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

Marisco

I'm not sure I understand the dilemma here! I admit I've only read the first 5 pages and this one, so it might have been made clear in the others!! As I read it, the gf lives in the Midlands, has her own flat and doesn't want to move, and the op lives in Leeds, so they don't live together. So why on earth should she pay anything towards the op's house??

wigglebeena

Well, she visits sometimes, and has the marvellous privilege of existing in his presence... so, obviously...

Marisco

Oh well, there you go :rotfl: He should be charging B & B then on a nightly basis!! And she's not paying anything towards his traveling costs either?? Shocking state of affairs:rotfl:

wigglebeena

Of course the obvious answer is to dump him, get someone more pleasant/attractive, and not give him a penny. Could life really be that simple?



Yes.

mopatop

I think that there are two ways that seem reasonable to me:

The first would be to charge half of what the equivalent value if you had the equity of the house in a savings account. (So in your instance say you find a savings account at 3.5%, you have equity of £140k in your house)
your other half will pay £140k x 3.5% /12 (each month) = £204

The second would be to get her to put half market value rent into a joint account that you share for holidays/deposit on house/ wedding, but not house improvements as I feel that this would blur that separation between what is yours and what is both yours should separation ever happen.

I would be interested what people think of the first option as it's not something that I have seen posted on this topic, but as I am in a similar position so have spent some time thinking about it.

tara747

Hmm, not sure about those options really!

quantic

If my partner was unwilling to even offer to pay I would question her motives of being with me in the first place. A relationship is never going to be even in most cases, my partner put nothing towards our deposit as I was already saving before we met but she pays half now. She understands that should we ever break up it wouldn't be 50/50... personally I would perhaps charge my other half rent if I was in your situation, but put it to one side.

Aytoun27

I've only skimmed this thread, but when I moved in with a partner who already owned their house outright the question of rent was never raised. If my OH had been paying a mortgage or rent I would obviously have happily contributed towards it, but I wouldn't have been happy being asked to pay towards something that didn't exist! It would have felt too much like 'it's my house, not our house' and 'you're a lodger, not a partner'. Also I would want to know what they were going to do with my 'rent' given that it wouldn't be paid to a landlord or bank - save it? spend it? Neither would have felt really fair and would have made me feel that I was only being asked to move in to generate a little extra income.

So we agreed that we would each contribute the same percentage of our income (percentage, not amount, so I actually did (and still do) pay more each month than my OH as I had a higher income) to household expenses. We also agreed to put the same amount each into a joint saving account every month, which seemed fair to both of us. The truth is we did run into some money troubles later on, but they had nothing to do with this arrangement which has worked well for us for the past eleven years.

Loosepockets

How someone can just expect to live for free is beyond me. Good luck getting it sorted OP.

Tixy

This is a very old thread that has been dragged back up today- for anyone who was going to post with advice for the OP - its probably a little late to be useful.