Should my boyfriend pay my rent to my parents?

JodyBPM

I don't think its unreasonable for your parents to ask your boyfriend to pay them *some* rent, based on the fact that they "own" 15% of the house. Although they are happy to subsidise you, their daughter, there is no reason why they should subside your BF, especially if they don't like him.

However, 15% of the whole rent for the house is too much. Your boyfriend is not renting the whole of the house. He is renting half of the house.

I would say that charging him half the market rate for rental of the house would seem fair. 15% of that should go to your parents, and 85% of that goes to you, which you could use to pay the mortgage or save in an account to eventually buy your parents 15% out of the house (or you could use it for anything else that you fancy, but those would seem the sensible options to me!)

I would try to chat to your parents calmly and nicely about this. Ultimately, unless they are financially struggling, I doubt they actually want the 15%, I suspect this is more about them making sure that your BF is paying his way, as of course he should. 50% of the market rental for the house is reasonable, there is no reason why he should get a cheap ride just because you/your parents own the house.

If you are committed to each other, and stay together, in the long run he will benefit from the rental he is paying you if you save it, or use it to pay down the mortgage.

Mojisola

What would be the parents' legal position on receiving money from the BF? If they are calling it rent, don't they have to comply with all the landlord regulations? Can you charge "rent" on a property owned and mortgaged in someone else's name? How would the mortgage company react to hearing that the property is being "rented" when it's presumably on an ordinary mortgage, not a BTL?

Are they going to give the BF a rent book or receipts for every payment he makes?

The parents will have to declare the income on their tax returns and it may affect any means tested benefits they claim.

System

JodyBPM wrote: »

I don't think its unreasonable for your parents to ask your boyfriend to pay them *some* rent, based on the fact that they "own" 15% of the house.

But they don't own 15% of the house. They have lent the OP the deposit and money for renovation which currently comes to about 15% of the house value. The deed of trust says that that money is paid back on sale of the house.

Bottom line, parents can have the money back when the house is sold and have absolutely no claim on anything before that time, and have no rights to dictate who the OP populates the house with or rent from them.

System

The other option is for the bf to pay rent to them and become the tenant from hell.

Mojisola

!!!!!! wrote: »

But they don't own 15% of the house. They have lent the OP the deposit and money for renovation which currently comes to about 15% of the house value. The deed of trust says that that money is paid back on sale of the house.

Bottom line, parents can have the money back when the house is sold and have absolutely no claim on anything before that time, and have no rights to dictate who the OP populates the house with or rent from them.

You've put it really clearly. That's the point I was trying to get over.

paddy's_mum

My feeling is that the parents are worried about where this all might lead. Are they, rather clumsily I admit, trying to protect the safety of their daughter's home?

I'm pretty sure that a waiver signed by the boyfriend can, and indeed might be, over-ruled by the courts if things got nasty further down the line.

I'd also say that my alarm bells began ringing in the opening post when the OP said that the boyfriend was going to be helping to "pay the mortgage". There is an element of naivety going on here and it may be that which is fuelling the parents unease rather than any spiteful motive.

Hope it all works out, OP. Good luck.

New_to_Avon

Wow, I had no idea this forum would be so helpful, I should have posted on here weeks ago rather than tearing my hair out for the last few weeks, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post a reply.

I would like to pose the question to my parents about the whole rent book and tenant situation and find out what they say then, especially in reference to declaring the new income they'd be getting, that could be an interesting conversation....:rotfl: It raises issues about my bf's rights - should he have tennants rights? Should my parents pay for any repairs to the house? (they are refusing to do this from now on although they have helped me out in the past due to my lack of money)

I do own the house in my sole name but am bending over backwards to try and be nice to my parents, who have, very generously re-mortgaged their house to pay my deposit (and they did the same for my brother as well) They are making it very hard however to stay nice to them by their unreasonable requests, as so many of you have posted on here. I do appreciate their sacrifice to help myself and my brother out and am hurt that they think I now don't, just because I want to live with my bf.

I am seeking legal advice this afternoon so will come back to this forum later to update you all as to what my solicitor says to this proposal from my parents. They ultimately love me very much and just want to protect me, my investment and their investment but the emotions of it are muddling things somewhat. They don't want my bf to get a 'free ride' at my expense. I suppose its not a crime to just want the best for your daughter but at 34, it can be a bit frustrating.

Once again, thank you for your thought provoking and helpful posts one and all xx :j

babymoo

Now I am going to play devils advocate. How old are you and your bf? I know that if I was in your position and I was your boyfriend and we spent say 10 years living together with this arrangement, I would NOT be happy about putting 10 years worth of money into a house, helping to pay off a mortgage, paying for house bits, maybe that leaky roof etc and not being able to get anything back.

I might be thinking completely wrong here but have you both really thoguht this through? If you are going to work it this way then anythign that ever goes wrong with the house your bf should never have to cover, yes he's paying rent to live there but thats what he's paying, rent. You pay the mortgage so you have to cover any bills that shud be unexpected.

Flearoy

If you are paying 100% of the mortgage, then you shouldn't pay your parents anything. They've made a lump sum investment which when you sell the house, will potentially be rewarded with a 15% stake in any increase in the property value over and above the original purchase price. Make sure that they don't get 15% of any long term increase in equity as you'll have paid the mortgage off on your own.

New_to_Avon

babymoo wrote: »

Now I am going to play devils advocate. How old are you and your bf? I know that if I was in your position and I was your boyfriend and we spent say 10 years living together with this arrangement, I would NOT be happy about putting 10 years worth of money into a house, helping to pay off a mortgage, paying for house bits, maybe that leaky roof etc and not being able to get anything back.

I might be thinking completely wrong here but have you both really thoguht this through? If you are going to work it this way then anythign that ever goes wrong with the house your bf should never have to cover, yes he's paying rent to live there but thats what he's paying, rent. You pay the mortgage so you have to cover any bills that shud be unexpected.

I'm 34, my bf is 37. We want to live together with a view to saving up in 18 months for a house deposit and to get married. I appreciate your point about the maintenance, that is the bit we're really stuck on in the cohabitation agreement we're drawing up! I'm hoping the solicitor this afternoon can offer some further advice on this. We know we need to get out of this house and arrangement asap in order to move on and have a house on equal footing that is just ours. I am really concerned that this isn't a fair deal for my bf, so it would be short term with a view to moving on as soon as we can. As you may have seen from my signature, I got made redundant last year and am struggling to find a full time job so have three jobs to make ends meet at the minute. We're working as hard as we can to make out lives better but life seems to keep throwing us curved balls!