To think that BIL and SIL are being irresponsible and reckless. RANT

[trufflehunterthebadger]

BIl and Sil live with us. They pay a low rent, this was to make a bit of money back for us but also to help them save for a deposit on a house and their wedding.

They have been with us a year. In that time they have not saved a single penny, although they have bought plenty of lego, toy trains, golf clubs, camping equipment and other tut that never sees the light of day. Bil spent £200 on golf clubs after one golf lesson about 9 months ago. He's not been since. They are always ordering shite off ebay. Sil confirmed the othe day that they haven't saved anything for their wedding in march - which they are paying for themselves fuck knows how now as they used sils savings oaying off bils debts

Anyway, while this annoyed me, i can put up with it, DH and i roll our eyes and let them get on with it.

Yesterday they decided they are going to get a new car. They have ordered and paid a deposit on the new car. DBIL earns about £25k a year, SIL about £8k.

The car they have ordered is a top of the range ford at a cost of £26k. They can only afford this because we let them live with us cheap so they can save money. The repayments alone are nearly £500 per month.

AIBU to think WTAF and actively considering telling them if they can afford a £26k car they can bloody well pay me more than £200 a month for all bills and food ? It doesn't happen often but i was absolutely speechless when dh told me

None of your business and completely irrelevant

Not really. If the entire house is £600 and they are paying you £300 rent plus £200 bills it doesn't seem so bad.

The thing is, henry, i accept some stuff then they just take the piss to a ridiculous extent more

They could not rent the shittest of studio flats where we live for £300. The cheapest they could get is £350

Well if you can afford the rent alone and are taking money off bil & sil they are sort of doing you a favour by subsidising your costs and I can see why they think it doesn't matter much to you whether they save or not. If you want to make more money then kick them out and get students in . Might prove more problematic and intrusive though.

Add message | Report | Message poster trufflehunterthebadger Fri 05-Sep-14 20:01:57
Foreign language students. You can have 4 without coming under HMO.

I do not need advice re subletting. We know exactly what we can and can't do and our landlord knows exactly who is living in our house

I am assuming (perhaps wrongly) that you are in the UK? If so, the above isn't true if you are going to remain in the property also.

So this is more about boundaries than rent or cars or lego (really, lego?)?

The house is £1250 per month. They have 2 double bedrooms, a study area, pretty much have the whole top floor when we don't have a student in the other bedroom. They have their own bathroom, use of the garage for storage. They have a lot more space than in their bedsit, for less money and in a nice area

And the whole point of the thread is not whether their rent is fair or whether we are subletting blah blah

Theh are supposed to be saving up for their future and are pissing it up the wall on frivolous spending which is aggravating to see, especially when they moan about not being able to afford stuff

The house is £1250 a month, they pay £300 rent.

A month ago you said you also had 4 foreign students living there.

If I was living in a 5 bedroom house with 4 foreign students, my BIL and SIL and my neice and paying around a quarter of the monthly rent I wouldn't think you were doing me a massive favour, tbh.

Yes it is, mamalino. This has been confirmed by the language school that uses us.

We only have foreign students in the summer. We cant have them year round because the bedrooms are used by them

What niece ? My niece is 11 days old

I understand your feelings, but if they are paying you the agreed rent on time etc, it doesn't much matter to you what they choose to do with the remainder of their own money does it? Of course if they are not pulling their weight around the house, that is a different area and needs addressing. I get the feeling you just don't like them very much which is of course fine, but "they're not saving for their wedding" isn't grounds for eviction normally!

You are still getting the agreed funds at the end of the day. What they have left is their own business.

The language school is wrong, sorry. I would speak to your local housing officer or similar at your local council as it varies from council to council apart from some mandatory grounds for HMO licensing. Sorry, off topic I know but it could be very risky!

Sorry, I was referring to the 4 year old you've mentioned in your previous points who I presume is either your DS or your DD? So their nephew.

It's not really any of your business what they spend their money on -you set the rent, they pay it on time, what's it got to do with you how they spend the rest of their money?

You sound resentful because you're not milking the house for it's full potential money-wise. But if you only have students in the summer then surely you'd be stuck now anyway? So they're giving you a steady income? Which is presumably why your DH doesn't want to lose that money?

So, we're back to the original point - it's none of your business how they spend their money if they are paying the rent that you set and on time.

