Rent - how much?

[OneFrenchEgg]

If you have adult children how much do they pay? What does that include? Why do you charge that?
We will have two adults who we gave a year rent free to. Locally a double room (not en-suite) starts at £480 in a shared house. They think £50 a week is too high (we are thinking ahead to when they pay).
Do you charge separately for food?

If they're quibbling over rent, why not make it a share of the bills?
Utilities/phone/council tax and food.
Bet it comes to more than £50 a week.
If they're earning they should be contributing.

Wow that’s incredibly cheap! My DH and I paid that 25 years ago!

If they are working, charge £100 a week. You could do what my MIL did and save half of it to give them as a nest egg if you can afford it. You don’t have to tell them you are doing it!

Council tax 260 gas/electric 200 water 100 - yep and that's before food and tv/broadband etc good idea to tell them that
Interesting it's cheap - that's what dh says.

We definitely are not saving it although I know lots do. We need it! Plus they had several months rent free which was our gift to them to get straight after finishing education.

Do they get free WiFi as well?

^^yes

I would approach this by writing down a list of costs - mortgage, insurances, council tax, water, gas, electric plus what you spend on food. Show them this, also ask them to look at what it will cost them to move out.

The facts are that there are advantages to both options however being at home is going to be much easier (no costs of repairs/replacing items).

I assume they are working? Do they buy their own food and cook and clear up? Do they do their own laundry? The time has come for them to be adults and learn that sometimes all your money goes on just basic living until you've established yourself. Frankly it's insulting that they are bailing at paying even what I would term a pittance.

If there is four adults in the house, divide all the bills into four and they pay a quarter share each. If you need more money, add an amount to cover the "rent" of their room as well.

You could divide the cost of the weekly food shop into four two, each person pays a quarter or they do their own food shop if they think they can get everything cheaper.

Do you actually need the money?

If otherwise you would get a lodger, then charge rent.
If you wouldn't like to share your home with a lodger and so wouldn't rent their room, then charge a share of all the bills and food.
That way, you are not living off your kids nor subsidising them.

Sorry posted too soon. I was going to say it would depend on how much I actually needed from them to cover my own expenses rather than market rate etc. I have a homeless relative living at ours and I'm not charging him anything (although he sleeps on the sofa so I don't really feel like I can) because we can still get by and seems more sensible to save the money for when they move out rather than just pay it to someone who's already better off (I understand this is what professional landlords do but there's no choice on that, plus tbh I find the concept of landlordism morally reprehensible, although I appreciate that's a minority view), but we may be facing a mortgage increase and will need to ask for money for bills etc (he is employed so could pay it - what is the financial status of your children?)

Actually what lassif said is better (and more concise)

Do we actually need the money is a good question - I would say yes , we have no savings and all our money goes on bills and a few days out here and there. (We have a young child too). On a day to day basis we earn enough to literally pay it - we don't owe the utility companies anything. But I am starting to resent funding them while they get deliveries of fun stuff for them weekly!
No they do not help out in any meaningful way, laundry is communal, I load/unload the dishwasher, empty bins, I can't think of any practical thing beyond sometimes carrying heavy items in for me? Like if I get groceries delivered and ask and they are up. They walk the dog.

It's a good life lesson to realise what the basic costs of living are.
Sit them down and go through the figures. If they're not a bit embarrassed by insisting on freeloading off you then they should be!

Show them all the bills and charge them half, including utilities, contents insurance, tv licence etc.

The time they spend at home is preparing them to be independent, so they need to learn that the more hot water they use, the more they pay etc.

I paid £50 a week in 1985.

Yeah I don't want to extort them or as someone suggests make money off them, it's just not sustainable (or fair!) to keep funding them. I feel like an unpaid maid tbh.

Is feeling like a paid maid a much better situation to be in??

How about addressing everything together? You are all adults, the work of the house needs to be divided, the costs of the house need to be divided, what's a fair outcome ....Decide together, draw up an agreement, then the hard part ... stick to it!

You could fund a cleaner from part of their additional contribution, if they don't do much cleaning, for example - charge that to them

If they are spending money on “fun stuff” and your money all goes on expenses something is wrong. As kids, fair enough, that’s the deal but the reality is your bills (and certainly food costs) would be less if they weren’t there so time to step up. They need to be paying a quarter of household running costs each and either a certain amount of rent or they need to take on jobs like cleaning, cooking, food shopping, laundry and actually do them. If they moan tell them you are happy to help them find somewhere else to live. We have a 23yo at home but he is doing a Masters which leads directly to a decent job and just has a part time job so I would prefer he saved, which he does, for when he moves out. We have weaned him off things we used to pay for over the years though.

Thanks to posters, it's really helpful to get views - I don't know many people with older kids. Good to see we are on the right lines.
I'll check local rents again and also add and divide the bills. That way at least it's evidence based.

Just to add my eldest was outraged at the notion of contributing financially to the household when he got a full time job so he moved out which was fine. He was right, we didn’t need the money, but I was fed up with himself and his GF making a mess in the kitchen at 10pm so was nudging him in that direction and because there were two of them renting moving out was easier for them financially. They did rock up a lot at dinner time though until they got better jobs 😁

I'm happy for them to move out 😂 have offered to help find a house share

I charge mine 25% of their wages. And no I don’t save it for them.

Mine pay £300 a month each, was a bit less but when the bills went up we split the increase evenly between us all. Includes all food and bills - they’re getting an absolute bargain. You’d be lucky to get a room for £500 round here. And no I’m not saving it for them because before one of them moved back we were about to advertise for a lodger and we need the money.
I don’t do their washing or cooking and we have a rota for communal spaces. Never used to be that way but I realised I was doing all the work and that wasn’t fair as we are all adults. So I instigated a rota and made it clear they pull their weight or move out. They know it would cost double, probably triple, to move out, so they took the pull your weight option!

Result they've agreed to £300 including food. Which seems sensible especially with energy bills through the roof. It's not far off that just for the electric