How much rent is reasonable?

King Damager said:
P.S. Nite, nice Lawyer fail :p

kd
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To be fair, when you consider I immediately spotted the key word as soon as I made the post and edited it without research knowing full well the minimum wage of apprentaships, without seeing any other posts that followed, it was more of a epic reading fail than anything else. Hence my surprise at about 4 people quoting me in the 30 or so seconds it took for me to edit the post.

However, I will concede that the fact that I felt obliged to make this post and defend myself is rather lame :p
 
Well at the end if the day regardless of how well off his parents are £200 a month is more than reasonable and it's not "rent" it's board and lodgings. If you think it's unreasonable then move out and see where £200 will get you. Actually I bet you would not have much change out of the £400.
 
If it includes all bills, rent and food £200 is perfectly fair. £200 all in is an amazingly good deal and will leave you skint enough to learn how to manage your money.

If it doesn't include one of those three, I'd be trying to get it down to £140-ish.
 
Surfer said:
What? Complete and utter bs. If you honestly pay 85 - 90% rent then you are living way beyond what you can afford and truth be told your parents didnt teach you how to manage money income/expenses adequately.
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Complete tosh. When you take into account savings, car, relaxation spending then you can easily get that high. by 85% Im talking about what is left over when EVERYTHING is paid for (including budgeting for things like clothes, TV, going out, car, transport, savings, dentist etc.)

I stand by my point and you have no idea about my money management, situation or how my parents taught me so you can keep those misguided comments through ignorance to yourself and count yourself lucky if you can afford to have hundreds of pounds free at the end of the month

- GP
 
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I paid £35/week when I lived at home. Seemed reasonable.

Leaving you with £50 a week after working a 40 hour week is taking the **** if they don't even need the money imo. Teenagers should be given a helping hand in the world if parents are able to give it. I work 35 hours a week and have my own place and have more than £50 disposable income.
 
Nickolp1974 said:
I paid £40 a week when i was 18, that was 20 years ago.
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Yes but what proportion was that of your wage at the time.

To be honest when they are financially sound, asking for 50% of your wage is more than a little bit unfair. At the same time peoples idea of £50 a month is silly. I would have though 125 - 150 would be a more reasonable figure. Its enough to show you the cost of living but not too much that it stops you from learning to drive etc. Plus in the furture if you ever wanted to save for a house you would never get anywhere paying such a high proportion of your wage.
 
valkynaz said:
To keep it nice and short, I may be getting an apprenticeship with a monthly wage of £400. 40 hour weeks Mon-Fri on £2.65/hour. The wage should be at least £106/week but I'd sort that out if I got the job.

I am living at home with my parents and I asked my mum how much rent would she want if I was on £400/month and she said £200. Keep in mind I am at the age where I want to start e.g. driving lessons (to increase my job prospects), buy new clothes and money for entertainment purposes.

How reasonable do you think this is in comparison to the wage I would receive?

I would be fine with paying the rent asked (although I would be a bit disgruntled at first) however in the long run I think a year of hardship would be beneficial from the qualifications I would receive at the end (and maybe a job).
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I find it shocking that a parent would enforce a child to pay to live them if they financially cannot afford other options, not saying you cannot try and help pay, especially for bills and food etc.

My parents are trying to give us children as much money as they can, despite being on the poverty line, so when they pass away hopefully not for a long long time) we wont be stung with massive UK death/inheritance tax


But beyond that you are basically screwed because you will never fin somewhere to rent for 200 uid a month with all bills, food etc.
 
You need to negotiate a bit better I think.

When I did my apprenticeship I paid mother what she lost in child tax credits which was about £30 a week (so I was told).

In fact that is still all I pay, I give my parents £130 a month. And even now if they asked for £200 a month I'd say no and move out! Now I know that might be a shock to some of you but thats the way I feel. I do not cost them the £130 and they would not be renting out my room if I was not here. All my keep does is bump up their holiday funds. valkynaz would be able to run our house on his wage alone! (well it would be cutting it fine :p).

Lots of opinions flying around and a there are some valid ones in this thread. You wont find anything better for your £200 a month... You might find a ****** little box room for £65 a week but you won't be better off!

I disagree with some of the 'he needs to learn how to money manage' that is true to a point but as you get older you do learn to manage your spending better anyway and I've always been good at it as it was beating into me when I was young and got birthday money etc.

I have friends that have never paid their parents any keep/rent and have been able to save massive deposits for their first properties. One of my friends is mortgage free at 26! How is that not better for someone? (notably she was very luck but my point still stands) I also have friend that are on the other end of the spectrum who were kicked out at 17-18 or just left home and are STILL skint. I know where I'd rather be!

Best of luck with the apprenticeship - short term loss, long term gains :)
 
It's so British to charge rent to your kids XD

If she's going to take £200 from you a month the most your mother could do is save half of that for you because it's highly unlikely you're mature enough to do so (Most of us aren't so no biggy). The way it's going now she'll be stuck with you for longer.
 
