Heather asks: “I currently pay my Dad £120 towards the household expenses, as does my brother. My partner is due to move in, should he also pay my Dad?”
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Q&A 93 – Paying Rent To My Dad – Shownotes
Heather asks:
I’m 21 and currently live with my Dad & brother. My Mum passed away five years ago. My partner has recently come to live with us three, and my partner and I have both gotten low paid jobs in the past few weeks.
My Dad and I are very frugal with quite a lot of savings each, my brother is less frugal but not poor with money, my partner is poor with money.
I currently pay my Dad £120 per month towards the household expenses, as does my brother. Should I ask my partner to be paying £120 to my Dad, too? As my partner has now come to live with us, should I personally now be paying more to my Dad?
I want to make sure that the three of us (Myself, my sibling, my partner) aren’t a financial drain on him. He says we’re (all) welcome to stay as long as we wish.
Thanks for your question Heather.
Living Expenses
In my opinion, there are two parts of this, both of which fall under what everyone agrees as being “fair”, but this would be my take on things.
Firstly, is what I’d call “living expenses”. This is effectively all the household bills and any expenditure which everyone in the house uses. This would include energy bills, water bills, council tax, line rental, internet, property maintenance, shared food, etc.
In my opinion, you should be adding all of these together and then you and your partner should be paying half.
Rent
Then, you have your “rent”. If your Dad owns the property, then he may have a mortgage payment to make. The interest on the mortgage could effectively be seen as his rent. The fair amount of rent that you would pay would be somewhere between 2/4ths of this amount at the low end, and the market rate for the rent on renting a one bedroom flat in your area.
I would imagine that when you combine the two of these, you are probably paying your Dad too little by paying £120 per month. However, if you and your partner both pay £120 per month, it is probably closer to the fair amount.
This will depend on hundreds of factors, local property prices, how much “joint” food is purchased, who uses what, etc etc.
What Can Everyone Afford?
Beyond what is “fair”, then comes where each party sits with their personal finances and their desire to help each other out. For example, your Dad could refuse to take any more than £120 from each of you as he truly wants to feel like he’s helping you out whilst you are in low paid jobs. If that’s the case, nice one Dad.
The easiest way to work this out is just to be open. Sit down with your Dad and explain everything above and come to an agreement whereby everyone is happy. Easy! 🙂
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