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Yes, My Boyfriend is Paying Me Rent

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Moving BoxesIn my most recent weekly miscellaneous updates, I’ve highlighted how my BF and I will now be living together, in my condo. When we first began our discussions of where he’d be living (he’s currently living with a friend who now has his own girlfriend moving in soon, which sort of displaced my BF), many options were thrown out: He’d get his own apartment with a year lease, he’d rent month-to-month or he’d move in with me because I own and he rents.

We’d already thrown out the idea of renting out my place because the mortgage is so low and the location is extremely convenient for our current needs. While the idea now is to stay put, I haven’t completely written off the option to rent it out for the future as I know I’ll eventually keep it as an investment property.

The more we investigated the various options, the more it became clear he should take the third option and move in with me. Once that was decided, the awkward fun conversations about expenses began. Eventually, we settled on splitting everything down the middle.

This means that I’m essentially charging my boyfriend rent.

And as much as it felt awkward to have him joke about me being his “landlady,” I think this is the best choice for many reasons:

We’ll be sharing the condo

This isn’t like he’s renting a room or just staying over a few nights a week. He’s living there; my house is now our house. We’re planning to renovate the second bedroom into an office that includes a dedicated space for him to work from home (he’s a consultant and spends a lot of time working at home when he’s not traveling), and we’re tackling ideas for the kitchen renovation together as well.

I’ve discussed at length my desire to have it be our home, and I mean that 100%–I’m cleaning and organizing in an effort to make sure there’s room for anything he wants to bring into the house when he moves in. There won’t be any “you get those 2 inches in the closet” from this lady!

He makes a boatload more than me

On the surface, this isn’t a reason to automatically charge him rent. However, this move will cut his expenses because I’m not in the city center and he’ll be able to save even more for future plans. When he said he was comfortable splitting things down the middle and then some, I knew this was a win-win for both of us.

I’ll still pay for the condo repairs

Aside from the office renovation, I’ll be paying for any necessary repairs the condo/structure may need, and I’ll be paying for the kitchen renovation myself. Why? Because these improvements are enhancing my property value and until we’re married, the condo remains in my name and is bettering my investment.

I’m a realist

Ultimately, I’m keeping a realistic outlook on all of this. Yes, we love each other. Yes, we’re happier than we’ve each ever been before. But we’re not married or even engaged yet. Life happens and you never know when some freak event could turn things upside down.

Therefore, we’re both entering this arrangement as realists. I’d charge any other roommate money because they’d be living there, causing wear & tear and increasing utilities, etc., and I’ll be collecting rent from him for the foreseeable future. I’m just asking that he sends the check in an auto payment because it will be far too weird to have him give me cash or a hand-written check. :)

 

What do you think? Would you charge your BF/GF rent to live in your place?

 

Photo credit: z287marc


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