Rent for teenager living at home?

ytfcmad

Our two kids moved back home for different reasons, each was paying circa £600 month both sharing in two bed houses. We charge one £270 this includes the cost of food for her cat and some additional channels on sky she wanted to pay for. The other pay's £210. They both have their own room in a large four bed house and their own bathroom. They do no cooking or washing (told the wife she's daft) but they buy us the odd takeaway.
They both earn good money but now pay less than half for more than half of what they had before.
One thing to think about is the wear and tear not just the ridiculous amounts of electricity and hot water they use.
They know they have it good as they have experienced the real cost and hassles of doing the rent thing, at the end of the day it's their choice.

bertiewhite

StuC75 wrote: »

I.e. if he moved out tomorrow your gas \ elec \ council tax and mortgage would still be largely the same.

Like I've said (and Idiofreak picked up on) we will be downsizing as soon as we can. I am due to retire from my public sector job in 6 years anyway and the moment I do, I will be selling up and moving from our current 3 storey 5 bedroom house to a 1 or 2 bedroom cottage which will have significantly lower running costs

StuC75 wrote: »

At 19 I would probably let them decide there own eating habits, and if such a conflict of tastes would say that they buy there own.

But then we're getting more into "lodger" territory aren't we? If he decides his own eating habits then that means cooking for himself, having his own section of the fridge & cupboards and increased gas/electricity because he is cooking separately. This is why it's not as clear cut as someone simply paying a tenant rent to live in a house and living as they want. It's a half-way house (excuse the pun) with a half-way rent. If he was to move out he would be paying at least double the rent and that would get him a roof over his head with no furniture etc. Bills & food would be on top of that. Not to mention having to do his own washing, ironing etc. At present he only helps out round the home when asked and then it's the bare minimum.

Prothet_of_Doom

The unwritten Rules are : If they can afford 1/3 of take home then that, unless 1/3 is MORE than it would cost to go it alone and rent somewhere, in which case : the going rate for renting a room in a shared house, plus an equal share of the food.

In all cases you should expect them to cook at least one proper sit down family meal a week (if not 2), and to do a fair share of house hold chores.

2013yearofthehouse

Surely some children, once earning, actually offer their parents money? Seems the polite thing to do - I don't mean this to sound insulting, but has your son not offered you any money?


I moved back home, between uni courses, and offered to pay my Mum, she refused and said this will always be your home as long as you need it (Granted I wasn't making much differnce to the bills - I should know as I'd been organising them for years and saved Mum £1000s in offers/switching), so I took her on a surprise holiday instead, as neither of us had been on one in 6 years. She was thrilled and still tried to pay me for her half, which i refused! I still moved out a year later, and although I later stayed with her a few months here and there when I needed to, I wouldn't live there full time, just because it's free, as it wouldn't be fair to her.


Of course every family dynamic is different, so there's no one-fit situation and I know I grew up in what is deemed "non-traditional". My friends from "traditional" familes vary from parents leaving the country after their children started uni so they had no home to go back to, to a brother and sister whose parents actually bought them a house after graduation, to live in together but separate from them!


Maybe try showing your son the bills, so that he can see how much everything's costing, and then ask how much he thinks he should be contributing.

Furn462

Slightly off topic from the original question, and a little "boring-accountant" of me, but don't forget to factor in the tax implications on you (and partner) of additional rental income that you receive.

bertiewhite

2013yearofthehouse wrote: »

but has your son not offered you any money?

Maybe try showing your son the bills, so that he can see how much everything's costing, and then ask how much he thinks he should be contributing.

He knows exactly how much it costs in the real world because his elder siblings live away - one has moved from free accomodation to rented and the other has moved into his girlfriends parents because they couldn't to rent on students wages. He only ever offers to contribute towards takeaways etc. if I ask and then it seems it's begrudgingly. This is despite the countless times I've told him it's better to offer because 9/10 times I'd probably decline.

bertiewhite

Furn462 wrote: »

Slightly off topic from the original question, and a little "boring-accountant" of me, but don't forget to factor in the tax implications on you (and partner) of additional rental income that you receive.

So when does a contribution towards bills become an income? Whether I pay the bills and get a contribution or split the bills equally - the result's the same surely? How about the scenario where 4 friends share a house and associated bills. Does 1 of them pay the bills and get taxed on 3 incomes?

Mojisola

Furn462 wrote: »

Slightly off topic from the original question, and a little "boring-accountant" of me, but don't forget to factor in the tax implications on you (and partner) of additional rental income that you receive.

Someone paying "keep" into the household doesn't raise a tax liability.

bertiewhite

Well I have an update - initially we had a chat and son remarked that he'd rather buy his own food so I explained that it's not just about food. I asked him to spend a few days thinking about what he thought was a reasonable amount to pay for a roof over his head, bills, food etc. (bearing in mind I had an amount of £200) and he's set up a standing order for £230 every 4 weeks into our housekeeping account.

pollypenny

When DS was on a year's placement he paid £100 a month from a £8000 pa bursary.

He had the use of my car to get to work and travel around, as well as that he shared family meals, daft to do otherwise and I did his washing and ironing. Again, no point in him washing when I was doing it anyway.