Rates for live-in nanny in fully separate basement apartment
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Anonymous
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We rent the first and second floor of a row house and the basement is a separate unit occupied by other tenants (it's a 1-bedroom with bath, kitchen, living room, separate entrance, and its own washer/dryer, It has a NY-style apartment-size fridge and oven/stove but otherwise is a full kitchen). The basement tenants are moving out and we're wondering whether it would make sense to rent that unit too for use by a live-in nanny. We're expecting our first baby, so the LI nanny would be caring for 1 infant for 50 hours a week (starting when the infant is about 3 months old).
I've seen other posts on the board about rates for a live-in nanny who has a separate bedroom/bathroom but shares other living space with the family. Our situation is different since the nanny would receive a fully independent apartment that normally rents for $1300 a month. We'd also cover utilities (water, gas, electric, garbage/sewer) but not cable/internet or food. In this situation, what would be an appropriate hourly rate for the LI nanny? Would this be an attractive position? We're very close to the metro near the zoo. It seems like the fully-separate basement apartment would allow us to reduce the hourly rate more than the $2-$3 reduction that you typically see mentioned for LI nannies, but I'm not sure how much more. There should be very few job creep issues or issues with nanny's friends or comings and goings since we won't know when the nanny is home (we think it's important to respect the nanny's separate life). TIA! |
Anonymous
| Pay her a living wage, and she can pay the 1,300. rent if she wants to live there. Otherwise, you'll likely get someone who needs a place, but isn't a great nanny. Get clear with your own priorities. |
Anonymous
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A nanny has to pay for rent either way. You should approach the live in as an option.
#1 Option one: pay $18-20hr which is about $1050-1200 a week. or 4,700mo before tax so about 3,200-3,500 after tax. Live out. #2 Live in $15-17hr or about $700-900 a week, or 3,00-3,200 a month before tax. Coming out to about $500-600 after tax a week or $2100-2300 a month. These numbers are based off of D.C and close suburbs. If you live further out you can adjust accordingly. |
Anonymous
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As a paying renter, either way you want to make her pay, you can't throw her out if you fire her. She has the same legal rights as any renter in your state.
What happens to her lease if she quits your job before her lease is up? |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks to those with helpful answers. One of the reasons we're considering renting the basement unit is because our landlord is considering selling the property (and we'd have to move at a very inconvenient time, even with all of the rights DC tenant law affords) rather than looking for new basement tenants. If we rent the entire house and offer the basement unit for the nanny, we'd ensure that we wouldn't have to deal with a move.
Since she wouldn't have a separate lease, I don't think we'd need to deal with DC tenants' rights for her -- just like any other family with a live-in nanny wouldn't have to deal with a live-in nanny staying on after her job ended. |
Anonymous
| FYI, I charge the same hourly rates, regardless of the living accommodations offered. Most nannies are used to that. |
Anonymous
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Op, you rent the row house correct? I can't imagine a landlord would be ok with you renting the basement without that tenant having some sort of lease with him. We own a couple of rentals and would never be ok with this situation. I could be wrong, but since we are the legal owners of the property, if you kicked her out with no notice, she could come after us. Not to mention if she got injured, etc.
Have you discusse This with your landlord? |
Anonymous
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OP again -- the landlord suggested that we take over the whole house and use the downstairs space for a nanny or au pair, so I assume that he doesn't have issues with it.
It's sounding, though, like any discount in the hourly rates wouldn't be significant enough to make the additional rent we'd have to pay worthwhile. |
Anonymous
Think again because DC Tenants' rights do apply to her. You sound like a wheeler-dealer. |
Anonymous
Yikes, I would hope most nannies are smarter than that and realize that living accommodations are a benefit and their value should be considered in the whole compensation package, yielding a lower hourly rate than a live out nanny. |
Anonymous
Most nannies are in fact smart enough to have learned from experience that the usual drawbacks offset any financial benefits. 1. Job creep, although it seems not applicable in this particular situation. We don't know for sure. Most live-ins are not totally separate. 2. Constant noise from the children. 3. Loss of privacy. If you get back terribly late from a weekend trip, or date, or whatever, employer is worried about your sleep deprivation and how you'll do your job. What if a boyfriend starts staying over most of the time? Can you really forbid that in a lease? Realistically? How do you enforce something like that? OP, do you have separate washer/dryer upstairs, or you'd be going to the basement for that? |
Anonymous
Your math is incorrect. You're saying a nanny under option one makes almost 60k a year. |
Anonymous
Calculations were done with OT included. But just a basic $20/hr for 50 hrs a week is $1000/week or 52k a year. |
Anonymous
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Living-in is usually a bad deal for the nanny, so
NANNY, BEWARE! |
Anonymous
| If you want advice, do not get a live-in nanny. It will bind your hand more than you want with regard to the employer-employee relationship, since getting rid of someone in this case would mean putting her on the street, and I just wouldn't want to deal with that, as well as with the DC tenant laws. Get a market rate for that apartment, and get your own nanny who won't depend on you. $18-20 for one infant is high, you can get your own liveout nanny for $15-17 very easily. |