GhostlyPea said:
Complete tosh. When you take into account savings, car, relaxation spending then you can easily get that high. by 85% Im talking about what is left over when EVERYTHING is paid for (including budgeting for things like clothes, TV, going out, car, transport, savings, dentist etc.)

I stand by my point and you have no idea about my money management, situation or how my parents taught me so you can keep those misguided comments through ignorance to yourself and count yourself lucky if you can afford to have hundreds of pounds free at the end of the month

- GP
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The OP never said whether anything else was included in the £200 (50% of his wages). We are talking about rent here.

You're saying that out there in the real world rent is 85% - 90% of take home pay.

Now of course you decide to change your argument.... and add on a whole bunch of other stuff.. Of course if you add all those other things on then it can quite easily get to 85 - 90 % and thats fine but you know what that wasnt what you said. This is what you said...in case you have some kind of memory problem.


Originally Posted by GhostlyPea
If he thinks losing 50% of his wages is bad, when he moves out of gets a house by himself that figure will be closer to 85 - 90%.


50% of his wages is rent. So when you mention that IT goes up to 85 - 90% when someone moves out i took that to mean you mean RENT.

But you are talking about rent plus all other necessities which i wasnt...:rolleyes:
 
Surfer said:
The OP never said whether anything else was included in the £200 (50% of his wages). We are talking about rent here.

You're saying that out there in the real world rent is 85% - 90% of take home pay.

Now of course you decide to change your argument.... and add on a whole bunch of other stuff.. Of course if you add all those other things on then it can quite easily get to 85 - 90 % and thats fine but you know what that wasnt what you said. This is what you said...in case you have some kind of memory problem.


Originally Posted by GhostlyPea
If he thinks losing 50% of his wages is bad, when he moves out of gets a house by himself that figure will be closer to 85 - 90%.


50% of his wages is rent. So when you mention that IT goes up to 85 - 90% when someone moves out i took that to mean you mean RENT.

But you are talking about rent plus all other necessities which i wasnt...:rolleyes:
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Maybe you shouldn't read too directly into things then /rolleyes

Even a basic bit of logic would indicate that somebody couldn't spent that much on just rent

- GP
 
Up until I moved out what I was paying equates to less than 10% of my take home pay. My parents gave me a good deal though. Now I'm living alone paying about £600 a month plus food on top so I completely agree with the people saying £200 is a very good deal taking into account what you get. However, £200 as a percentage of your wage is insane. When I was earning so little I didn't pay anything and only started paying when I got a proper wage in my first real job.

I think £80-100 would be fair for you so you are contributing yet still have money to go out and buy things etc. if they won't budge though you are still getting food, washing, ironing etc on top of a place to live!
 
D.P. said:
I find it shocking that a parent would enforce a child to pay to live them if they financially cannot afford other options, not saying you cannot try and help pay, especially for bills and food etc.

My parents are trying to give us children as much money as they can, despite being on the poverty line, so when they pass away hopefully not for a long long time) we wont be stung with massive UK death/inheritance tax


But beyond that you are basically screwed because you will never fin somewhere to rent for 200 uid a month with all bills, food etc.
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your a 29 year old man giving us the viewpoint of an 18year old.

that alone suggests your parents did it wrong
 
There's two sides to this. £200 board is a fair amount and probably pretty typical. No one would be able to say that you should move out and pay your own way on £400/month. The other side is that if it was me, I would hope that my parents would ask must less of me in this situation. Next to nothing if I'm honest.

Whether I was happy about it would depend on if they needed the money or it was just used as a holiday fund. If they needed the money then that's just how it is, you have as few options as they do. If I was in this situation as the parent (and I am a parent) then asking for £200 @50% of their income would be a last resort. I would have to need the money to keep the house going. If I could afford it, I'd ask for nothing. I'd want my 18 year old to be able to have some life rather than be 'tied down' so young. If they were on 20k then obviously that's a completely different scenario.
 
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I think £200 is quite unfair.

Now as a full time working adult £200 is an absolute steal! But you're on £400 per month which is extremely low and by the sounds of it roughly 18.

Its not like you're just sitting at home sponging off mum, you are proactively working and progressing and for them to sting you with £200 a month seems unreasonable.

£100 would be a fair amount, enough to get used to some responsibility, but also leaves you with enough to reap the benefits of actually working.

As others have said, there of course is your parents personal situation to take into account. And in some situations that may be fair. I think the fact you are here asking shows you think its unfair though and from the details given, my initial reaction is this is a very unreasonable amount to pay given your situation and age.
 
Op needs to move out. Maybe live on the streets and rob your rich parents house just to show them a lesson. What goes round comes round.
 
Nitefly said:
Well let's get the obvious out of the way - that's blatantly an illegal wage so why are you posting like you are going to tolerate something so ridiculous?

Edit - oh an apprentaship. Pffft it's such a miserably low wage, slave labour :(
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It's an apprenticeship, what's the problem? Learn a trade earn a wage.
 
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