Our friends found out that my wife and I are renting out our flat, and now they want to move in. How do we explain that we dont want to rent to friends? Its always trickier to negotiate this way.
After our wedding, life between my wife and me couldnt have been better. We married with the idea of living with her parents for a while. At the time, my own mum and dad were relocating to the seaside, and their flat was sold, with the money split between me and my sister. With that money and some help from my father-in-law, we managed to buy a spacious one-bedroom flat, where we put up a partition to create two rooms. We thought one would be for a child, but somehow it never happened.
At first, we simply didnt want kids, then our careers took off and we had no time. Later, we just couldnt manage it, and my wife refused to see a doctor. I wasnt particularly keen either. We were happy together, and neither of us worried too much about whod bring us a glass of water in old age. Our friends with children also played a big rolethey were drowning in debt and didnt seem all that happy. So, in the end, we decided wed do without that kind of happiness, since life had worked out this way.
When we both turned thirty-three, my wife and I invested in a new apartment block. The sum wasnt enormous, so we took the risk, even though many tried to talk us out of it. By thirty-seven, we had a flat ready to move into. We gave it a light refurbishment to make it even more perfect. My wife called it our insurance policyjust in case we ever had kids, but if not, wed leave it to our nieces and nephews in our old age.
For now, we decided to rent it out. We tried handling the listing ourselves, without an agent. To spread the word, we mentioned it to friends, asking where else we could advertise. Then, suddenly, came the awkward questioncould our friends with kids move in? Theyve been stuck in dreadful rented places for years, and here was a brand-new building, nicely done up, and they even hinted at a “discount.”
That was our mistaketelling friends about the flat. We never expected some of them would want to rent it.
“Its just one bedroom, and your familys too big,” my wife tried to explain.
“So what? We live in a one-bed now. Your photos make it look much roomier.”
“But its new, and youve got kids and a cat”
“What, you think were some kind of slobs wholl wreck the place?”
We said wed think about it, though personally, I didnt want to. Id been to their houseit was always a mess. In the end, my wife made me call and turn them down with some flimsy excuse.
What we got in return was this:
“Youve got a second flat, and your parents will leave you theirs when theyre goneyet youre still greedy! Youll sit on your properties, drying up without kids, without friends, without any joy in life!”
Is that a fair response? We owe them nothing. Its not our fault they had kids without a proper home or family support, and now theyve got nowhere decent to live. Everyone makes their own choicesso why cant we rent to a stranger at the proper rate instead of giving mates rates and favours?
