AIBU to charge my DD rent to live in a flat I have bought?

God forbid we should help our children out when we have the means to do so eh?!!

If you don’t charge her she can take smaller loans and have less debt. Personally I wouldn’t charge. But that’s just me, working to pay my kids college/uni fees and living so they don’t start life off under masses of interest accruing debt.

Assuming that you are in a fairly comfortable financial position, her loan could be as little as £400 a month. The expectation is that parents top that up to a liveable amount- your contribution would probably be around £900 a month in a mid-range city- i.e. roughly the cost of accommodation. Unless your intention is to charge her rent and then hand it straight back, your idea is silly and also really quite mean-spirited to want your own daughter to pay to help you secure a valuable asset whilst she's studying.

Why on earth would you want to charge your own daughter rent? You’re in the fortunate position of being able to make her life easier, yet you’re choosing to make it harder out of some warped sense of moral duty. At this rate, we’ll start normalising the idea that children owe their parents a literal debt - one they’re expected to start repaying at 18, as if their upbringing came with a running tab, like the kind of debt people raised in brothels used to be trapped into paying off.

Quite ironic to charge her rent in order to teach her the value of money, when the money did actually fall into your lap. (I say that as someone who will probably inherit a lot of money. I didn’t work for it; it’s just sheer luck.) I wouldn’t charge my children rent unless I was in dire financial straits.

We did this for DC1 and 3 friends-flatmates who paid a low rate but enough to cover running costs. We considered that our child being responsible for any maintenance and repairs was payment enough.

Maybe 1 flatmate’s rent won’t cover the bills but the property should appreciate in value, giving you some virtual return on your investment. I’d keep an eye on the first year’s expenses and consider charging your daughter half of the shortfall if (only if) she can afford it without taking out a loan.
Or start charging her on account and give it back if she’s paid too much (a bit mean spirited IMO, as you inherited the money to buy the property).

Otherwise if she’s responsible with money, not living beyond her means , she can use her own savings when she moves out and needs to put down a mortgage deposit/pay rent .

If you take the flat out of the equation what is your expected parental contribution as the government sees it re student finance? If she gets minimum loan due to household income there’s an expectation that you top up to maximum. If that is the case your contribution could be providing her accommodation as many parents do.

Given the student loans situation now plus rental reforms, in your shoes I would have DD live in the flat, have friend as a lodger paying market rent to her up to the £7,500 no tax threshold. DD uses that tax free income to cover all the bills and living expenses on the proviso that she doesn’t take out a maintenance loan.

If she also has inheritance then you could encourage her to pay tuition fees so she has no loan for that either.

I would find it incredibly mean-spirited to charge her rent as some kind of 'life lesson' on a property that YOU yourself inherited and did not 'earn' either in any meaningful sense. I'm not against inherited wealth - I'm living in an unmortaged home courtesy of inheritance from my late mother. I certainly wouldn't charge a student child to live in though. That smacks of making money off your child.

Charge her the equivalent of bills, etc. More than fair.

I wouldn't charge if she were a student, but I'd expect her to keep it tidy (within reason), and if she started working and was still living there, I'd charge her nominal rent (not market rates).

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If it was mortgage free I wouldn’t charge rent. She would pay the bills though. Alternatively, like others have said, charge a small amount and save it for her. It all depends on how much actual money she has as a student.

Why don't you charge her a small amount and put it in savings for when she's ready to buy her own house?

Lots of parents pay their children's university accommodation fees though, so I wouldn't overly worry about this being a problem.

Yes, God forbid a parent might have to be out of pocket whilst supporting their child at university, not when there's an opportunity to make money out of said child.

FFS!

Just a minor point but if she's only getting a small student loan it may well be worth paying it off for her. The interest is dire so they can spiral before they leave. Generally I think it's worth either seeing it as a tax and so taking the max or trying to no take it at all. Check figures.

Whilst at uni no I wouldn’t charge if I didn’t have to. Once out of uni and working full time yes.

Either rent-free or charge reduced rent and put it aside for her.

When I was a student my parents bought a flat and I lived in it. I paid the mortgage, bills, etc. It was cheaper than rented accommodation so I saved a lot of money.
When I graduated, they paid off the mortgage and now rent it out. But they are very generous and put aside all profit from it to provide me with a leg up onto the property ladder myself. Now that I'm a home owner, they take the profit themselves as a retirement income.
It works out well for everyone and I never felt hard done by. I appreciated a) the fact the mortgage was less than rent and b) my landlords were excellent!

I'd let her live rent free because you'd be paying her rent if she was in halls. She can pay bills like water and electricity.

If its a flat I'd be asking her to cover her share of bills and her rent would be the amount to cover her share of the service charges, (assuming there are some).

@Canadianskates

this is an easy one IMO.
You dont "need" the money and will prob want to help later with younger kids.

Teach her about finances and compounding.

Have her pay her share of the bills and set up a SO for whatever the rent would be into your account and you pay that either into your own ISA (if not using the allowance) or into one in her name (if you are).

Help her set a budget and spending and saving - she made want to add more to the isa

It also means all kids are treated fairly and have the same ops.

In your OP you said you don’t think she should get a lovely flat for totally nothing. But you got a lovely flat for totally nothing!

I understand OP you're not trying to make money off her you're just trying to set her up for the real world so she isn't spoiled. I would charge her a small amount but put the money away without telling her and give it to her later in life. It'll be a lovely surprise for her.

No not while she is a full-time student, not if you don’t need the money. I would expect to cover living costs myself while DC are studying.

But yes once she is finished studying then you should charge rent. I don’t agree with all this “oh I could never charge my children rent” rubbish. Once working full-time (or near enough), they should contribute.

I would make her pay rent and then either pay it off the loan at the end of the year
Then going forward if you can afford it prepay the loan in lieu of the loan or continue.

When I was at uni it was more normal for most to have to pay their own rent and get jobs to have to do so.
It meant we all learned to manage money - sometimes badly. Eating a bag of potatoes for a week as we'd spent too much on beer and fags. But young people now aren't as stupid as we were. But they will spend it in coffees and ubereats😂

But we came out (mostly) knowing how to budget and adjusted through the years to live to our means.

Conversely, a few of my peers who had their rent paid and a student loan, no jobs to worry about at uni, have never seemed to get out of the flippant mindset and are the ones now with credit card debt, loads of things on finance etc. As they've climbed the career ladder their spending has never really caught up.

This is just anecdotal within my own uni group who are still very close

And also between my sister and I who were treated very differently by my parents when we went to uni (though she did have a bursary and I didnt)

I plan to pay for my children's Uni costs so they come out debt free, not sure how yet, but that's my plan.

So no, if you're fortunate enough to own the flat, just see it as a massive accommodation cost saving and don't charge her. There's plenty of time in her life to learn the lessons of having to pay bills, but for now let this be one less thing for each of you to concerned about.

Of course you are under no obligation to support her, she is legally an adult. However… if you can help, doing it early in her adult life is (financially) far more effective than the same amount of money later in life, with the caveat that she needs to be sensible and take advantage of the help the right way.