Renting my property to husband’s ex

What utter nonsense. The OP is providing an affordable home for her tenants, not “contributing to the housing crisis.”

My instant reaction to as a ‘hard pass’

Easy to say when someone else’s labour is providing most of the money.

@literati Maybe the girls can live ft with you then until mum has found something to rent? Because sofasurfing or staying with relatives can be done until she has found something. I would let her rent your property tbh. She's trustworthy and you have your income secured and these are your dsc. It's really tough for single mothers so I think it would be nice of you to give her some help since you are wealthy.

@literati I am just shocked that dh pays ex 200 per week when care is 50/50!! why does he pay that much when he really shouldnt be paying anything at all??? that is just below 1k per month!!

They already have that influence, they also have their mum who is present and able to spend time with them.
Honestly ridiculous to suggest taking teen girls from a loving mum because of wage. Even if she didn't work at all it would mess them up taking them away if she's not a bad mum. There's more to life than money.

Absolutely do not do this.

The reason that she is finding it difficult to find a rental is because she is a high risk tenant. Something is likely to go wrong. When it does, it would be 10 times the nightmare for you to be the landlord dealing with it, as compared to a landlord with no personal connection.

Tbh I think you should sell off the property, ideally to an owner-occupier rather than another landlord, and invest your money in something else so that you aren't contributing to the mess that is the housing situation in this country. Then there will be no pressure on you to fix this woman's housing woes.

OP asks: 'I do want to help mainly because it helps the girls and I love them too, what else could we do to help?'

There are various levels of help you & your DH could offer OP. An easy one is to say you don't want to become her landlady (for all sorts of reasons) but you'd be very happy to pass on the details of the landlords of would be tenants for your house (with their permission of course) if this might help her find a rental property for herself & her/DH's kids.

You & your DH could also extend a request for rental properties available through your networks of friends & colleagues say.

DH could subsidise the rent if he wishes to with a market level rental.

The other one, that I quite liked, is if DH is wealthy & is so inclined, he could buy a house, put it in the kid's names , (getting tax & legal advice), and allow her to live there with the kids paying a 'rent' to a savings account for the kids instead. If done well, & your DH & you are OK with this, that could be a really good solution imho.

No. If she doesn't pay the rent or you need to sell up you won't feel able to kick his kids out on the street. It's a very bad idea.

£500 discount plus £800 pcm.

That's over £15k a year to subsidise this woman.

And as a guarantor there’s exposure of probably a years rent and damages, nothing to suggest that this wouldn’t be affordable for the OP. Getting a guarantor is hard and in her shoes I would absolutely do this.

The saying ‘never let anyone move into your house, no matter how sad their story is’ comes to mind. She will never leave. The SC will come to think of it as their Mothers home and you can only either essentially lose the property for all intents and purposes, or face a storm down the line.

You have spare money, this is how your husband can choose to help but there have to be time limits put on everything or this blended family will never unblend.

Never rent to family or, in this case, ex family. It will likely end in tears. I rented my flat to my SD, and after a few months, she stopped paying her, below the market rate, rent. It was an awful situation.
So , when ex decides that money is tight, it will be easy to stop paying rent because a father is not going to make his children homeless. Your DH is going to be stuck in the middle, and you will grow resentful. Don't do it.

If DH can afford it up the maintenance

Noooooooo don’t do it.

I have in-laws who tried to help other in-laws by buying them a property with the idea that they would pay (lower) rent until they could get a mortgage to buy it off them. Anyway they stopped paying the rent and Solicitors got involved and now they don’t speak.

My SIL only had good intentions to help the others but it all went tits up.

Don’t mix business with pleasure as they say.

Well, from the sounds of things, the successful and career-focused OP would be a far better daily role model for the girls than their underproductive, dependent mother.

Bad idea, being a Guarantor is risky

We could look into being a guarantor for her and maybe giving her a couple hundred extra a month but as it is we fund the vast majority of expenses for my step DDs.

No to letting her rent your place and also absolutely no to this!

If he was single none of this would be an option. He and his kids are already hugely better off because of you, that’s plenty! His ex is an independent adult who needs to sort her own housing.

Maybe the handwringers on this thread can have a whip around for her or offer to be her guarantor but you’d be out of your mind to give her more money or take on responsibility for her rent.

I think in your situation I'd rather dh went guarantor and possibly help pay the rent instead of renting your property at a lower price.

If you/Your DH want to help and are able to you could offer to pay 6 months rent up front for her as this usually helps get around any referencing issues due to low income.
Don't stand as a Guarantor though

Because that's really want young teen girls will benefit from... rarely seeing their mum and worrying about her living situation..

OP full time even on minimum wage now is 24k so if she increased her hours once UC stops or the DC are older it shouldn't be an issue

I would do it. If you and DH have separate finances make sure he makes up the loss you'll be making to you though.

You'll be avoiding the unknown of a tenant who doesn't pay or damages the property, and given the law change you'd likely have a harder time moving someone else out to sell than you would with her.

Offer to be a guarantor instead. Or help pay 6 months upfront.

Its hard to say no, but explain to DH that it’s a very large discount, she couldn’t afford this in the long term and you don’t want that Tentant/landlord relationship with her.

This x100. What is she doing to provide for her daughters? She seems to want everyone else to pick up her slack.

In OP’s shoes I’d offer to have the girls live with us full time, stop the CMS payments and let the ex fend for herself. She’s not bringing anything to the table anyway.

This x100. What is she doing to provide for her daughters? She seems to want everyone else to pick up her slack.

In OP’s shoes I’d offer to have the girls live with us full time, stop the CMS payments and let the ex fend for herself. She’s not bringing anything to the table anyway.

I’m solving todays problem but creating a bigger one down the line

This would be my main concern.

Your DH's ex needs to have a sustainable, long term plan and this just isn't it.