Renting a house to family while overseas

splinters · 29 April at 5:49PM

We are moving to Switzerland this summer and our daughter and son in law are selling their property and moving in to ours. We are not charging them rent (savings their mortgage is a gift to the newlyweds) but wondered about the best arrangements for bills etc. We are in our mid/late 50's, mortgage free and owned the place for almost 30 years. We will sell it when they move on in a few years. We rent an apartment in Zurich.

Should we keep utility bills etc. as they are and they just cover the costs, or should they set up as fresh 'tenants' including the council tax etc?

We would rather not get into a formal renting situation (they are essentially minding the property until we sell and saving money) but neither do we want to compromise their situation such as credit etc. nor cause ourselves unnecessary costs.

Basically, as long as the house costs us nothing, we are happy.

Any advice is very welcome.

FreeBear · 29 April at 6:17PM

You need to look at certificates such as CP12 for gas and EICR for electricity. Building insurance as a minimum, although yo might have difficulty finding an insurer.

Utility bills and council tax should be in their name. You also need to discuss responsibility for repairs & routine maintenance as well as the annual Gas Safety Certificate. Even if they are not paying rent, they could be considered tenants.

One more thing that will likely catch you out - Capital Gains Tax for the the period that daughter & SIL are occupying the property. When you come to sell, your solicitor should be able to advise.

Brie · 29 April at 6:18PM

No experience of this situation directly other than always having a friend to check on our place ever couple of days when we go on holiday. This included what was supposed to be about 6 weeks but got cut back drastically last year.

Anyhoo…I would think that there needs to be a document of some sort that explains what you expect of them while they live there (cut grass, don't bother the neighbours, get windows repaired if they get broken) just so it's obvious and there's no assumptions. I've done this with my friend so that he knows how the washing machine works if he needs to use it or who to call if he walks in and finds a burst pipe. Or whatever.

I would suggest them taking on all the bills, but perhaps with the exception of the house insurance - although maybe this could be in joint names with them paying you upfront for the policy. I mean you don't care if the have the heating on all the time or whatever as long as it's being paid for and they can do that themselves. But you want to ensure your property is insured - just in case of whatever.

splinters · 29 April at 6:31PM

Thanks, they stayed here when we lived in Thailand for three years so we know they are responsible and reliable. Capital Gains Tax, yes one to look into. They are planning to be here no more than two years, they already have money from the sale of their current house, this is to help them get a better place. We do the gas safe check yearly.

Jemma01 · 29 April at 7:08PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81981827#Comment_81981827

If they already stayed in your place for 3 years and you had no problems, what's making you question it this time? If you have concerns we'd be able to address these better if we know what they're.

splinters · 29 April at 7:40PM

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81981876#Comment_81981876

For some of that time, my wife was there with them before she joined me, plus we knew we would return to this house.

This time we have no plans to return, we will use the money we save there, plus the sale of this home, to buy a new property. We plan on doing just 4 or 5 years there, and our kids will do just one or two here in this house.

Im just curious what the best arrangements are to help them while living here, negate our costs, and then sell the property with minimal loss