advice please re rent

headwrecked83

hi all, i just want some advice how much we should be renting a large double room for with its own tv and freeview channels?

Currently have a person staying in my house, person 'was' a friend of my partners but im not sure what you'd call them now, person was meant to stay with us a few weeks and is now here 8 months...

anyway, currently for €400 a month this person gets all their meals provided, that is breakfast foods, lunch foods, and a hot dinner on the table, and also meals and snacks for the weekend child... this person is very hard on the immersion heater which no one else does really (person leaves it on far too long), and uses our very large bath towels, a fresh one every day.. (maybe everyone else in the house is disgusting but we tend to use ours about 2-3 times depending...)and then leaves me to wash all the bath towels and bed linen when the child stays over and has accidents...and more often than not i take their general laundry from machine, hang it to dry and then fold and leave there for the person.Roughly about 3 loads a week, compared to our 1-2 altogether!!

I am going to have to speak to the person but what is a fair rent for the service the person is getting currently regarding food, laundry, and the fact they don't contribute to electricity or home fuel...

I personally think this is an awful lot to get for very little...

Any opinions or advice please

ken2010

that is taking the piss..a month or two maybe but that be even pushing it... and because havent said anything they think its grand...100 a week for that...you would be paying that for the room alone anywhere else

convert

400 a week for what can be considered pretty much hotel service is nothing. A room in a 2 bed apartment is approximately 500-600 per month ex bills and with no-one providing meals, towels, etc.

My advice would be to either increase the rent or ask the person to leave. Given that they are taking advantage of you I'd go with the latter and find somebody else to take the room who won't expect so much of you.

If you're renting under the rent a room scheme and you've not signed any lease or agreement, there is no set notice which you must give the tenant to quit the premises, although a month would be courteous. Because it's an owner occupied house, their tenancy won't fall under a Part 4 tenancy.

headwrecked83

thanks for the replies, i'm getting armed :-)

just to mention as well we are located about 45 minutes from dublin on a major commuter belt area, in easy access of the town

Roro4Brit

Jesus when I was 16 and still living with d'ma with a part time job I paid more than that for not even half the perks you mentioned. I think it's time your lodger moved out and back in to the real world.

That will be a fun one to watch.

Roro4Brit

Also he better get you flowers or some token as a major thank you for holding his hand this long....but based on what you've said already you'll probably be quicker growing your own.

headwrecked83

ha ha thats what my other half said, he's not too happy either....

ricman

You can get a timer unit fitted to the immersion that Switches it off after1.5/ or 2 hours,put the rent upto 140 euro,or else ask him to leave,give him 6 weeks to find a new flat.THE immersion uses more electricity than anything else you have.
ALSO ask him to pay 1 quarter of the esb bill,since hes using so much.
THis person is a inconsiderate eejit ,i think you,d be better off asking nicely find a new flat, theres loads on daft.ie, gumtree.ie ,google search flat for rent dublin.

ztoical

time to get tough methinks. Tell them their 400 covers rent not maid service. Stop buying food for them and cooking it, stop doing their washing and start charging them for their share of ESB/GAS/etc etc all the normal bills people pay and if they throw a stink about that tell them there's the door bye bye.

They are not going to change, why would they? They've got a super sweet set up going for themselves right now. Only way it's going to change is at your end.

djimi

Surely the simple short term solution would be to stop cooking their meals, doing their laundry, cleaning up after their kid etc? Do they think they are living in a hotel or something?

Next thing to do is take a copy of the most recent utility bills, divide out a fair share of them and hit them with a bill for what they have been using. Fairs fair and all that.

Then discuss with them their future living arrangements. If youre going to run a hotel service (and by the sounds of it you very much are) then the going rate is usually €60-€100 a night for bed and breakfast. Meals are extra. Make your lodger aware of this.

amdublin

What was agreed at the beginning?

Did you agree rent of €400 and this would include meals and laundry would be provided? (If this was agreed then why are you unhappy about it now?)

Or did you agree €400 rent and you just started giving him meals and doing his laundry? (Why would you do this??!!! And why are you blaming him now that you are in this scenario?)

I had someone staying with me for a few months (was going to college in Dublin). I agreed the rent with them and that they would buy their own food and look after their own meals.

And I never went in to their room so wouldn't have known about any laundry - why are you cleaning up after the childs accidents?????

amdublin

Oh and I agreed that when bills came they would be split equally between us all.

The person did actually use the shower a lot (twice a day) and were desperate about leaving lights on all over the house (very annoying and frustrating) but I figured considering they were only staying a few months no point in causing arguments and at least they were contributing something to the bills.

headwrecked83

amdublin wrote: »

Oh and I agreed that when bills came they would be split equally between us all.

