Should I charge rent for the extra room?

Zoltan77

My boyfriend is moving in with me and I'm not sure how to work the bills. I own my house, and he owns another property that he plans to rent out. I initially thought a straight 50-50 split of the utility bills/council tax, and share food costs. I will pay the mortgage. However he will be using another room in the house as his office (he is self-employed). I have no issue with this as we have the space, but should I be charging an additional amount on top of splitting the household bills? 

74jax

Zoltan77 said:

My boyfriend is moving in with me and I'm not sure how to work the bills. I own my house, and he owns another property that he plans to rent out. I initially thought a straight 50-50 split of the utility bills/council tax, and share food costs. I will pay the mortgage. However he will be using another room in the house as his office (he is self-employed). I have no issue with this as we have the space, but should I be charging an additional amount on top of splitting the household bills? 

What do you mean 'should i'? There's no fixed rules on this, it's what you both want to do. 
I wouldn't, others might. Entirely up to the 2 of you. 

tacpot12

If your boyfriend is going to deduct some of the costs of running the room as a business expense, it would not be unreasonable for you to receive something - he has only paid half the running costs of the room, you have paid the other half, but he is claiming as though he had paid the full costs. However, it is going to be a small amount of money in the scheme of things, so I would suggest you ignore this benefit he is getting - you are halving the costs of running your home after all. 

I was in a very similar situation with my girlfriend, and we agreed that I would give her half the rent (less mortgage and expenses) that I received from my house. Effectively I was paying rent to her to live in her house, which seems fair enough as she was paying all the mortgage. She continued to pay the same amount herself and quickly cleared the mortgage as it was already quite small (£20K) when I moved in. 

It suited us to keep our finances separate - I had my house which she had no financial interest in, and she had her house that I had no financial interest in. But all couples are different.

AskAsk

someone had already asked a similar question and the consensus seems to be against my opinion, that the bills should be split 50/50 and no more required, in the name of love and all that.

personally i disagree, and if it were me, i would ask for at least 2/3rd bill or even all the bill, depending on how much rent he gets for his property and how much the bills are.  i am not sure why people all live for love and don't seem to worry about money matters.  love doesn't always last, not even when you are already married, let alone a boyfriend, so why would i want to lose out on money, which is real.

in a worse scenario, the bloke could be using me and i just don't know it.  there are posts on the forum from men and women, whose partner has sponged off them and now are leaving.  they too probably thought love is more important than money and fairness.

rach_k

I would just split everything apart from the mortgage and maintenance of the house 50/50.  Otherwise, it could get silly.  What if you find you spend twice as long in the bathroom as he does, should you pay more for that?  What if he likes to cook - do you increase his share because he spends more time in the kitchen or decrease it because he's doing the cooking?!  Who has a bigger wardrobe taking up more valuable floor space?  

He's not renting bits of space from you; you're a couple living together.  If you started working from home too, presumably you'd share the office or take another room/space for yourself.  Those are normal household things, like having a collection of plants or books, not something I would consider 'extra' to the relationship.  

missile

Is he going to give you half the profit from renting his property? 

AskAsk

missile said:

Is he going to give you half the rent from his property? 

you joking right?  no way is he going to do that.  i wouldn't expect my partner to do so, if this was me, however i would expect him to contribute more than just 50% of the bills because he is going to benefit from renting his place out while staying at mine, where he will get free lodgings.

BlueLeaf

Your BF should be contributing towards your mortgage payments whilst he is living with you, (especially as he is earning rent from his own house).

swingaloo2

BlueLeaf said:

Your BF should be contributing towards your mortgage payments whilst he is living with you, (especially as he is earning rent from his own house).

Completely ignore that advice!
Do not under any circumstances have him contribute towards your mortgage unless you want to lose your house should the relationship fail.

74jax

BlueLeaf said:

Your BF should be contributing towards your mortgage payments whilst he is living with you, (especially as he is earning rent from his own house).

Do not do this. 
This will allow him a claim on your property. 

thepurplepixie

It does seem a bit unbalanced if he is getting an income from his house and all you are getting is a contribution to bills.  Not sure what is the "done thing."