Is this a crazy idea?

2 mortgages, 2 lots of council tax, 2 lots of bills…sounds ridiculous!!!

Surely just buying a buy to let property would be the most obvious choice?!

Why does he want to do that? Doesn't he like being around his children?
No don't do it. Your pour children.
It certainly isn't safe to leave them alone at night and I don't think it would be legal either your young children would be living alone.

Are you both drunk? You want to live next door to your young children?

The utter nonsense on here at times is beyond belief.

Anything else you need to take into consideration? You mean besides the obvious insanity of the idea, the intrinsic child neglect and illegality?

Strangest idea! Aside from every safety aspect, crippling emotional damage this would cause your children-
financially makes little sense, house will probably go up in value more- 2 lots of bills not to mention service charges etc.

This has got to be a joke? Surely no sane person could think this is up for a debate? Yes OP having your children live in a separate house is likely to be a complete shitshow and lead to social services involvement. Plus I can pretty much guarantee that any house my kids lived in without almost constant supervision those ages would not generate any form of income whatsoever.

Why don’t you just pay into a pension or downsize your current house and buy a flat to rent out (to be clear, not to your own children).

I'd love this idea if the children were older teens / early 20s so they could have their own space but have parents close by. But at their current age, unless there's a common wall you could knock down or create a door, then I'd say no way.

....god I'd love this set up now though!

It's mostly me and DS (16) but DS (26) is coming home for a couple of weeks. I'd love them to do their bro thing in an entirely different property to our home!

He’s a complete arse.
Tell him to give his head a wobble.

My partners ex did this, but when the kids were a lot older, ie 16 plus. It’s not appropriate to leave two kids age 11 and 9 in their own flat, even if it’s next door.

What a most bizarre idea. Think this wins craziest MN idea ever.

Is this a wild idea

Yes.

This has crossed my mind, but the difference is my kids are 10 years older and we live in a city with a pretty impossible rental market and they don't have deposits saved up yet. At 9 and 11 this is just neglect.

It's not very often that I read things on here and think 'that has never, ever, crossed my mind' - but this is one of them, of course you can't do that!

It's a ridiculous idea and probably not legal. Why doesn't he want to live with his children? If he really wants 2 flats, I would rather live in one flat with the children and tell him to go and live in the other!

This doesn't sit right with me for a few reasons, I feel like we would lose family time if they have their own living space, not being close in case of a fire, giving up on a freehold property to buy two leaseholds and the annual charge they involve.

Am lol-ing (desparingly, tbf) that you have come up with a list of reasons, or even given this idea oxygen.

The plus side for your DH is, that if you do go ahead with his plan, your next-door-flat will be able to be rented out from the get-go as your kids will be being looked after by their corporate parents.

You could all live in a two bedroom flat and rent the other out immediately.
The problem here is costs of buy to let over returns. The Cost of owning a second home vs income from long term letting is a lot closer margin than most people think. You are really dependent on the property price bubble continuing to expand and then you are looking at capital gains tax.
Council tax is being increased to savage second home owners amongst other financial penalties.
You cant get a mortgage on a second property if its in trust to a child ie you were thinking of the kids inheriting it.

Has he actually spoken to a financial advisor at all ???

Could you convert your current house into flats when the kids are older and moved out? You live on the ground floor and rent out the upstairs.

Is he serious or is it a pie-in-the-sky joke?

This is the weirdest thing I've seen today.

I have friends in another city who own two 3-bedroom flats - one on top of the other. They did not knock through as they are anticipating selling one in future. However they have all the living space in one flat and the sleeping space in the other flat. So they are downstairs in their office/living/dining spaces most of the day and go up together at night. They never leave the children in a flat by themselves.

Sounds totally awful to me but they love their area and can both walk to work and have prioritised that. They had one of the flats until a couple of years ago so had the children sharing the other bedroom and an office space. They anticipate either their children living in one flat when they go to Uni or renting one out or using it for their adult children to stay in when they are grown up (they are 14 and 10 now)

I think you need to steer him towards a one bed rental, assuming that's a similar increase in price as going from 1 to 2 houses. Tell him he can start renting it out now and you get to keep your nicer living arrangements as they are.

It's a stupid idea, a total waste of a kitchen, for example, if the kids have their own, two sets of council tax. Legally you'd probably have to have one parent in each flat and if you ask any separated couple they'll tell you that running two households is much more expensive than one.

There isn't a single good reason to do it.

I can well imagine your kids will be frequent posters on the stately homes thread in a decades time...

You sound as if you actually think he’s being responsible! Cop on, OP — it would disturb me to be married to someone who thought that having a flat to eventually rent out justified living separately to his two young children!

But none of his reasons justify wanting to live separately from his young children? Did you really have to ask if that's crazy?! You could downsize and get 2 properties sure. But obviously you can't just chuck your kids into one of them to live on their own!