renting a room out

maka_2

Hi all
about 18 months ago my wife brother moved in with us after he lost his job as a builder (recession) for the last year he has been back in full time work he has been paying us £50.00 a week inslusive of everything ,All bills, sky tv, WIFI, food my wife asked me if i minded if he stayed for another couple of years which is fine but i think £50 a week is far to cheap even for a family memeber working fulltime and also considering everything is going up in price. just after a rough idea of prices we should be asking for.

3 bedhouse decorated to good standard all bills and food inclusive?
also area is in northwest in quite village where he grew up.
cheers for your input

theartfullodger

Sigh!

So, when you looked in the local papers/shop windows / on't t'InterNet for rooms locally to you - what were the usual prices??

Remember, HMRC rent-a-room limit is, I think, £4250pa rent.

BitterAndTwisted

Two things to take into account I think: what this brother-in-law would have to pay on the open market for a house-share and what your additional costs are in having an extra person living with you.

I suspect whatever you ask for might be treated with resentment, especially if BIL's income is very low. Tread gently.

Jowo_2

You can only really go on market rents - what do lodgers pay for rooms with inclusive bills in your local area? Use Gumtree, Spareroom or similar sites to get an idea of average shared accommodation rates.

I reckon the majority of lodgings include most or all bills and exclude food, so you should factor in the additional expense in groceries as perhaps the £50 is barely covering his meals - what's your weekly supermarket shop?

He might, of course, be expecting 'mates rates'...

maka_2

room renting is not hugh round here as to far out for students rents and so forth the house down the road which is smaller than ours rents for £695pcm
our income is low i work full time also attending a fulltime collegue course and my wife is at uni full time works part time we have 2 young children one 7yrs and one 3 months old so money is tight we are not at the stage where we dont know where the next meal is coming from but we have to be careful on what we spend. but so many are alot worse off so i dont complain about that.

maka_2

just had a look on spareroom website 4 rooms to rent inc apart from food

1st was £395pcm about £95weekly
2nd was £385 same agin roughly
3rd was £90 a week
4th was £95 a week

BitterAndTwisted

I suspect that your BIL would not be looking at renting a whole house on his own unless his earnings justified it, so the rent on the house down the road isn't necessarily relevant. Do you know what his take-home pay is? The average ratio of earnings versus rent (not including food) is often a third.

I can well imagine that a full-grown man could eat his way through £50 a week's worth of food and the rent you are charging him at present seems very low to me. I would leave all negotiations with the BIL to your wife if at all possible.

Jowo_2

Well you can only compare like with like, really, what lodgers with inclusive bills are paying rather than the rent on a self contained property.

Lodging with a live-in landlord is often much cheaper than other types of accommodation.

Your expenses are pretty irrelevant to what you can charge - landlords typically charge a market rent and cannot allow their personal finances to be the driver in this. Of course, if your brother in law is now affluent and is trying to pay the minimum despite seeing that you can barely make ends meet, that's a shame and must be galling but perhaps there are other benefits, such as help with DIY, child minding and so forth which help the household.

Will your wife agree to increasing his rent or is she likely to resist?

Jowo_2

maka wrote: »

just had a look on spareroom website 4 rooms to rent inc apart from food

1st was £395pcm about £95weekly
2nd was £385 same agin roughly
3rd was £90 a week
4th was £95 a week

So if his groceries cost you £30 per week, for example, he's looking at a net saving of around £70 per week living with you compared to other places.

Perhaps he's not aware what the local market rates are, perhaps he's not aware that you are struggling or perhaps he feels his subsidises his stay in other ways.

I agree with the previous posters when they say your wife should broach a rent rise with him rather than you. Plus even though the posters here are saying market rents should be the driver, ultimately it's whatever level suits both lodger and landlord.

If your BIL left the property, would you rent out the property to someone else or would you have reservations unless you knew them and trusted them because of the young children in the property?

If the groceries are a big expense and you cook and eat together, is it feasible to ask him to do one in 3 or in 4 of the supermarket runs?

maka_2

he take home bout £300 a week does not help with children or cleaning infact it me that comes behind with the hoover. wife does not want to put rent up as its her brother, . he is fully aware of our finacial situation.

not keen on renting to anyone else infact would be nice to have our house back to ourselfs

BitterAndTwisted

Market-rents should be the comparator not the driver. Once BIL understands exactly what he's saving every week it should be less difficult to get him to appreciate that he most probably should pay more. I'd be minded to split the difference so it appears to be a win/win for both parties.

Average lodger/flat-share is £90 p/week excluding food. Food is £30 p/week. Ergo BIL should be paying £75 p/week including food. Something like that anyway.

Edit: If wife doesn't want to put the rent up you're going to have to sell it to her. As long as BIL isn't actually costing you money this might be difficult. I have to say, if BIL is taking home £300 a week I think he should be paying you a lot more than £50 p/week but I reckon you already know that......