Cousin's son is suddenly without student accomodation and needs to stay with me, how much to charge him?

[Mxflamingnoravera]

My cousin (I am not close to her but I am close with her sisters) lives overseas and her son is studying in my city at Uni. He had uni accomodation last year and was v excited that he and his friends had found a place for this academic year. Today he contacted me in a panic, the landlord had backed out because one of the student's visa had not yet been granted and has said they cannot move in.

I have quite a lot of my cousin's son stuff here as he came to stay a bit over the summer as a base to visit other family, it was only days here and there and he is a delightful young man so I was fine with this.

Now he is in an awful situation, term is about to start and his house has fallen through. I have said he can stay until he gets something sorted and he will need to contribute to bills (I am mortgage free). How much do I charge him? He is 20 years old, very sweet, extremely innocent in many ways, has spent all his life in Africa or Dubai as an "expat". His parents divorced over the summer so money on my cousin's side (his mum) is probably not as easy as it was. I was thinking £300 a month- is that too much? Too little? I will probably cook for him if I am cooking anyway, but he lives on pizza and ordered in stuff which I never eat. He will be using heat, light, water etc esp as it starts to move into Autumn.

I want to be fair and I dont want to be out of pocket. What does anyone suggest as a fair rent in this situation?

My house (general bills, utilities, insurance etc) costs about £750pm to run. So would £300 be a reasonable amount to ask. Is it too little? Too much? It is family, so I am really not sure...

Surely it would be easier for this group to keep the house find a new sharer to join them!!

Sorry, not read entire lengthy
thread but I agree with this;
Partial Quote:

purplecorkheart · Yesterday 20:50

I don't think 300 is too bad considering you are including food for him a lot of the time especially when you are not overly flush in cash yourself. Extra showers, washing machine, dryer etc.

@silverbubbles the landlord has withdrawn the offer, it's not the students who have backed out.

All sorted, they have a place to move in next week.so he's a guest at mine this week. Thanks all

Great outcome!

Charge him £100 per night like a hotel for this week

I think that's a bit harsh 🙄 glad he is sorted OP

300 a month sounds fine. I have two dc at university and both are paying well over 600 a month including bills. And the houses are pretty rough.
I don’t think you should feel obliged to charge him nothing just because he’s family. Your utility bills will go up significantly when there are 2 people in the house instead of one, as will wear and tear on appliances etc.
Don’t wait on him either! He can do his own laundry and washing up, make his bed and clean the bathroom after he uses it.

£300 sounds fab! Including getting home cooked food. Where do I sign? X

Has he got a job to be able to pay you?

My daughter pays me £45 per week. I technically provide food but she can get highly subsidised, nice meals at work so often eats out.

4 years ago when she was studying she lodged with a landlady who provided breakfast and evening meal and she paid £130 per week.