MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Terry and June charge their son rent?

Former_MSE_Penelope · 16 November 2009 at 12:10PM

Here's this week's hypothetical situation for you to cogitate on:

Should Terry and June charge their son rent?

Terry and June own a rental flat in London; their youngest son is moving there straight from school to start a new job, and wants to stay there. Yet the couple let his two older brothers live there rent free, while they were students. However, as he will have a full-time job, Terry & June think he should pay rent. He thinks it's unfair, as the others stayed for nowt.

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ses6jwg · 17 November 2009 at 11:20PM

IMO he should have to pay to cover the utility bills, council tax etc.

I think charging your own son rent to turn a profit is bordering on the obscene.

splendiferous_2 · 18 November 2009 at 2:56AM

That's a hard one. His brothers were students, however he is going there to actually WORK a full-time job. I would either take a small amount of rent, or give it to him rent free for a while (a year for example) to allow him to get on his feet. But I wouldn't take any money for the sake of making a profit, that's just ludicrous to do that to your own child.

Sbarkia · 18 November 2009 at 2:57AM

Yes he should pay rent if he is earning, if only to teach him to manage his money, or he will have a serious shock if and when he wants to move on. I'm sure they would not charge him the full market value. In any case the parents apparently own a 'rental' flat, and if their 'tenant' does not pay rent they will be considerably out of pocket.

LeeSouthEast · 18 November 2009 at 3:20AM

Just enough to cover the bills.

suetony88 · 18 November 2009 at 3:22AM

He should most definitley pay rent and all the utility bills. It does not have to be for a profit though. They could keep the money aside for him until he wants to get on the property ladder. Then they can surprise him with a lump sum.
If they do not charge him any rent, he will not understand the responsibility of money and paying for his way in life.

pennypinchUK · 18 November 2009 at 4:24AM

Preston: I shouldn't have to pay rent on the flat. My brothers got to live there free.

Mum & Dad: Your brothers were students when they lived there. They didn't have an income. You do. So it's only right you should pay.

Preston: But it's wrong that you should make money from your son.

Mum & Dad: This is a rental property that we bought to help us with our own income. If we give you free rent our income goes down. Does that sound fair to you?

Preston: Well I think you're exploiting me.

Mum & Dad: We're not charging exploiting rent (Ed: Mum & Dad are probably offering Preston a cheaper rate than the commercial rate). If you're unhappy about paying us rent you are welcome to live elsewhere and pay rent there. We'll just rent the flat out to someone else at a commercial rate. Welcome to the world, son.

ailuro2 · 18 November 2009 at 7:08AM

What pennypinch said.;)

If they could be making money out of it but aren't then they'll be worse off.

Coming to an agreement where he pays their costs plus a little more to soften the blow of losing this income is the way ahead.

If the flat has two bedrooms he could share with someone else to help with the bills.

Nothing in life is for free (apart from the things on the freebies board here!) and any parent who lets their child think otherwise is just storing up trouble for them.

If he starts work and has lots of disposable income he may end up spending it and being used to treating himself all the time, then when he moves out and pays rent or a mortgage, he will still want to buy all the consumer goodies he's used to, and may well end up in debt to do it.

Better to start hom off on the right foot. Of course if they're loaded then they could keep the money without telling him, then give it back when he needs a deposit for a mortgage of his own.;)

Amy_L · 18 November 2009 at 9:00AM

Yes I do. When i was living at home whilst doing my A-Levels, and when i moved home in my 3rd year of uni, doing a full-time placement year my mum got me to pay rent (up to £400 a month). Little did i know that instead of that money going into her pocket, it was infact going into a long term saving account for me to use as a deposit for a house.

I'm now doing a PhD, still renting, and still adding to that account now I know about it (!!) so it's a substantial amount.

Maybe the parents should charge him, take out of that amount the money owed for basic upkeep (food, cleaning, washing clothes, bills etc) and put the rest into a "secret savings account" as being so young maybe he doesn't appreciate the value of saving?

roses · 18 November 2009 at 9:26AM

It depends on what they would do with the flat if he didn't live there. Would they rent it out to other people? If yes then they should charge him something, maybe a bit less than market rent. If they don't intend to rent it out and leave it empty then he should just pay for the bills.

Dusty879 · 18 November 2009 at 9:34AM

Yes they should charge him. We charge our son and he works away most of the time. His thinking is that if he had his own place he would be paying out money for an empty place and it would cost him about 3 times more to what we charge him. Terry and Junes' son has to learn that life has to be paid for at some point, so he might as well get started now.

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Terry and June charge their son rent?

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