Mamalino, our council allows up to 4 short term language students before you have to apply for HMO status. I know this because we have several language schools in our area, all of whom specify a maximum of 4 students so to prevent host families coming under HMO status.

If the OP wants to make money through sharing her house then I can't see what the issue is. She has the commitment of a contract with the landlord and the inconvenience and frustrations of living with people. She exchanges that for money. Surely people don't call up a letting agent and say "I'll rent Market Street as long as my payment only just covers the mortgage so the landlord isn't making anything". It's business.

I get your frustration OP, they are paying less than the going rate in your area for a house share and you've done this as a favour to them as you could actually be making more money from those rooms. You've done it so that they can save money and get a good start and they haven't actually done this.
If you can rent the rooms out full time to someone else I'd do that. You are all going to come to hate and resent each other. No good deed and all that. They obviously aren't saving up so I guess it just depends how long you can remain in this situation. At the min there isn't any incentive for them to save.

It sounds like people are doing their homework on you here OP, you might be getting a knock on the door off the council soon to check your arrangements

morethanlaundry, you seem to be missing the point. OP is not using them as a cash cow, she only has them living with her to enable them to have nice cheap rent and save for their futures. They aren't doing this.
So it is her business. She could instead have other lodgers/students who are much less hassle, and also provide more income, than her lazy, entitled rellies!

even if she was letting them live there rent free, I reckon they would still be living the life of riley, thinking they were rich, spending like there was no tomorrow, and not saving any of their money. Oh and not to forget acting like they own the place and not respecting the others who live there (not sharing chores etc)

"I get your frustration OP, they are paying less than the going rate in your area for a house share "

I don't think the OP has said that, actually. She's said that they are paying less than foreign students would pay, and she's said that they've got more space than they would have in a bedsit.

I don't think she's compared it to a houseshare, has she?

FWIW I rented 2 rooms in a house about 12 years ago for £350 all bills included and the VERY cheapest and tiniest of studio flats would have cost me at least £500 WITHOUT bills included.

I don't think the OP has a full understanding of how much extra you pay for the privacy of your own four walls and if the BIL and SIlL have been sharing the house with SEVEN other people I would expect their rent to be far lower than if they were renting a private bedsit even if they did have more space.

Out of interest is this house HMO licensed because any time you have 2 or more students there plus your own family you are over the limits.

If you don't think they are paying a fair whack, and are not doing a fair share of the cooking and cleaning etcetera put their bloody rent up and hire a cleaner! Oh, and get a lock on your reception-room door so they can't use it.

They are contributing less than 25 quid a week each towards food and bills. That's a derisory amount and you should never have agreed to it. The more you give to some people, the more they expect and the less they respect you for it. Bitter experience speaking here.

That they are obviously not really saving up for their wedding is irksome, at least I would find it so, but that's their look-out. But if you think you've been shunted into a situation where they've got their feet under your table on false pretences, you're not going to get anywhere if your OH isn't supporting you in this. Difficult to do, but I'd do my best to detach myself from this part of it and concentrate on not being taken for a bloody ride

phantomnamechanger - have you read the OP:

"they pay a low rent, this was to make a bit of money back for us but also to help them save for a deposit on a house and their wedding."

The OP thinks it's a low rent. She doesn't sound realistic to me - it's not just about space, it's about sharing facilities - I would expect a tiny bedsit to cost more than some space in a multi occupancy house.

Not convinced your council is applying HMO legislation correctly; alternatively you might be getting close to a planning breach as you're effectively running a commercial boarding house.

I'm glad I'm not your landlord. I'd end your lease if I found out you were using my house like this.

They are welcome to, CarryOn ! Bil and sil are on the voters register so we are hardly hiding the fact they live here !

We quite clearly are not an HMO as an hmo licence requires at least 5 people that are not of the same family. As they are family this does not apply. Family members are grandparents, nieces, aunts etc and the live-in spouses/partners thereof

FFS how many times do i have to say it ??

OUR LANDLORD IS WELL AWARE OF THE SITUATION AND IS DELIGHTED THAT THE HOUSE IS RENTED TO PEOPLE WHO PAY THE RENT ON TIME AND DON'T TRASH THE HOUSE.

How annoying.

Given that your DH doesn't want to kick them out, why not work out exactly how much they cost you per month for food and bills and charge them that, rather than the surely too low 200?