AIBU to not rent a house to our relative?

There is simply no version of "the other side of the story" or the relative's perspective that would persuade me to rent to her. Even if she was a good tenant, hadn't been a total bitch to the OP previously and was willing to pay full market rent then I still would say don't ever do business with friends or family.

Why do you assume they would take good care if the property? I assume they would be the nightmare tenant bothering the landlord over the slightest thing purely because they have such an openly anti Landlord stance. They wouldn't see it as a favour to them but their right!

Just straight out No.

I would also add that no good deed ever goes unpunished
I allowed a friend’s husband to live in our property for literally what it was costing me to pay the mortgage
Moved and lived there for three years happily everything was fine asked him to leave and he started sending me documentation around. Had I protected his deposit?
What fucking deposit you didn’t pay one?
I was very lucky he did in fact leave but he definitely had me over a barrel

A definite and very hard no to this cheeky person!

Why would you do a favour for someone you don't like, and who takes every opportunity to criticise you about, well, anything and everything? Hard NO.

I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t mix business with pleasure. I’d make some cock and bull story up about it needing loads more work because of damp / subsidence and say it won’t be ready in time.

I would also in future play your cards closer to your chest. Widet family don’t need to know about rental properties. They don’t realise the hassle involved. Your CF relative is just seeing it as a free, empty house.

We rent out properties and had a similar situation a few years back.

Anybody saying we should rent to her for free, I’d look confused and say “But that would cost us £800 a month? Are you asking us to lose £800 a month from our income?” They can’t quite see that the rent is our income, they just think it’s free money. I was always politely baffled at the suggestion that we should
lose £800 a month, and would ask helpful questions for clarification, like “so are you giving her £800 a month to cover bills and groceries? No? But then why would we give her £800 a month when you’re not?”

Suggestions of “mates rates” were met with “So you want us to give her £100 a month? By losing £100 a month of our normal income, we’d be giving her £100 a month? Are you also going to give her money?” Etc etc.

It’s very strange - they just saw it as “free house that relative can have!” And didn’t see it as an asset that we had a mortgage on, and had invested money and time into doing up, and that we needed the income it produced! So we had to be really clear about what they were actually asking us to do.

No way! I was put in a similar situation similar years ago. A close relative constantly bullying me and putting me down. Funnily enough she didn't seem to have a problem with me owning a second property when she wanted to move in rent free. I said no. I knew that even if I said yes, I would still be the bad guy somehow, and I'd never get rid of her.

You cannot win in this situation, but you can in a way lose less by saying no to your relative.

OP you may as well give her the house as once she’s in you’ll never get her out/money from her or maintenance done. She doesn’t like you and wants to use you. Don’t guilt trip yourself about the kids, they have a dad, although he’s a cheat surely he will house them if she’s on the street?
you have investment plans for your DCs and that includes the rental income on this house.
if she can’t have a cup of tea with you without being unpleasant how can a LL Tenant position ever work? It’s madness and going to cost you more than the house is with in potential solicitors fees and wear and tear

Do not in a million years let this woman move in!!!

she is already asking to live there for free - presumably you are paying a buy to let mortgage. She will not pay you rent and will not pay bill, I think you know this.

why is she also cutting her nose to spite her face by waiting for months for you to finish working on the property. Has she even bothered looking for a property in the area? Of course not! She has no intention to and she could. As awful as it sounds her kids are her responsibility and she is foisting that on you.

get your husband to say no and ideally get the relative working on the house to keep quiet!

Definitely a No

Under the Renters Rights Act you eoukd struggle to get her out except to sell it especially if you agree a low rent or no rent!

Just say the mortgage (even if there isn't one) precludes renting to family. This is entirely usual.

You know at some stage she will simply stop paying rent because she will assume you won't evict because she is family.

It's just not worth the hassle.

Not on your nellie! She is a CF

I'd say no on the basis that I don't do business with family or friends, and while it's unfortunate that her relationship has broken down, she already possesses the resources to provide for her and her family.

If you really can't say no then increase the rent.

Why should she get it cheap thereby disadvantaging you. I'd also have an agent dealing with the property so that if there are ant issues you have a neutral intermediary and that includes paying on time.

A big no from me

Just say no. It’s your house & having relatives in a property that is yours often leads to difficulties. They sound very entitled.

Nope. This won't end well. She won't end up paying, you'll end up having to evict her which the whole family will end up judging you more much more for. Better doing it now. You're sorry she's in the position she's in but you're not comfortable with that arrangement. No more details. Everyone else can have the opinions they want. Eventually you will have someone else move on and they will move on. No one has the right to decide what you do that will affect your own family financially, especially when they've been critical of you in the past.

She's going to be an extremely difficult tenant of you rent to her at full rate. If you discount her rate then you are going to be limited by the new laws in how much you can increase rent by whensl she finally moves out.

I vote no, don't rent to her at all

💯 this. If she's a nightmare relative she'll be a nightmare tenant. Definitely do not let her move in.

If she's working why can't she rent like everyone else? Just ignore requests. You'd be mad to rent to her especially for free or even mate's rates.

This!

Hell no. She sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen!

My answer would be no. She sounds like a nightmare and piss taker. You would be nuts to take her on.

Hard no from me, use every excuse you can find!

What @loislovesstewie said - watch a few of the Nightmare Tenants or Baillifs programmes on television and you”ll see how many landlords start out doing someone a favour and live to regret it

You may be worried about the fall out with family if you say no now. But just imagine the fall out in the scenario where she hasn't paid for months because she thinks you can afford it and you then need to accept that she'll never pay rent or you need to take her to court And starts screaming that you're evicting "family".