Can I Trust My Parents-in-Law?

Hi Barefoot,

My parents-in-law (both in their 60s and retired) have put a proposition to my boyfriend, and I am very uncomfortable about it. He is in serious debt, with credit cards and personal loans. In two months they will lose their cheap rental home (they’re renting from a friend, who is now selling the place).

So they want my boyfriend to buy a home in his name for them to live in. They say they will pay him $5,000 a month and cover all other costs. For income they have four pensions -- two for themselves and two ‘carer payments’ they receive for having two people in their 80s living with them. They say it will not cost him a cent, so he can pay his debts and, when they all die, he will have a house. They all think it’s an amazing idea, but alarm bells are ringing for me!

Abbie

Hi Abbie,

Ding! Ding! Ding!

I’m hearing the same alarm bells!

I could be wrong, but it sounds like your parents-in-law have been moved on from mooching off their mate … so they’re looking around for their next meal ticket, which just happens to be your boyfriend.

Make no mistake, they’re looking out for themselves -- not for their son.So, at the risk of being the party-pooper, let me poop all over this plan:

First, retired pensioners can’t underwrite a mortgage -- especially when part of their income is supplemented by carer payments which may go to God at any stage.

Second, it sounds like your boyfriend would have trouble qualifying for a mortgage, given you say he is in ‘serious debt, with credit cards and personal loans’. And even if he can score a loan, it doesn’t mean he should.

What could end up happening is your deeply-in-debt boyfriend becomes your deeply-in-debt husband, and you both end up on the hook providing a home for his deeply dependent parents for for the next 30 years.

Ding ... Dong … don’t do it.

Scott