Renting out my house

wherediditallgothen

cashorcheque wrote: »

Just to remind people, this is what I asked in my original post. Not how to bring up my children or how to juggle work and home life. Sorry to be blunt.

Can't offer much advice, (well any really), but I have just read through this thread with interest as I'm renting out my house in Nottingham, so am embarking on a similar journey to you in some respects.

My agent charges 10% by the way. Other than that, I hope it goes well for you.

cashorcheque

Thanks and good luck to you too!

theartfullodger

Flog house, declare yourself(ves) bankrupt, start again with a clean sheet..

Cheers!

Artful

sequence

Selling the house does seem like the best option.

cashorcheque

Thanks guys, but I'm not declaring myself bankrupt! That's not a way to start family life when, as other people have suggested, I have many other options (renting being one of them, commuting another etc.) And selling the house is not a possible option, since we're in £20-£30k of negative equity and do not have that kind of money to make up the shortfall. Sorry. This thread has gone a bit off track - I just wanted to know all the hidden costs and places I could go for more detailed advice (which many people have given me and I feel on the road to becoming much better informed now).

I'm not sure if Seraphina will still be reading this but I wanted to clarify some of the questions he/she raised. As Seraphina knows, I work in a profession which already has flexible hours built in. I have full time teaching requirements (which equals 10 hours a week). I have full time administration requirements, and have a designated role within my faculty for this. I have full time research requirements, which involve publishing enough material to qualify for the REF or whatever other research exercises will be required of us. I am expected to try to bring money into the department through grants, etc, and I serve on the board of an academic journal. Now only the teaching and the ability to attend meetings actually require my presence on campus. I currently do all my teaching in 2 days and have a 3rd day on campus for admin/research. I do the rest from home, as do many of my colleagues. Nobody cares whether I do this work in the middle of the night, on a Sunday afternoon, or as a 9-5.

So it would seem both sexist and illogical to suddenly deny me the same rights as my colleagues simply because I have a baby. Do fathers get asked to prove they have adequate childcare? I have no problem with being monitored to make sure I am fulfilling all my requirements and pulling my weight, but I do have a problem with being required to be on campus simply because I have a child. This also totally contradicts the fact that employers must grant flexible working to parents who request it. So taking away my flexible working rights when I have a child would be crazy.

Seraphina also suggested that I might think I can work at home while caring for my child - a proposition she (probably rightly) found hilarious. But she seems to forget that there is a father involved here, a teacher who has weekends and evenings free to care for our child. So, if I worked Monday to Wednesday on campus, for instance, I could be at home with our child on Thursdays and Fridays (not working), and still have Thursday and Friday nights and all day Saturday and Sunday as work time which is more than enough. I'm not saying that this will be easy, or that I won't be utterly knackered - but only to the same extent as I would be if I was working 9-5 on campus 5 days a week and coming home to the same responsibilities. The fact that this is going to be knackering is another reason for us moving closer to campus. Working and looking after a baby is one thing, but working far away from home and trying to do it is quite another.

It would be even easier for me to prove that I was putting in enough hours if I lived close to my current job, since I could go in to my office on Thursday and Friday evenings, for instance, from 4-11pm, or all day on a Sunday - and 'clock in', so to speak. However, since this is not a condition of my employment, which has no fixed hours, this will not be necessary.

I do thank Seraphina for coming up with these comments - not least because this is the first time I have come across discriminatory assumptions and suspicion of working mothers' capacity to work - all good practice, I suspect.

theartfullodger

cashorcheque wrote: »

Thanks guys, but I'm not declaring myself bankrupt! That's not a way to start family life when, as other people have suggested, I have many other options (renting being one of them, commuting another etc.) And selling the house is not a possible option, since we're in £20-£30k of negative equity and do not have that kind of money to make up the shortfall. Sorry. This thread has gone a bit off track - I just wanted to know all the hidden costs and places I could go for more detailed advice (which many people have given me and I feel on the road to becoming much better informed now).

I'm not sure if Seraphina will still be reading this but I wanted to clarify some of the questions he/she raised. As Seraphina knows, I work in a profession which already has flexible hours built in. I have full time teaching requirements (which equals 10 hours a week). I have full time administration requirements, and have a designated role within my faculty for this. I have full time research requirements, which involve publishing enough material to qualify for the REF or whatever other research exercises will be required of us. I am expected to try to bring money into the department through grants, etc, and I serve on the board of an academic journal. Now only the teaching and the ability to attend meetings actually require my presence on campus. I currently do all my teaching in 2 days and have a 3rd day on campus for admin/research. I do the rest from home, as do many of my colleagues. Nobody cares whether I do this work in the middle of the night, on a Sunday afternoon, or as a 9-5.

So it would seem both sexist and illogical to suddenly deny me the same rights as my colleagues simply because I have a baby. Do fathers get asked to prove they have adequate childcare? I have no problem with being monitored to make sure I am fulfilling all my requirements and pulling my weight, but I do have a problem with being required to be on campus simply because I have a child. This also totally contradicts the fact that employers must grant flexible working to parents who request it. So taking away my flexible working rights when I have a child would be crazy.

Seraphina also suggested that I might think I can work at home while caring for my child - a proposition she (probably rightly) found hilarious. But she seems to forget that there is a father involved here, a teacher who has weekends and evenings free to care for our child. So, if I worked Monday to Wednesday on campus, for instance, I could be at home with our child on Thursdays and Fridays (not working), and still have Thursday and Friday nights and all day Saturday and Sunday as work time which is more than enough. I'm not saying that this will be easy, or that I won't be utterly knackered - but only to the same extent as I would be if I was working 9-5 on campus 5 days a week and coming home to the same responsibilities. The fact that this is going to be knackering is another reason for us moving closer to campus. Working and looking after a baby is one thing, but working far away from home and trying to do it is quite another.

It would be even easier for me to prove that I was putting in enough hours if I lived close to my current job, since I could go in to my office on Thursday and Friday evenings, for instance, from 4-11pm, or all day on a Sunday - and 'clock in', so to speak. However, since this is not a condition of my employment, which has no fixed hours, this will not be necessary.

I do thank Seraphina for coming up with these comments - not least because this is the first time I have come across discriminatory assumptions and suspicion of working mothers' capacity to work - all good practice, I suspect.

Flog house, declare yourself(ves) bankrupt, start again with a clean sheet..

Cheers!

Artful

sinbad182

Cashorcheque - if you're going to get this worked up when someone makes a comment you don't like, you're probably best staying away from Internet forums.

cashorcheque

Hi, - sorry if it seemed as if I was worked up. I'm not - I was just confused as to why I was being laughed at for my childcare arrangements when I was actually asking a question about rents ...

I wasn't worked up - I actually thought my response was (way overlong, I grant!) but measured and answered point by point the questions someone else had raised.

Lol artful, but again, no way! In my view bankruptcy is wholly immoral unless there is no other option. Sorry.

cashorcheque

Sinbad - I have also thanked people repeatedly for their comments - both those I wanted to hear and those I didn't - not worked up, just expressing my opinion in return

Brb

Good to see you're not upset

LLs do have to emotionally detach themselves from their properties. It will no longer be your home but an asset that is your tenant's home. I do hope that you'd get a good tenant but a bad one will see you tearing your hair/heart out.

As in all areas of life, there are good and bad ppl.

The only thing I will say about the working/childcare situation is ........ I'd LOVE a home job!! (can you get me something part-time ? LOL).