Girlfriend Moving In - What Should I Do About Mortgage

ukclarkkent

hello all,

not sure if this is the right place to post but i'll try as i see posts about split-ups here...

my girlfriend is moving into my flat this week and i'm wondering what i should be doing with regards to bills, mortgage, etc. she has her own house which she hopes to rent out for 6 months initially to see how the dust settles so i'm going with the assumption that she will cover (or near to) her mortgage obligations.

so back to my flat, initially i thought that i should take care of my mortgage on my own and we go halves in all monthly bills(utils, council tax, food).

does that sound fair? i'm not thinking of splitting up with her but this way there shouldn't be any confusion about who owns what property if the brown stuff hits the fan - fingers crossed it doesn't!!!

i don't know what "tenants in common" means yet. i'm not expecting to put her name onto my mortgage but if we both move out of our places into our own then i think it'll make sense to join up completely in the future.

anything else that i should be doing now with regards to legalities, etc?

thanks in advance for your helps, me.

VIGILANT22

Keep mortage in your name.....the rest is easy..

LeeSouthEast

Don't you dare add her to yours...

getmore4less

Keep it simple.

You pay all the house owning bills.

She contributes to the bills but keep them all in your name only.

Don't get any joint accounts.

ukclarkkent

thanks all so far.

would the monthly service charge count as house(flat)-owning bills? i was thinking that we could go halves on this as it's to do with the communal maintenance incl water rates. i guess i'll just pay the £100 ground rent p.a. as it's to do with my flat.

fanks again

getmore4less

Only a portion of the service charges will be for short term maintanence and running costs(water) the rest will be for the upkeep of the property which you should pay all of. Might be best to keep paying this yourself for now.

The reality is that you will tend to cross subsidise anyway on other things depending on how much money you each have left.

Are your incomes equal(ish) that can make a difference to the way things end up getting split.

Allthough it is a good idea to keep finances physicaly seperate it is a good idea to talk about them so you are on the same wave length and agree on spend patterns and savings goals especialy if you are aimong for a long term relationship.

If incomes are different it is not uncommon for one party to get into debt trying to keep up with the other.

ukclarkkent

thanks gm4l.

will have a chat about the service charge then. half each would be approx £60 a month so will see what she says.

as for incomes, they aren't equal but if she manages to rent out her place to match her mortgage then there'll be money left over so i don't think it's something to lose sleep over.

as you say things might balance themselves out in the end.

cheers, me.