My unemployed and alcoholic daughter uses me and won’t pay me rent

DEAR DEIDRE: SHE lives in a flat I own but my daughter only pays me £20 a month in rent. It was meant to be a temporary arrangement but four years on, she is still there and refuses to move out. I’m her 71-year-old dad. She’s 35 and moved away years ago. She didn’t have […]

DEAR DEIDRE: SHE lives in a flat I own but my daughter only pays me £20 a month in rent.

It was meant to be a temporary arrangement but four years on, she is still there and refuses to move out.

I’m her 71-year-old dad. She’s 35 and moved away years ago. She didn’t have much money but got by.

Then she lost her job. I’d bought the flat as an investment, so I told her she could move into it while she got herself straight.

What I didn’t know was that she was sacked for drinking at work. Since then her addiction has worsened and she has no prospects of finding another job.

Her brother is 42 and works in finance. He says I should evict her and use the income from a more reliable tenant for my old age.

I know he’s right but how can I throw my own daughter out on the streets?

DEIDRE SAYS: That would be really tough but sometimes you need to be cruel to be kind.

Go to see your daughter. Tell her she cannot go on living this way and that you are worried about her.

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Encourage her to find some help so she gives up the alcohol and say you will try to support her all you can.

You can both find help through We Are With You (wearewithyou.org.uk) which offers free, confidential help through local centres and online to people with addiction problems and those affected by them.