnd looks to me like you will throwing the whole its MY house in her face all the time. Money isnt everything !!! if you card for her as much as you state this wouldnt even have come into question, have a nice lonely life ...

justwondering25

spangle.kitten wrote: »

That reply was fantastic And you're right...if my partner asked me to live with him and pay rent my reaction would be "what?! You want me to pay for the privilige of living with you?!" I'd rather have my own space thank you.

if you was not living with a partner , i guess you'd be paying rent or a mortgage or own your own place....oddly those 3 involve money , why would you not want to contribute to the other person outlay in some way ? if your partner wants to gift you that or come to a suitable Compromise, then fair enough , each couple to there own...

but i think theres two thinking fractions overall used in this thread here :-

those that apply

Head

---

Heart

those that apply

Heart

---

Head

i guess for my Compromise to work (please see either page 13 or page 9), you need two people that think in the same way or it will truely cause issues.

like i said "Life is a buisness , Money is the building bricks , Love is the mortar. IMHO"

savingwannabe

I know it could be serious but some of this is quite funny. It really has made me think.

:j

justwondering25

steve9872 wrote: »

I've just come across this thread and the first thing that comes to mind is the date and time of the first post. There were a lot of replies in the appropriate time period and it strikes me as a long running AF joke that has taken on a life of its own.

No , it was'nt a April fools , its a real life situation.

xxSaffronxx

kate83 wrote: »

If I was in a situation like this then I would expect to pay half the bills but not pay rent. In return I would sign an agreement saying I had no claim on his house.

In real life, I wouldn't even move into a man's house. I think if you're moving in together then you should start in a fresh house, split the deeds 50/50.
If one party has already paid off the mortgage on one house then I'd have an offset mortgage so the extra money would then be linked to offset the interest therefore keeping the advantage gained from paying off the mortgage, but each partner keeps control of their own money and has an equal share.

To move into someone else's house where they own everything is just asking for trouble (especially as a woman), she'd have to ask permission to do anything and he would always have the power in the relationship.
If you are going to ask for 'rent' then you also need to allow her some share of your house - otherwise she is a lodger and not a girlfriend.

Whatever you do, you need to speak to a solicitor

Thats a good point - when me & my partner decided to move in together, we both had properties. We sold them both and bought a place together and put 50/50 equity into the new home from the sale of our houses so that it was fair. Any residue from each of the 2 houses we sold was for each of us to keep.
For instance after the purchase and sale of the new home my partner ended up having an extra 5k after we had put the same amount in each - so that was his to keep, as I didnt have as much equity in my home.
So we started off equal when buying the new house

shimmeronhorizons

I haven't read all 13 pages of this thread, mainly due to the whole whining nature of the 'how dare you charge the woman you LOVE rent' posts - if you look at it from the other side of the coin, people, this is a woman who earns twice as much as her partner who doesn't think she should contribute more than half the bills to a property in which she lives. Egalitarianism in action.

I do agree however with the warning calls about ownership rights should she pay some sort of formal rent, and would go so far as to contact a lawyer and possibly draw up papers for an agreement that, should the relationship go sour, she has no right to the property. Failed marriage is now not the only way you could lose the property. If I were you, I would be a hell of a lot more worried about worst case scenarios than a bit of rent.

As for the whole, 'getting a free ride' thing, perhaps she should pay all the utilities and council tax bills, leaving you with only home insurance to cover? Then, in effect, you're both getting a free ride of sorts.

Failing that, don't live together until you're married and you won't have this problem. Or reading the above post (#271 with ref. to #264), do that.