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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle

Charge your adult children rent – you’re doing them a favour

Young woman carrying box while walking through doorway at back yard.
‘They should immediately be offering what they can afford, without waiting to be asked,’ writes John Hunter. Photograph: Maskot/Getty Images

Covid brought three of our adult children back home, and we had to invent a major home renovation project to persuade them to step out into the wide world. Like some of Sue Elliott-Nicholls’s interviewees (My two adult kids have had to move back home. Should I be charging them rent – and if so, how much?, 4 May), I love them dearly, and feel grateful for the extra time we had as a family, but didn’t think twice about asking them to contribute to the household –financially and for chores.

Between four adults (three in Bristol and one in London), our children pay more than £4,400 a month in housing costs. There is likely to be no house-buying for them unless we sell up and downsize, and hand on our baby-boomer equity – or they land incredibly high salaries. Some more research on the likelihood of the latter would be gratefully received, as we have a lot of travel in mind for our retirement and could do with the cash.
Charlotte Jones
Compton Dundon, Somerset

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