Husband wants to rent our house out and I don't

[inappickle]

Really clashing with my husband about this and we just have such different opinions I’m not sure what to do. Financially we’re ok, he makes out it’s very doom and gloom and we do have a big mortgage but we earn £68k between us and I’m only working 3 days a week, we have an expensive car (£300 a month) and we don’t budget or skip on luxuries so we do have ways in which we could cut back, as well as extra earning potential if I was too go back full time if needed. We have a young child who has been in an expensive private nursery and another baby due soon.

My husband has an opportunity for us to live at his work, it’s secure employment and the accommodation is nice (nowhere near as nice as our current house) and in a nice area I will give it that we wouldn’t need to drive as much and would be walking distance to kids school etc. He is desperate to do so, it’ll cost us half the price of our mortgage inclusive of bills and he wants to live there and rent our house out. He says it’ll pay for our retirement and set us for life. I hate the idea of someone else living in my house, we designed it ourselves and it’s my home. I hate the idea of living somewhere that isn’t ours again. I hate the idea of living where he works so he never switches off. This is our family home we worked so hard to build and I don’t want to leave. He also talks about renting it out at what he could realistically get for it but it’s more than our mortgage and I feel like it’s just being part of the problem and ripping off people that need housing.

I want to enjoy our lives now, but he’s so set on sorting ourselves out ‘for life’ and that our retirement would be sorted we’d be able to travel and save up loads in the mean time and it all just seems too far fetched and at too big a cost

Who’s right here? Am I being too attached to the house and possibly missing a good opportunity or is he just getting caught up in this idea that being a private landlord will set him for life when it isn’t realistically that straightforward

How long does he expect you all to be there for? What kind of industry is it?

YANBU to not want to leave your house but financial security in old age is hugely important. Do you have much of a pension if you are only working part time?

Maybe a compromise would be to look at some other ways of saving instead and try and pay a bit more off the mortgage before the rates go up too much.

Tourism. He expects to be in this job until he retires really unless something much better comes up. He wants to live there long term

You don’t need to leave your home. Just tell him no.

Absolutely no!

So you'd be in this accomodation for decades? Seems a bit much. Though I would consider it for a period if it really brought costs down given everything that's going on right now. Walking distance to school is certainly nice.

How long it would be for? I would definitely consider it but not on a long term open ended basis.

I agree with you. I couldn’t / wouldn’t agree

So you would be getting free accommodation? If he promised not to turn into a total workaholic I would do it.

Appreciate your emotional attachment to your home, but it's just bricks and mortar at the end of the day. What could you do with the extra money?

First of all you would need to change your mortgage to a buy to let mortgage and secondly the laws around eviction may change in the near future meaning it could be difficult to get tenants out and they may cause damage to your home. You would also be liable for repairs such as boiler breaking down and responsible for gas safety checks among other things

Yes both agreed need to start being more sensible and cut back as we don't have much in savings, I just want to stay put while we do this but he's saying with the cost of living situation that we'll regret staying out in 4 years when our fix ends and our mortgage shoots up and the other house may not be available to us then as they won't just leave it sat there until we decide we want it. He's just saying I'm not seeing the bigger picture and I'm picking being happy where I am now over our future and it's at a huge cost and I'm just not sure. Surely being settled while you have young kids is worth something. I'm 29 and he's 37 so we have time.

I would consider it but only for an agreed set amount of time- say 5 years. But I suppose then he’d never want to move back out again

Sorry, I've just seen the cost is half your mortgage. TBH I would still do it for the ability to walk to school.

Why don’t you give it a trial run? Live at the work accommodation for a year and then decide from there if you want to stay or want to move back to your family home.

You can get tenants in and with 60days notice evict them at any time so long as they have been in the house for 6mos.

Even if you do like it and want to stay. It doesn’t have to be “forever” - you could agree to do it for 5yrs until the new baby starts school. It will put you ahead for retirement and suchlike. You would have more options. You could pay down the mortgage faster. You could save for DC Uni costs. You could have a private pension as you’re working PT.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Neither of you is wrong to want what you want

In your shoes I would far rather stay working PT and enjoy more disposable income so your DH's plan would appeal to me more than the prospect of working FT purely so I could live in slightly nicer accommodation

School is only a 4 minute drive with easy parking so it's not a massive draw to me. To be honest a 15/20 min walk sounds worse than a 4 min drive especially when it's raining.

He's always harped on about being a landlord since I met him, he says it's a free pension and I've always disagreed and not liked the idea. This house being available cheap and bills inclusive has just set him off again and he's adamant it's the best option

Given that yesterday there was a commitment to go ahead with banning no-fault evictions I wouldn’t.

They’re not banning them for landlords that want to move back into their property.

See.
”Recognising that landlords’ circumstances change, the government is introducing new mandatory grounds for eviction for landlords who want to sell their property and/or move (themselves or family) into the rental property. This cannot be used for the first six months of the tenancy (similar to how Section 21 now works).”
lettingaproperty.com/landlord/blog/renters-reform-bill-2022/

The no fault eviction ban isn’t really a ban….they’re just restricting it a bit and deleting the “section 21” terminology.

If it was me I would do it. Mainly because I could stay part time and spend more time with my children before they start school. You never get these years back. You wouldn't he missing out financially either, in fact you'd be gaining money. It's a no-brainer for me,
though I do understand your worries.

Do either of you have pensions?

Yes he has a good pension through work I've got standard NHS pension but part time for now

Personally it wouldn’t be about money, it would be about living in my own home.
I hope he’s not going to go on and on about it until you cave ?

I wouldn’t do it.

If it were me, I would do it for a set amount of time. But make sure you are both aware of the tax implications of being a landlord. It is much harder to make good money from renting, particularly with interest rates going up. You also need to factor in maintenance, periods where the property is empty etc.