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

just in my head that's pretty normal after doing everything we've done in such rapid succession

Not necessarily as some people would for example have a less expensive wedding/cars to keep within their means.

But neither of the options involve not owning property. It’s either living in the property themselves or renting it out.

Therefore, the issue isn’t equity in the house - they will be gaining that regardless. The issue is whether they will have more money available each month. Various people have been trying to point out it’s not a matter of having 1/2 the mortgage (as rent + bills is half the mortgage) + house bills free to spend each months as once tax, costs and expenses are taken into account, there may be very little left over.

I get the feeling that is unlikely to save you money and is quite risky. I would probably cut costs and overpay your own mortgage while living in your house. But maybe get him to do all the sums so you can see. It must depend to a certain extent on the actual value of your mortgage/rent difference and how it affects the tax you pay etc

I think spending a lot on those things is probably normal but to continue to go on foreign holidays, eat out a lot etc is living in the moment, which is fine whilst everything Is going well but it’s a risk.

Is it possible to refuse the accommodation and be compensated for that with a higher salary? Or is it work accommodation or nothing?

I ask this as I work for a company that often provides housing as part of the job package, and we probably wouldn’t mind if someone didn’t want the house as we’d be able to rent it out. As long as they lived close enough to do the job. However we would then have to pay them more to make up for that (but they wouldn’t necessarily end up better off if you compared their net pay v the market rent)

Also as mentioned - consider the tax implications carefully

I can see both sides of the argument but a lot depends on how much equity you have in the house.
We have been landlords without any hitches, I find the better the area and property the better the tenant.
We met all our tenants first.
If I were in your position and the equity was enough I would sell the family home move into the company accomadation and buy a holiday let.
This means you can use it yourselves at quiet periods and get a better income than an ordinary let.
We have a 2 bed, 2 bath apartment in N.Yorkshire that gives a great income and is our bolthole too.

I have not read all the replies. We rented out our UK home when we moved abroad and for us, it was a nightmare emotionally. However, it meant we didn't have to sell in a downturn (2007/2008) and when we did sell the house recouped over 100k so it worked out as financially sound. You may need to remortgage to allow BTL and the CGT allowance has also changed now for property lets that have been previously primary residential status. It is not as profitable anymore you really need to do your sums the 50% you are saving in the subsidised accommodation might be wiped out. Good luck.

What's the point of working toward things like having a nice home if you then give it up because it's cheaper to live somewhere else (assuming you can still afford it and put money into savings)? Many of us could live more cheaply by giving up the things that make life enjoyable, but that doesn't mean we should or must.

I would also question how much you'd actually profit from the rental after expenses and income tax. The landlords I know, despite having nice properties, make very little -- their investment is the property itself, not the rental income.

Speak to an accountant.
Speak to a local letting agent. Work out costs for someone else managing it.
Read some landlord sites.
Get quotes for insurance, Electrical safety check, gas check, etc.

Bet North Yorkshire an area of low wages loves that

Second homes destroy communities.

Our property is not in a rural area, it’s in a City.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me. I'm with your DH on this one.

It’s tempting. I’d ask him to do some homework, proper figures on how much you could make, what you’d need to spend out on etc and then see just how much per year you’re looking at saving. I can see your point, if you’re house proud and you’ve got your house just how you want it then I can see why you don’t want to rent it out. I’d want proper info before taking a decision

We had exactly the same situation as you, we did this, moved in and rented out home out, it also enabled us to buy a second home and rent that out too. It set us up financially for life tbh.

Not a chance I'd give up my home. Not a chance in hell.

I'd do it on a trial basis for 1 year. You'd possibly struggle to get tenants in for less than 1 year anyway.

However, that's just me. I like to save money so this would really appeal to me. You are not wrong for not wanting to do this. You just have different priorities. I hope you manage to find a compromise.

I would try it! Save a bunch of money over the next 2-5 years and then move back. As long as the arrangement has a firm end date I think it would be fine.

I think it depends on what you mean by “no savings” and not saving much etc. I would not be comfortable having any sort of debt for anything apart you listed from the house purchase. I would never have gone into debt for a wedding and if I had to go into any kind of debt for a second child, I wouldn’t have one or a first child for that matter. DH and I have around 6 months of income saved currently after just passing our very expensive childcare years. I don’t feel like this is enough and want us to be putting more into investments. We currently put about 20% of our pre tax income in to pensions. We are aiming to save another 10% of our pre tax income/20% of take home and then hoping to have another 10% of post tax income go into a pot for holidays and furniture/bigger house purchases. We have a pretty significant financial safety net from families on both sides, if we didn’t have this I’d want to stretch to more like a year of expenses in cash. If you don’t have minimum 6 months of income saved and your DH can show the you won’t lose money renting your house after taxes, budget for emergency repairs etc, I would be seriously considering at least a couple years in the cheap house.

The only city in North Yorkshire is Ripon which is rural and very much abused by 2nd home owners.

Errrr what about York @WhyCantNameLastMoreThanDay ?@WhyCantNameLastMoreThanDay

York isnt in North Yorkshire
It is a unitary authority.

Every day's a school day @WhyCantNameLastMoreThanDay !@WhyCantNameLastMoreThanDay ! I grew up in North Yorkshire but had no idea!

Tbh I didn't know Ripon was a city either and I'm still guessing @Sago1 bolt hole is in York rather than Ripon

Ripon is the only City in North Yorkshire, it is the 3rd smallest City in the UK.
We deliberately did not buy in a village or town that had a high proportion of second home owners.
We lived in such a village in the Dales.
Please WhyCantNameLastMoreThanDay send a link to your evidence.

Have you had tax advice on what the tax benefit of what the benefit of living accommodation could cost?
HMRC have cut back a lot on roles where one can live on site tax free over the years.

• the tax and costs on renting your home out - it's not a great time to remortgage to switch to a buy to let mortgage, and think about the CGT implications of your home not being your primary residence.

A plus of the economy - and potentially the housing market tanking - you won't need to worry about the CGT so much

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

How much worse can the laws get? It's already pretty hard in the UK to get non paying/bad tenants out. That's the thing that would put me off.

Renting is fine if you get good tenants, it can be your worst nightmare if you don't and the truth is you never can truly know if the tenants will be good or bad. Having said that, there are so many taxes etc to pay these days with renting that's it's not the easy option people think it is even with good tenants.