The person did actually use the shower a lot (twice a day) and were desperate about leaving lights on all over the house (very annoying and frustrating) but I figured considering they were only staying a few months no point in causing arguments and at least they were contributing something to the bills.

hiya, no person was only meant to be staying a couple or few weeks, and was givin us 60 or 70 quid a week at that time... then it became unclear and person upped it to 100 themselves....

basically person leaves laundry sittin in machine and other people need to do it too, so i end up sorting persons to give everyone else a chance, and i dont want to look petty and just leave it there. i/we dont go into persons room!! but person leaves bedclothes and towels in machine and never does them self, has been known to actually take them out when doing clothes lol!

I'm quite a timid person and i like the quiet life a bit and am really unconfrontational in this respect but this is just annoying, we would like to put it to person to give 150 per week or simply 300 per month plus bills as in esb and oil (is this a fair rent?) and do own cooking, shopping, laundry, and to have respect for the house and maybe do fair share of cleaning but person doesn't and it shows with the child who we love but no discipline or manners are really instilled...

there were no formal agreements made see because wasn't meant to be here this long!I would feel very petty to stop doing things now, but i was only being nice cos we thought person wouldn't be here this long, but person isn't really even my partners/our friend any more as in become snotty and distant and ignorant!! so apologies if i sound like im whinging about the situation, but we aren't sure how to go about it without getting slated when person is giving off to everyone we and person knows, or the house becomes more uncomfortable because of us doing our thing and leaving person to theirs, especially if doesn't pull weight and is dirty...

amdublin

headwrecked83 wrote: »

hiya, no person was only meant to be staying a couple or few weeks,

Why are they still here so?!

Tell them that you need to put some formality on the agreement because it is going on a lot longer than you thought

(a) give them notice you want them to move out

or

(b) decide what you want in terms of rent/food/bills/laundry/child and tell them

headwrecked83

amdublin wrote: »

headwrecked83 wrote: »

hiya, no person was only meant to be staying a couple or few weeks,

Why are they still here so?!

Tell them that you need to put some formality on the agreement because it is going on a lot longer than you thought

(a) give them notice you want them to move out

or

(b) decide what you want in terms of rent/food/bills/laundry/child and tell them

Yeah thats what we need to do.

Basically still there as had very awkward circumstances at the time...

Need to have the chat with person, it is awkward, there is actually a lot more happening than i've put on here, in terms of taking advantage....

Is 300 pm plus bills fair for a double room, plus access to materials towels etc, with no meals laundry services etc?

amdublin

Ps. If it was me I'd just leave their laundry. Take it out of the machine and leave it in a basket/bucket for them to deal with.

And then I'd say "oh I needed the machine so just to let you know your clothes are there" *pointing to clothes*

Start as you meant to go on!
To be fair to the person you have enabled this situation and it is a bit rich to be giving out about it now.

You need to sort it out now (something that should have been done at the beginning no matter how long or short the stay was supposed to be)

Good luck!

ztoical

headwrecked83 wrote: »

Is 300 pm plus bills fair for a double room, plus access to materials towels etc, with no meals laundry services etc?

Go on to daft.ie and look at similar sized rooms for rent in your area and see what the going rate is.

headwrecked83

i know it sounds ridiculous but i hate having to make a big deal about it and about money... at the same time person has no idea that this is anything extraordinary or if does says nothing...thanks is a rare word!!

I know very well we made our bed but at least don't really have to ly in it!!:D

coffee_cake

headwrecked83 wrote: »

hiya, no person was only meant to be staying a couple or few weeks, and was givin us 60 or 70 quid a week at that time... then it became unclear and person upped it to 100 themselves....

basically person leaves laundry sittin in machine and other people need to do it too, so i end up sorting persons to give everyone else a chance, and i dont want to look petty and just leave it there. i/we dont go into persons room!! but person leaves bedclothes and towels in machine and never does them self, has been known to actually take them out when doing clothes lol!

What we always did was to bundle anyone's clean washing onto a nearby chair. If you got in and saw your washing was done you picked it up, well and good.

Nothing rude about leaving it there.

amdublin

headwrecked83 wrote: »

Is 300 pm plus bills fair for a double room, plus access to materials towels etc, with no meals laundry services etc?

Check Daft for what a room in your area is going for.

goat2

ken2010 wrote: »

that is taking the piss..a month or two maybe but that be even pushing it... and because havent said anything they think its grand...100 a week for that...you would be paying that for the room alone anywhere else

this should be 200 per week, food has gone up in price, and then you are speaking of a child for weekend also, another 50euro per weekend, and anyway what are you doing this for, just give the person a months notice to leave, and start a clean sheet with the next client, that being they feed themselves, and pay their part of electric, heating, sky, phone, bins, at least it will mean you will not have to spend so much