Should my boyfriend pay my rent to my parents?

FatVonD

Any wrote: »

However from what the poster said, her parents lent her the money as an investment in return for % of the sales price. So I understood it that they invested money (like you do by buying shares with view to sell later with profit), rather then them wanting to "own" 15% of the house?

I see what you're saying but as an investment it's a pretty poor one, if they were doing it purely as an investment they could have paid a 15% deposit on a BTL and had their mortgage repayments covered by rental income and taken 100% of any profit made.

They were trying to help their daughter get on the housing ladder (at no small cost to themselves) and I think to complain about (and take legal advice!) when their generosity isn't extended to her boyfriend is being a bit ungrateful and also a bit childish IMO.

adouglasmhor

Even so as I posted earlier it's ½ of their 15% share he has use of not all of it.

FatVonD

adouglasmhor wrote: »

Even so as I posted earlier it's ½ of their 15% share he has use of not all of it.

Yep, I agree but why quibble when someone has helped you?

Acc72

New_to_Avon wrote: »

Off to the solicitors now!

I appreciate that you may want to know where you stand legally, however this whole issue is intertwinned with other emotional factors - many of which are neither right or wrong in a legal sense.

I am sure that your parents made their offfer with the best of intentions at that time (and that you also accepted their offer with the best of intentions at that time), however times and circumstances have changed.

Hopefully you can resolve any issues by discussing them with your parents without any legal intervention, as in addition to costing everyobdy a lot of money, the effect on your relationship with your parents may be more damaging.

Any

FatVonD wrote: »

I see what you're saying but as an investment it's a pretty poor one, if they were doing it purely as an investment they could have paid a 15% deposit on a BTL and had their mortgage repayments covered by rental income and taken 100% of any profit made.
.

True, but that would also require some work. It wouldn't be as simple as that and it would not be nearly risk free either.

FatVonD wrote: »

They were trying to help their daughter get on the housing ladder (at no small cost to themselves) and I think to complain about (and take legal advice!) when their generosity isn't extended to her boyfriend is being a bit ungrateful and also a bit childish IMO.

Sorry, but they are doing it with solicitors all the way. The solicitors were involved from start, when the deed was drawn up, and the reason for this was to avoid such an ambiogous situations.

It is very often advised to never ever lend money to family and if so only with paperwork underlying it otherwise it ends up in tears and the reason for this saying is exactly situations like this!!

When one party is all willing and helping and offers one thing, when when they disagree with ones life choices they go back on original agreement and suddenly say "that's not what we meant!!"

While it might or might not be childish and morally questionable (in your eyes) what the agreement was and how to stick to it, it was that and if they want a change they need to talk about it. But it has nothing to do with b/f.

The way to go about it would be to say "now that you have money spare given the bills contribution, we would like to get some of our money now".

They purposely set up the agreement as a loan and not 15% ownership, they cannot suddenly act like owners.

New_to_Avon

To clarify - I went to the solicitors today to discuss the cohabitation agreement we are having drawn up between myself and my bf as it needs to be witnessed by a solicitor, NOT to get solicitors involved in this disagreement with my parents. (I am talking to my parents still and wouldn't ever feel the need to get the solicitors involved!) I was however able to ask the question about the legality of my parents asking for rent and the answer was that they have no legal rights to ask for rent as they are not owners of the property. Indeed, this could lead to them being paid twice effectively, now and again upon the sale of the property. I myself am leaning towards the option of offering to pay them back monthly for their investment out of the extra money I will have available, as I think a few people have suggested.

As I've said in previous posts I am not ungrateful for the very generous help my parents have offered me but as some people have read into the situation, there is a bigger back story which I am not sharing on this open forum and my parents are now using this situation to show their disagreement of my life choices. So thank you to the people who have labeled me as "childish' but that is certainly not my outlook on life.

I am however grateful to the other posters who have offered insightful and helpful advice which give a well rounded view on a complicated situation. It is difficult on these forum posts to share enough info to get an answer without sharing too much information which is very personal!

My bf and I will be able to sit down later tonight and consider our various options to move our situation forward to a conclusion that all parties are happy with. Please keep posting if you feel you have something to contribute to the topic, we will read them with interest x

euronorris

If you and your parents do agree that you start repaying their loan now, in monthly instalments, then I would suggest that you get this change in agreement recognised legally.

Only because your current legal agreement says that it will be repaid upon sale, and your parents may say at a later date that the payments they received were actually in respect of rent and NOT repayments.

Wickedkitten

FatVonD wrote: »

She might be paying 100% of the mortgage but the mortgaged part is only 85% of the purchase price of the property, her parents have paid cash for the other 15% of the house so are entitled to 15% of whatever the sale price is, whenever it's sold.

OP. I think you're being unreasonable in not agreeing to pay. Your parents helped you out and while, as your parents, they are perfectly happy to let their own daughter live rent free in 'their' 15% of the house (which they are paying back, with interest, via their own mortgage) why should they extend that to someone they are unrelated to?

This is no different to a shared equity deal really. They have put up 15% of the purchase price, but the OP is isn't living rent free at all because is having to cover 100% of the day to day costs of running that home as well as the mortgage and if the price goes up by the time that it comes time to sell then they will see 15% of the profit which which could be well in excess of what they originally put down.

lostinrates

Wickedkitten wrote: »

This is no different to a shared equity deal really. They have put up 15% of the purchase price, but the OP is isn't living rent free at all because is having to cover 100% of the day to day costs of running that home as well as the mortgage and if the price goes up by the time that it comes time to sell then they will see 15% of the profit which which could be well in excess of what they originally put down.

I thought in shared ownership/equity deals you also paid a rent on the portion you didn't own?

JodyBPM

I think that OPs parents have broken several major rules:
-Don't invest money that you can't afford to lose
-Don't mix family and money
-Don't lend money that you can't afford to lose.

To be honest, if I was them, I'd probably be panicking now. Based on the OP's age, I assume her parents are heading towards the end of their working life probably in their late 50s or early 60s. OP said they had remortgaged to help her and her brother, so they now have debt to around the tune of £50-60K (based on 2x roughly the figure that will cost around £90 pm in interest), and their "investments" are losing value (based on OP saying that the property is in negative equity). They also, I assume, have no say on when the OP (or her brother) chooses to sell her property, which means that they could be forced to take a loss on their investment, rather than waiting til the market recovers.

Ultimately, her parents have put themselves in a very insecure financial situation in order to help their children out. In my opinion this was not wise of them, but it was very generous of them.

In the OPs shoes, I would be trying to help out my parents in any way I could, simply because they are my parents, they have helped me out in the past, and they are now in a sticky situation.

I don't know the back story obviously, but as a general rule, unless there was some really valid reason not to, I would put my parents' (who have helped me out buying a property) needs above that of a boyfriend. The boyfriend isn't much of a man if he doesn't a) want to pay his own way - ie half of the full monthly rental value of the property, and b) support the OP in wanting to help her parents out.

I'm shocked and horrified tbh, at how many responses suggest that OP should screw her parents over just because legally she doesn't have to pay them anything - they're her parents FGS, and seeming generous ones who have helped her out plenty in the past, who are now in a insecure financial situation because they have tried to help their children out. If my parents asked for help from me, I would help them because they have done so much for me, regardless of whether I was legally obliged to do so.

It doesn't matter if they want to call the money 15% of the market rental value, and you want to see it as interest on their mortgage, or simply a sum to help them out. All that matters is that they are asking for help, and you can give it to them