To ask my tenant to top up rent with daily babysitting?

[bosstick]

And be gone at the weekends too?

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/landlord-renting-london-room-tenant-must-babysit/

That’s taking the piss 😮

Complete and utter madness. But it looks cheap for Clapham I think?

Basically are they after an au pair?

Basically are they after an au pair?

yes @Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain but they want the au pair to pay £400 a week for the privilege, and stay elsewhere at weekends!

No wonder it’s been taken down. Modern slavery alive and well in Clapham.

Nothing wrong in theory offering a room for rent weekdays only but the childcare aspect. This person would have to be a student, TA maybe?

Yes that is unreasonable - they want an au pair that they don't have to pay properly. I hope no one takes them up on this.

I like the way the article blames it all on the mother.

I’m not defending it, but it’s £400 per month not per week, which is very cheap obviously.

I like how you have to babysit the children for 3 hours a day during the week but would only be able to stay during the weekend if you are the ‘right’ person…

What could ‘right’ mean in this case🤔?

Au pairs are not meant to be paid traditionally, but equally well they are not meant to pay rent.

Well they are paid de facto by not having to pay board. Sometimes they are also given a stipend.

This ad is effectively asking for an au pair but not offering reasonable conditions in return, so not OK.

The thing is, it's potentially not a bad idea for someone for whom the hours could work. They can still study or work around the hours and get a whopping rent reduction in lieu of pay for babysitting.

But advertising it via room rental sites is completely the wrong way of going about it!

Bonkers.

I believe it has now been reposted without the babysitter info. Pity the poor bugger that hasn't seen the advert.

😂😂🤔

Flagging this up. I really hope some desperate person doesn't pick this up.

My last house share before I moved out to buy my own place, the live in landlady and her DH had one lovely male tenant who used to babysit/childmind her DC when she had then (after I moved out). He didn't mind doing this (didn't have much of a life outside of work!) but I was a bit about it considering how much she'd have to pay an actual babysitter, she had lots of family living locally too who helped out with childcare.

Very cheap but you have to F off at weekends and do childcare which is basically school pick up and mind til parents get home. Parents save on either after school club or a childminder to mind the DC during that time.

Sounds like a paedo's dream, cheap rent and unsupervised access to very young children... what could go wrong? Seems like the perfect solution to both the rent and childcare crisis.

'Right' means someone desperate who'll put up and shut up with their demands.

If they want an au pair and yes I know it's tricky with new rules after Brexit then advertise for that, if you need afterschool childcare pay for that. Don't dress this up as something else.

I think they'll get someone who could be or was homeless or a student. But it's very unfair expecting them to move out at the weekends. Unless that's the tenancy agreement whereon you live at the property during the week and have another home to go to (usually a few hundred miles away) at weekends.

I realise I'm pedantic but surely that's a prospective lodger, not a tenant?

They'd do better at asking for market rent, but then mentioning babysitting work (paid) is available.

normal arrangement with students who go home at the weekend.

I think it depends. If the rent is at a substantial discount and the rest of the rent is payment in kind, then they should have been clear that this is the case. Or charge full whack for rent and use the extra money to pay someone else. But the difference in rent should be the equivalent of fair pay for the hours worked.

Will they be insisting that their tenant has a DBS? Will they be paying for it?

They are prepared to put their very young children unsupervised into the hands of someone desperate to live in that area.

They are cheap and unscrupulous and I would be reporting their neglect of their children's safety to social services.

It’s not cheap when you add in the 15 hours a week work. And the fact you have to find somewhere else to sleep for two nights!

£10/hr babysitting would be about £600pcm, so that makes the rent £1000 pcm including bills. Within reasonable range for the month for Clapham, lodging is usually that bit cheaper than a professional share, but it's far too high to be asked to leave at weekends. Leaving at weekends should be more like £500 midweek only, or free with the babysitting.