How much rent to charge adult DC?

[Lentilcakes]

Both DC will be living at home from the start of July.
One works part time in a nice retail job / trying to launch career.
One will have finished uni and is applying for jobs. He has a lot of savings as he worked for a year prior to uni. He has a big appetite cos he’s a tall lad - eats about two times my food consumption. When he’s home the food bill skyrockets.
DD will buy ‘extra’ food for herself as she’s not always keen on my meals as we have very different tastes in food. DS will eat my dinners as he likes me cooking.
I agreed w DH that we’d charge nominal rent of £50pcm each as we do want them to save, but I think as adults they need to contribute to the household. Obviously they clear up after themselves, do laundry, keep their rooms and shower room clean etc - that goes without saying. If they start working f/t then we will increase the rent.
Does sound fair (they’re 22 and nearly 24)?

I’d say you’re still living there whether they move in or out - I’d only charge the difference in your bills (and I know food is a big one but realistically electric & gas won’t be hundreds extra between them). So it’ll be closer to £100pm each. It’s extremely low they won’t get anywhere else at that low price.
On 1 hand you chose to have children (hopefully not just with the caveat they’d move out at 18), and with the average first time buyer age becoming very high and it’s very difficult to buy a home now, they don’t really have a choice and can’t move unless spending their entire income on rent.
On the other hand, they are adults, and if renting would have to pay for everything themselves.
It’s a bit difficult as 1 is only part time so you’d be taking a larger % of their income. And the other has no income so giving you the £100pm will just be less savings for them until they run out.

@FunnySam- yes, I’ve thought of all that but DS has extensive savings - thousands. And DD just doubled £150 on getting a tattoo so I don’t feel ‘bad’ about asking them for the £50 each. The extra food and use of hot water/heating will be the main expense. We don’t heat their rooms in the winter (obviously),
ot got nothing to do with choosing to have them. They’re adults so need to pay their way a bit. We have been extremely generous to them / paying thousands in rent when they were at uni is one example. DD ended up being there for 5 years (long story!).

Don't take the money for yourselves. Get them to put it into a private pension. You can never do this too early.

DD will be contributing £200 once she finishes uni, but I’m a single parent so I guess it’s a little bit different. If everything goes well my plan is to save it for her and then give it back once she decides what she wants to do.

I’m originally from a culture where your children are never expected to contribute unless the family really, really struggles and frankly after being here for a long time I completely changed my mind. It’s the best way of preparing your young adults to the concept of bills and what it takes to run a household.

If the plan is them living at home to save for their own places I wouldn’t charge them any rent ideally, and encourage them to save as much as possible.

I think £50 PW is fair. This is what I charged my DS for many years and I paid for super fast internet and Sky cinema and Sport in his bedroom too. It allowed him to save really hard for deposit. After he left to move into his own house we moved to much smaller I ternet and cancelled his Sky to his room and with buying less food saved about £60 per week.