Don't really know where to post so here goes...

earthsoul

I am brand new to the forum, I have found it useful in many questions in the past just browsing unregistered to get answers to my questions.
The time has come to register as I need a little more advice.

I work full time and get a good salary for the area I am in.
I have just inherited half of my fathers property, I may buy my sister out by getting a mortgage to pay off her half and also sort out the repairs required for making it more rentable, but has been being rented out for £200 more than the mortgage I would get on it so I am comfortable with that choice.

The difficult part for me is that a few years ago I took on my mothers mortgage (she is 73 and had an interest only mortgage). I own the property she lives in and I have much more equity in the property than the mortgage (which is a repayment mortgage). I get no return on this money and am effectively paying for my inheritance. When I took on this mortgage I was living in a static caravan on my mothers land and taking over the mortgage meant we had the stability of knowing we would be staying there. Life moves on and now I have a long term partner, we are paying £500 in rent and also paying the mortgage (approx £750). My partner is poorly paid and this means we do struggle.
My mother pays me no rent and the property is falling into a state of disrepair. I have broached the subject of her paying rent but she states she cannot afford to, and that she would not be entitled to any benefits to pay rent.
What I am wondering is ways of making the property pay, the property is a smallholding and the barn does have planning for a dwelling on it, but two factors put me off, firstly it would cost a lot to renovate the barn, secondly I think the interference from my mother would make the job very hard indeed.
If I sold my fathers property and paid of some of my mortgage I still would not have enough to clear that debt.
As you can see I have made a right hash of things, trying to do the right thing but ending up making life hard for my partner and myself and the frustration at not seeing a clear way out of continually working is heartbreaking.
Is getting my mother to pay rent the only way forward?

heyjude2013

Welcome to the forums, you'll love it here :-)

Your mother is 73, does she have a decent pension/other income? If so I would say then yes she should pay you some contribution.

It may seem harsh, but I don't think you should be expected to get into financial difficulty when she's living rent free! Would there be some long term option where you could build some kind of annex to her property that she could live in and you could live in the main house? Or is this not an option.

You seem to be willing to pay two other mortgages but yet you're still renting yourself? You need to think of your financial stability as well as other people's!

earthsoul

she does get a pension but denies getting enough to pay rent, she also still works!

We could convert the barn and live next to her while she lives in the house but to be totally brutally honest we would rather not....she is not an easy character to get along with.

I know that I am going to be paying two mortgages and renting a property ourselves which is stupid, as I say my fathers old property would bring in more money so that for me is an easy decision, it is the property my mother lives in that is the drain.
We obviously would like to buy a property to live in ourselves, in fact I would like to set up my own business and work in an annex next to our home with the thought that if my mother becomes unwell she could live with us in the future. We have been looking into this, but while I am paying the mortgage it would make that unobtainable.