Dilemma regarding rent charge for friend

Your friend has looked after your property and paid the mortgage for you for a decade in exchange for somewhere to live. You now want her to take responsibility for your child. Can you set up a savings account for your child and get your friend to pay the amount you need into it each month? Explain to your friend that she will have to work extra hours if she can’t afford it.

Or be an actual friend to her. She’s paid your bloody mortgage for you and looked after the place so it doesn’t get mould, damp, etc. You said you no longer need the property so sell it to your friend at a reduced cost considering all she’s paid so far.

A good tenant is worth their weight in gold.

What equates to you being down £250 a month might be well worth the loss in my view.

If you really wanted to up the rent, I wouldn’t go above £100per month, personally.

You’ve got to look at the bigger picture here, because a bad tenant can cost you a lot of money and time.

Does she know your financial position? I'd tell her the rent needs to be raised to meet your costs and give her the option of first refusal. If she unfriends you because she's not getting cheap rent any more then she's not really a friend to start with

I would look at it that you are taking money from your son to give to your friend.
If you can get substantially more renting it out on the open market then I would give your friend notice.
Family comes first, she’s benefitted for the last 10 years so you’ve done her enough favours.

You’ve got an asset in a lovely area which is increasing in value without you doing anything and you have a tenant who is looking after it. Sounds like a gold dust situation to me.

Maybe you could get more money but you’d lose a friend and you might get a shitty tenants. Just because people can afford to pay more does not mean they will look after your building.

So you're not out of pocket down, you just want to profit now to sort a nest egg?

The nest egg is the sale of the property when you need it. It's been paid for by someone else, that's a nice earner.

But if you want to raise the rent then raise the rent. You might risk the friendship but you have a kids future to think of.

When you say you are “down” £3k a year, presumably you just mean you could get more on the open market? It’s not a real actual loss?

Personally I’d leave it. Good tenants are not easy to find and you know she’s looking after the property and not trashing it. Discuss a rent increase at the point your son actually starts needing the money.

This is really awkward, I rented to a relative once before, same deal only charged enough to cover costs while I was moving around with work. When I returned to our hometown I need to either live there or rent it for enough to cover my rent elsewhere. In this time market rents had gone up massively and instead of appreciating her savings over the years she blamed me for the fact she could no longer afford to live where she loved. We are barely in contact now. I think you need to rip the band aid and let her know the situation, of course give her time and any deposit back to help her either find a new place or rebudget but ultimately your responsibility is to support your child and not her. You may lose the friendship.

I would tell them you need to sell and give them 6 months to move.

If you are covering the mortgage and management costs why are there outstanding costs? There will be a limit on how much you can raise the rent for a tenant