Pregnant+ living with best friend

[penguincelery]

I live with my partner and bestfriend of 10 years, my partner and i recently found out we are expecting our first child! Everyone is over the moon despite it being a huge surprise.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on living with my friend with the baby? She’s incredible and so excited, she wants to help us as much as possible when the baby is here and it’s such a relief she’s so accepting of this.

I was wondering if there were any legalities regarding living with someone else with a child? Myself, partner and friend are all joint tenants, there is even a spare bedroom which is handy. I’m just unsure whether it’s legal?

Unless your best friend has convictions for serious violent crimes against children and is barred from spending time with them, of course it is legal! Why wouldn’t it be?

Your best friend will not be a legal parent of your child but you can have as many other people living with you as you like.

The opposite actually, she has a DBS and is a qualified in early years. I was just unsure whether there would be an issue with it being a HMO property

Does it count as HMO if it's only the 3 of you (plus baby to be)?

It’s fine it makes no difference. Plenty of people live in HMOs with babies - sure it’s not the most usual set up but tbh living with someone who can actually help sounds fab!

I’m really not sure, we’re all on the tenancy agreement and i presumed we’d be treated as a family however when it came to applying for a parking permit the council said it was a HMO