When it comes to couples merging lives and finances, fairness is often in the eye of the beholder.

As a woman considers moving into her partner’s mortgage-free home, a disagreement over splitting rental income hints at deeper issues of equity and trust.

Read on for the full story!

AITA for not giving my BF 50% of my rental income?

I (46F) and my partner (57M) of 5 years are talking about moving in together after my kids (from previous marriage) have moved out.

He has a fully paid off house and I have a house with mortgage.

It’s likely that I will have to move into his house as it’s bigger, and I rent out my house with a rental income of around $600 per week.

Here’s where the problem first began.

When we spoke about how to manage our finances, he suggested I pay half of all the bills and groceries, plus 50% of my rental income that I receive from my house.

This didn’t sit right with her, so she started probing further.

Paying half of all the bills and groceries I completely understand, but half of my rental income to him even though he has no mortgage – I didn’t think it was fair.

I didn’t quite understand why he wanted me to give him 50% of my rental income first.

He explained his reasoning.

He then explained that in case we break up and he doesn’t want to feel like I have taken advantage of him and the living situation, and to make things fair, we should chip in 50/50 in everything.

I don’t feel though this is a 50/50 deal, more like 80/20 deal with him benefiting more than me.

She crunches the numbers and scratches her head.

I would pay a maximum of $150 a week rent plus bills and groceries.

That is around the amount I am willing to pay, not $300 a week rent plus bills and groceries.

As a side note, my income is around $75K, and his is around $85K (half of which comes from his rental from his own investment property).

AITA for not giving 50% of my rental income to him if I move in with him?

Sometimes it’s best to trust your instincts when you suspect you’re being taken advantage of.

Redditors chipped in with their opinions.

This user urges caution if this couple continues their relationship.

Something smells fishy to this user too.

This couple should really work out an arrangement before their finances become even more intertwined.

It seems the boyfriend doesn’t have the best intentions here.

The decision to merge their finances and lives is proving to be less straightforward than they thought.

The cost of moving in together may just be too high.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.