Would you live somewhere rent free in exchange for being a caretaker?

tomstickland

I recently saw an advert for a rent-free 1 bed flat in a country house in exchange for doing caretaking work. The main house was empty during the week and the holiday lets required some basic work like turning on the alarms and locking up when not used. This is in a beautiful countryside location with woodland surrounding it.

All that looked reasonable enough, but then they also wanted 12 hours work per week. Gardening or painting or maintenance work.

The flat was rent-free, but utlities had to be paid by the occupant.

Overall I don't think I would do it since I have a full time job, but for a couple where only one partner works, or for someone who doesn't need to work then it would be quite easy to manage 12 hours per week.

I'm just wondering what other people think. I remember that a couple on "pay off your mortgage in 2 years" let their house out whilst they lived rent free and provided a dog walking and chauffeur service to the owners of their new place.

clutton_2

if it was a nice enough place i would do 12 hours a week....

shane42

yeah 12 hrs is about right , i would do it if i wanted a flt and had the spare time.

Jowo_2

Have a faint recollection that the Queen's household was taken to task when the national minimum wage was brought in because some kind of low salary was offered for a position, bumped up by the grace and favour apartment, but it was still subject to some kind of criticism or dispute.

not sure how swapping out rent in return for labour is impacted by the NMW regulations these days?

tomstickland

12 hours would be a doddle for someone who didn't work 5 days a week.
Someone who did though, say that they do an hour a night for 5 days, they then have 7 hours to do on a weekend, which is essentially a whole day.

barrybarryr

Sounds fantastic to me.

12 hours work for free rent. It's a no brainer.

Blacksheep1979

tomstickland wrote: »

12 hours would be a doddle for someone who didn't work 5 days a week.
Someone who did though, say that they do an hour a night for 5 days, they then have 7 hours to do on a weekend, which is essentially a whole day.

7 hours, a whole day - I'd love to work where you do

McKneff

Bliss........................

Sandrock

barrybarryr wrote: »

Sounds fantastic to me.

12 hours work for free rent. It's a no brainer.

Not convinced, 12 hours @ £15 an hour = £180/week, or £780 a month.

That seems expensive for a one bed flat.

That said, if I were renting I'd probably consider it provided I did the 12 hours 'work' around a proper job.

tabskitten

£15 an hour for gardening!?

martindow

NMW is 5.80 rising to 5.93 later this year. Twelve hours/ week is therefore 69.60 or 71.16 per week or around 300 pounds a month.

Sounds good if you have the freedom to choose your hours, but if they require you to be around at specific times to turn on alarms/ lock up/unlock that could be very restricting.