Where do you stand when buying a home with a partner

Gorgeous_George

You will have a right to a 55/45 split rather than 60/40. She pays half of the 90% mortgage makes the sums simple.

This can be enshrined by making the property ownership 'Tenancy in common'.

Well worth doing in this day and age. Far too many people split up.

Make a will. When married, if you die together it is assumed that the eldest died first and their estate passes to the youngest and is then shared amongst their family. Speak to an expert.

GG

Errata

Dean, you can have a solicitor draw up a document - I think it's called something like a Deed of Trust - which makes clear in law what happens if the relationship breaks down and the assets have to be divvied up.
It's certainly worth BOTH of you talking to a solicitor about this, as the average length of a co-habiting relationship is unfortunately a matter of a handful of years rather than decades.

fudgecat

Yes, it is true that some relationships appear to show too little commitment, but to safeguard your share of an assett (possibly a liability in today`s market) is simply common sense. You also have to think of the long term - children will not always be dependent, but may miss out on inheritance. When my mum walked out on my dad she signed over everything to him because, as she told me, he`s your dad and you`ll inherit from him. Luckily I did not look to expectations from my parent as he found a a new girlfriend and when he died left all to her and on her decease to her son, who he had never met. I earn more than my other half, pay all of the mortgage, bills and do all the saving around here. The split on the property is 75%/25% in my favour. This will protect my children should a similar situation arise (it won`t - he has been warned!:rotfl: ) We`ve been together over thirty years (married) and outlasted my parent`s marrriage...:cool:

dean_ham

fudgecat wrote: »

Yes, it is true that some relationships appear to show too little commitment, but to safeguard your share of an assett (possibly a liability in today`s market) is simply common sense. You also have to think of the long term - children will not always be dependent, but may miss out on inheritance. When my mum walked out on my dad she signed over everything to him because, as she told me, he`s your dad and you`ll inherit from him. Luckily I did not look to expectations from my parent as he found a a new girlfriend and when he died left all to her and on her decease to her son, who he had never met. I earn more than my other half, pay all of the mortgage, bills and do all the saving around here. The split on the property is 75%/25% in my favour. This will protect my children should a similar situation arise (it won`t - he has been warned!:rotfl: ) We`ve been together over thirty years (married) and outlasted my parent`s marrriage...:cool:

Thanks for the posts everyone, thanks for the above post aswel. This is exactly why you should have some agreement drawn up.

_bankrupted

Dean_ham,

Some of the info above is misleading.

My advice is simply to draw up an agreement between you and your partner about who has put in what and who gets what if you go separate ways. You can do this yourself there is absolutely no need to go to a solicitor. It would be best to keep the agreement as simple as possible and could simply state that the deposit will be returned to you, with some other caveats such as no interest taken into account, not affected by house price rise or fall etc.


With regard to the property itself, if the house is in your name only then if you split (not married, no children) then you will receive the full proceeds of the sale, it will be for your ex-girlfriend to prove she has some entitlement to the proceeds etc, by proving she paid for part of the mortgage etc,. It will be difficult and she will incur legal expenses, over something that in all probability will be a small sum. The cards are definitely stacked in your favour to lose nothing.

If the property is in joint names (not married, no children) then the proceeds are split jointly. You have an agreement she signed about the deposit, you would have to sue her if she refused to pay you the deposit, but she wouldn't have a leg to stand on. On sale of the property it could be drawn up with your (selling) solicitor that the funds are split 50/50 less the deposit from her half. It she won't agree to it then you don't sell the house is a tactic you could use. House a mess when someone comes to view. You get the idea. The cards are definitely stacked in your favour to lose nothing.

If the property is in your name (married, no children) then you wiil receive the full proceeds of the sale, it will be for your ex-wife to prove she has some entitlement to the proceeds etc, by proving she paid for part of the mortgage etc, household bills, she does not have automatic entitlement to half the proceeds, just in the same way she has no right to your personal savings and you have no right to hers. The exact details would be thrashed out at the divorce hearing, but for a short marriage with no financial contribution to the house, she would have a very hard time proving she was entitled to some of its proceeds.


If the property is in both names (married, children) then your rights and hers are exactly the same. She will not automatically get the house. It's all about the interests of the children.

So if you were a stay at home husband, bringing up the children and your wife (now ex) was the wage earner etc, then there would be a high chance that you stay in the house and she supports you and the children. It's just that it's normally the other way around and people quote it as fact.

mclaren32

How does the prospect of negative equity effect this. If one party puts down a 10% deposit and if when the house needed to be sold there is negative equity what would the situation be, does the party putting down the deposit loose everything and the amount outstanding get split between the two parties 50/50? Surely a fair solution would be for the other party to pay a greater proportion of the negative equity? Also what would happen if the sale just covers the mortgage, would the first party just loose all their deposit and the other party walk away from the situation.

You can tell whats going through my mind at the minute....

_bankrupted

If the house is in joint names and no formal agreement was made between the two partners about the deposit, it's history. You both own the house 50/50 or have debts of 50/50 if sold with negative equity.

Otherwise it's what you signed togther in the first place about the deposit, and what would happen if the house rose, fell. It's as simple as that.

Saver-Rob

This is quite interesting to me. I am in a very similar position. I am 22, my girlfriend is currently 21. I work full time and she is currently @ Uni in her first year. We have combined savings of around £47,000 (as per my signature).

Obviously we would not put all of this down as a deposit, but I may well end up putting more down than her as I have more. I also wondered about what would happen should things go wrong before we got married. I will also be the main breadwinner for the next 2 years - does this count for anything? I will be the one paying for most of the home improvements etc etc etc. This is a difficult position indeed!

We dont want to miss the boat when it comes to 'ideal time to buy' in terms of house prices though. Otherwise we may well have waited until she finished Uni.

neverdespairgirl

Sonofa wrote: »

I'm assuming you are a woman and know I'll cop some flak for saying this, but you sweet lady are one in a million

(checked a few of your old threads; handbags and maternity leave, assumed correctly, phew!)

I wouldn't take my partner's assets if we split up, but I certainly would expect him to pay (as I would too) for our son.

Gorgeous_George

If the OP splits up, the bank will take their money first (adding on ERC, legal fees and other costs). The £10K would disappear in a falling market.

GG