Am I a sucker?

[bartholomew]

I have the following problem:

My mum gave my sister and me a flat in Warsaw, Poland.
The thing is that I live in the UK. My sister lives with her boyfriend
who pays 50% towards council tax, gas, phone and electricity bills.
He has lived in the flat for more than 2 years now.
Do you think that I could ask him to pay 50% of what he would have to pay
if he decided to rent such a flat from estate agents?
I know this is my sis's boyfriend, but hey does it mean that I am to be a sucker?

what do you think/what would you do?

[Cheekystar]

so he's living rent free?

are you paying anything towards the flat?

[bartholomew]

yes, he is living rent free. i do not pay anything. (I pay no bills because I do not live there)

[teag1rl]

Yes, I'd say you are. You should find out the likely rent for similar property locally and your sister and boyf should pay you half of that. Otherwise, you could sell the flat and spilt proceeds between you. Its probably all more complicated than that, but that's how I see it in black and white.

[Toureman]

You own half the flat.

You are entitled to half the rent whoever is living in the flat

If your sister wants to live in the flat or have a tenant in the flat she should pay you half the rent.

Tell your sister you want to sell the flat if it does not produce half the rent for you.

See a solicitor.

Don't be taken for a sucker.

[bartholomew]

Thanks

[matt_london]

<PRE><PRE>I think he should pay you 25% of what the market rent for the flat is, because: a) He is sharing it with another person & b) you are only entitled to half of any income from the flat. You could politely suggest to your sister that you want to sell the flat as you would like to use the money from the sale to generate some income that you are not getting from it at present.</PRE></PRE>