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

Jowo_2

martindow wrote: »

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.

.

good luck to the owner finding a gardener or handy person for less than £6 per hour....

personally, though I can see the attraction in 'free' rent, I wouldn't want to work full time and then lose most of my evenings and weekends to manual work.

also it sounds like this arrangement could easily lead to disputes - what if the landlord isn't satisfied the resident is doing the right quantity of work and what happens if the resident falls ill for a few weeks - will the landlord understand or expect them to make the time up?

Owain_Moneysaver

Jowo wrote: »

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?

If your employer provides you with accommodation, they can count some of its value towards National Minimum Wage (NMW) pay. This is called the accommodation offset. Your employer cannot count more than the accommodation offset rate which is in force at any given time.
Since 1 October 2009, the maximum amount your employer can count towards NMW pay as an accommodation offset is:

• £4.51 a day
• £31.57 a week

(direct.gov.uk)

silvercar

So who would deal with the tenants who have locked themselves out?

Sounds like the risk of being on call would be too great.

I doubt you would get the benefit of the protection that an AST gives.

lavandergirl_2

tomstickland wrote: »

The main house was empty during the week and the holiday lets.

Will the owners have the intention to rent the property to others? This might mean that you be required to do some maintenance /repair work when they let the property out to others.

Nixer

No - I would never have my accommodation tied to my employment. Too risky that you lose your job and house in one go. Although I guess for this you have to have another job or an earning partner to pay for the utilities.

Something like that was advertised near to me - a very large house with a lot of land, small one bed bungalow in the grounds, rent (but not utilities) paid in exchange for some housework and being a "companion" to the lady of the manor during evenings when her son was away. Also driving her places. It looked well dodgy - unless they laid out hours you were "on call" it seemed pretty much that you were at her beck and call.

honeyD

My sister in law and her family lived in a place rent free that had a barn full of chickens. They had to feed them, collect the eggs etc. Bit different, but free rent lol.

HellsGranny

Hmmm, I feel something not entirely right here, if someone is doing this they would need another job to pay bills etc., also there is possibly a question of National Insurance and maybe Income Tax to be considered, as I think that a rent-free dwelling counts as income.

So, unless there is a salary as part of the deal I'd say No.

Cheers, HG

tomstickland

The thing is, by being on site the tenant is providing a service that's not really taken into account in the financial offer.

poppysarah

Depends on how much they expected done in the 12 hours a week.

If they expect a huge garden to be maintained to a high standard there's be no chance... and if they expect huge amounts of diy to be done then similar...

But if it's all manageable and you enjoy that sort of thing AND the location is ok AND you don't have to deal with paying visitors then that's ok.

Spooneroonie

Have you not watched "The Shining". 12 hours work could be the least of your problems...