Money Moral Dilemma: Should I rent out my house if it means my daughter has to stay elsewhere?

MSE_Kelvin

This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

 I live with my boyfriend, but keep my house so my daughter can stay there when she's not at university. It costs about £300 a month to keep the house running and I could earn £650 a month if I rented it out. However, I'd have to book my daughter into a hotel when she's not at uni as there's not enough room at my boyfriend's, and I also feel guilty about throwing her out of her home. What should I do?

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elsien

What would your daughter do if you were living with your boyfriend and didn't have a handy house for her to live in? Boyfriend's settee? Friends? 
Do you want all the hassle of being a landlord? With all the legal obligations and (worst case scenario) non payment of rent, large void periods and potential damage and eviction costs?
What's the plan when the daughter finishes university? 

Tbh, it sounds like you've already decided to keep the status quo. 

gothvixen

It depends whether you want a relationship with your daughter or not. A fair amount of the money you could make would be spent on the hotel bills, and you would have all the responsibility for repairs, which could be substantial depending on the tenants. More importantly, your daughter would receive the message that you value a few hundred pounds more than you do her. Nothing says you don't care quite like renting out her home and dumping her in a cheap hotel for a few months each year. For the sake of the duration of her studies you would create a rift that might never be repaired. I love my children so it would never occur to me to put a small profit before them.

Beauborg

If it’s costing you £300/month and you could rent it for £650/month that’s a difference of £950/month or over 11K pa. You could get a lot of hotel for that money!

Of course, that doesn’t take into account all the expenses of renting your property.

Based purely economically, it should help you to think whether it’s worth it financially. 

As to whether you should arrange for your daughter to stay in a hotel, rather than ‘home,’ only you can decide that. 

shamylla

Firstly the coct difference of 950 a month, I can see why this would be tempting 

However take into account the costs too
EPC needs to be valid
Rules around EPC requiring to be a min of a D is coming soon
Annual gas cert
Electricity cert 
Plus any repairs / maintenance as ongoing
Searching and managing the tenants is great if you get a good one. Unfortunately if you get a bad one you could be in a situation where thousands is owed to you and they also wreck the property - you have to be willing to take that risk along with the reward.

Also bear in mind the tax you'll need to pay to the tax man, and note that rules about offsetting mortgage interest against profits have changed 

Also, I'm not being funny but if I knew my mum didn't have room for me I wouldn't bother coming home. 

tacpot12

I'm with Elsien on this. You live with your boyfriend now. Either she is welcome there or she is not. I expect that she is more than welcome there, but some adjustments need to be made to make it practical. The rent from renting your house should pay for some very comfortable adjustments. 

You won't know how much your daughter is attached to your house until you ask her - I'm not at all attached to my family home and keep suggesting my parents sell it to downsize. If she is attached to it, one solution would be sell it to her when she graduates and gets a job. You might sell her on the idea of you renting it out now if you offer to save some of the income as a gift for her so she doesn't have to borrow as much to buy it. 

silvermum

Landlord here - I'd also question whether you're willing to take on the responsibility of being a landlord. Alternatively you could get an agency to manage it for you, but that would probably cost 10-15% of the rental value.

Where would all your daughter's belongings go? I have a son at uni and the vast majority of his stuff is still here at home. Personally, I couldn't make him 'homeless' - especially not until he'd completed uni and got set up on his own.

However if it's something you want to seriously consider could you discuss it with your daughter - explain the possibilities and get her reaction/opinion?
Who is paying for her uni accommodation? Could the rental income offset some of her student loan?

MalMonroe

Couldn't your daughter work when she's not at uni? That's what I did (in fact I had a part-time job the whole time I was at Uni and my daughter worked during her holidays when she was a uni student too. I know there aren't a lot of jobs around but students can usually get something - sadly, mostly because they don't have to be paid a lot.

However, if she had a job, she'd be able to give you a bit of rent even if it wouldn't cover the £300 you're spending? Could she ask a friend to stay with her and also pay some rent?

If it were me though, I would NEVER turn my daughter out of any property. Her welfare is more important to me than the money I would earn. I like to think that most parents think the same way. Doesn't matter how old our children are. Your daughter won't ALWAYS be a student and there will come a time when she is earning a good wage in a full time job, hopefully. If you throw her out now, you could lose any bond you have with her. I just couldn't do it. With the best will in the world, boyfriends come and go but your daughter is your flesh and blood. I was married to my daughter's dad but he still left home when she was 9, it really can happen to anyone. Then you'd be alone. I always put family first. 

MalMonroe

gothvixen said:

It depends whether you want a relationship with your daughter or not. A fair amount of the money you could make would be spent on the hotel bills, and you would have all the responsibility for repairs, which could be substantial depending on the tenants. More importantly, your daughter would receive the message that you value a few hundred pounds more than you do her. Nothing says you don't care quite like renting out her home and dumping her in a cheap hotel for a few months each year. For the sake of the duration of her studies you would create a rift that might never be repaired. I love my children so it would never occur to me to put a small profit before them.

Agree with you, 100 percent.

Dog_Lady_No_4

Why not rent out a room instead? That way u get some income and your daughter still has her home 

Marcon

If you're only keeping the house to give your daughter somewhere to stay during vacations, why not sell it and buy her a modest flat (or lease one on a longish term to give her security if that's your priority).

tacpot12 said:

I'm with Elsien on this. You live with your boyfriend now. Either she is welcome there or she is not. I expect that she is more than welcome there, but some adjustments need to be made to make it practical. The rent from renting your house should pay for some very comfortable adjustments. 

Not if it's a top floor flat with no room to expand....

First priority is to discuss with your daughter, surely?