Girlfriend moving in

Monium

To the OP: I'm assuming you've worked out that you need to take some proper legal advice on this.

With the greatest respect to the CAB service, this isn't one to take to them - you need specialist legal advice if you want to go the formal agreement route (I am a lawyer, but not in this area, and I wouldn't be advising anyone on it!). I'm not allowed to post links, apparently, but have a look on Google for the Community Legal Service (legal aid that was) for solicitors in your area, and also have a google for AdviceGuide for generic info and advice - it is the main CAB site, info is written by experts in the respective fields.

However, it is possible to be less formal about things. My partner moved in with me a couple of years or so ago. The flat is mine, the mortgage is mine and all the bills are in my name. He doesn't pay any of them.

He does pay for all of our holidays, various bits of furniture, tends to buy the majority of our groceries, and other non-house related expenses. This works out between us as a fairly equal split and works for us and also means that the only squabble in event of us breaking up would be who keeps the sofa that he bought or possibly, custody of the cats...

IMO, a good way of doing it would be, as has been suggested, a tenancy agreement between the OP and his GF, seting out rent, etc. I have had various lodgers in the years and used my own tenancy agreement - noone would ever say that my ex-lodgers had a claim on my flat. But as I said, I'd seek legal advice as you're obviously concerned about it and it will benefit you both to sort it out properly.

And don't forget to include something about who does the washing up, takes out the bins, and what happens if the lid is left off the toothpaste

Amy.

Batchy

another way is get a conveyancer suitably qualified involved and get the house valued at the date she moves in, if it comes to it, get a valuation when she moves out... IF she ever does...

then you split the diff between the two, and you keep the rest... that seems fair, and less ridiculous way than charging RENT, yes its ridiculous, but don't ask the question if you dont like the answer!

missile

I would suggest you do more than consult CAB. If you want proper legal advice you ought to be prepared to pay for it.

I would also delete this post.

If one of your GFs pals read it they might realise who you are and tell her. I would not be pleased to find out my OH had written this post.

Horizon81

Wow what an interesting thread. I have several friends in a similar position and always wondered what the best course of action was.

I can only echo what has been said before. In the olden days there used to be such a thing as decency and trust and people got married then bought/rented a house together but these days it's almost always done the other way round. It's a tricky position to be in so legal advice has to be the way forward. It would be nice to keep it all informal between yourselves but no-one knows what the future holds and you do right to plan for the worst case scenario - i.e. splitting up and her wanting half of your house. Alls fair in love and war after all. You could do a lot worse than listen to Kanye West's Golddigga. Holla we want pre-nup, we want pre-nup!

Mandog

What misogynist rubbish is being posted on this thread.

The original post was perfectly reasonable - if they were unfortunately to split up OP is happy to refund his girlfriend any contribution she's made to paying off his mortgage. Very fair.

Under the solutions you lot are putting forward his gf moves in and contributes to his mortgage for an indefinite period, presumably making him much more financially comfortable. In return for her substantial monthly contribution she gets absolutely zilch.

Sounds to me like it's the partner who needs urgent legal advice.

Northern_girl_2

I don't know if this is possible but how about putting your girlfriends half of the mortgage payment/rent/whatever you want to call it into some kind of trust fund or savings account each month. Alongside this draw up a legal agreement that the money will be returned to your girlfriend if you split up (because you're not a gold digger either and aren't just letting her move in for the rent money...this scenario can be spun either way!) or be used to pay off a lump sum of the morgage if you get married and/or you decide that you should both own the house.

I can understand why you would want to protect yourself in the short/medium term. It would obviously be unfair if a year down the line you split up and she was entitled to half the house.

But what about in ten years time? Or twenty? Is it fair that someone pays half the mortgage for nearly the full term and could end up with nothing? If I were moving in with someone I would accept it for a while but in the long term would expect some security for me too. I wouldn't accept being legally treated as a lodger for that long.

Otherwise I would look at renting out my own house and renting somewhere together. You still get the benefit of owning the house but you would be sharing with your partner as equals in terms of financial commitment and security of living arragements (i.e. neither of you could be thrown out immediately if things ever went wrong).

kat74

I was in a similar situation a few years ago and investigated the same thing.
I was advised that if my (now-ex) bf made any major contributions to the value of the house (e.g. if he built a conservatory) he would be able to claim a portion of the additional value that the conservatory added to the house.
Also, if my financial situation changed - redundancy, pay-cut etc, and it could be proven that I couldn't have afforded my mortgage and bills myself, and that his contributions kept the house afloat, then he may also be able to claim some of the value of the house for the period he lived there. If there was evidence that I could cover all the house costs myself, and his money was just 'spending money' for me then he couldn't have claimed anything.
The onus was on him to prove this though, it's not an automatic entitlement. He lived with me for about 2yrs, paying me a monthly figure that was about half of the mortgage and bills. He paid cash - his preference.
When we split up, he did try to persue it as 'his mate down the pub' told him he was entitled to half of my house. He had one of those free half hours with a solicitor who told him he was entitled to nothing.
This was about 4 or 5 years ago though, so please do check out some more recent information.

EdGasket

How sad that at a time of planning to be together, all the thought is about money. Personally I wouldn't move in or marry anyone unless I loved and trusted them unconditionally. In that case money does not enter the equation; they could have all that I have if that's what they wanted. If you are entering a marriage or equivalent with these negative thoughts as per the OP; it would be better not to do so imho !

Fire_Fox

Mandog wrote: »

Under the solutions you lot are putting forward his gf moves in and contributes to his mortgage for an indefinite period, presumably making him much more financially comfortable. In return for her substantial monthly contribution she gets absolutely zilch.

She doesn't get zilch, she gets a (presumably pleasant) roof over her head. If she wants to 'invest' in property the partner is at liberty to either buy somewhere on her own and let it, or have a chat with the OP in a year or so with a view to buying a house together.

redlady_1

I haven't read all the thread but you need to get a deed drawn up in which it states that she reliquishes all rights to your home should you split up. My next door neighbours did the opposite (he wanted her to be entitled to a proportion of the house should they split up) and a deed was the way forward. You could also have it written in that after a certain amount of time living together then you would be happy to give her part of the value of the house. Then everyone is happy.