Buying a House with a Friend

hivoodoodoll

Hi All,

I am a FTB and have been looking for a property since the end of last year. After the house I was going to buy fell through I decided to up my budget a bit as there wasn't much on the market around where I live for my original budget.

Anyway, a friend of mine is in the process of splitting with her partner and made a flippant comment the other day about getting a property together. I didn't take her seriously but today she said she thought we should sit down and talk about it some more.

If I was honest I would really like to live with her. We get on really well and I think it would work. I am quite a loner but it would be lovely to have someone to be able to go out with.

I have decded to put a list together of all the pros and cons of this joint partnership and I was hoping for some advice. She has a mortgage of around 150k and the house they have is probably worth around 400k. She is about 12 years older than me and my first thought is what would happen if either of us found a partner.

Has anyone been in this situation? Has it worked? What were the problems? I wasn't too sure where to post this (so you may see this somewhere else as well) but as we wll be needing to get a mortgage I thought I would start here.

I look forward to any advice you can give me.

G_M

Apart from the relationship issues (

lovely to have someone to be able to go out with

what happens if you go 'further' then it doesn't last?), you need to get legal advice on the financial implications.

Will you each put in equel deposits? If not, how do you divide ownership later?
Will you have a joint mortgage? Will you pay 50% each? What happens if one of you doesn't/can't pay?
Will you share DIY/improvements/furniture costs etc equally? If not who owns what?

More importantly, do you each own 50% of the value of the property, including any gain/loss in value?

And most importantly, what if one of you wants to move out/sell? Will the other buy out the former? at what price? How will they afford it? If they can't, does that mean the 1s one can't move?

And what if one of you gets a new partner who wants to move in?

I'm not saying don't do this. But DO think through EVERY possible scenario, however good or bad or unlikely, and agree how you would deal with it. Then get it written down in legal-speak.

Buying a house together is actually more of a commitment than getting married!

whitewing

It's hard enough being married and sorting out differing priorities with regard to money/what to pay for and when. There is absolutely no way that I would mortgage a house that I was living in with a friend.

hivoodoodoll

Thanks G_M, I had come up with some of those things. This is exactly why I posted this message, to get other people's views and opinions.

Whitewing, It may not be the right thing to do but I want to make sure I had thought of everything before making any sort of decision.

poppysarah

And what about when she gets a new other half?

So many reasons why it could turn sour for you..

Werdnal

I personally wouldn't do it.

Having a friend "at arms length" if you see what I mean, is far different to living with someone 24/7. A lot of relationships fail when partners move in together and have to live with each other's particular habits and foibles, never mind friends who are not romantically attached to each other!

jimmo

When I "flew the nest" I and a friend shared a 2 bedroom flat with another bloke who was a stranger to us but had just bought the flat as a first time buyer. We paid him rent.
We were all young and single and all had 9 to 5 jobs so we had a kitty for food, ate together and took it in turns to cook, wash up etc.
Being young, single and free of parental restraints we found it necessary to be rather flexible about who slept in the single bedroom but that worked for us in the short time.
However, frictions do happen and my original friend moved out after about 9 months.
We have long since, gone our separate ways and now live miles apart but, the best part of 40 years later, we are still mates and meet up occasionally.
I am convinced that our friendship survived because we had no formal financial ties and buying a house jointly with a friend is a recipe for disaster.
Buy a property in your own name and let your friend move in as a lodger or let your friend buy a property and you move in as a lodger. That really has a better chance of working out.

Leftyness

I also had an offer from a friend very similar to the OP's situation. It does sound good but end of the day it is related to money and it can get very complicated. I am still in 2 minds because the house prices in London still seems ridiculous. Personally for me it seems like it is the only way to get onto the property ladder.

scottishblondie

There is a lot to consider, such as: what would happen if yo fell out, or one of you needed to move, or got married, or wanted to live with a partner, or couldn't afford the mortgage... the list goes on. Also, as she has owned before you would lose the FTB stamp duty exemption. IMHO I don't think I would want to get into a mortgage with someone that I wasn't sharing my life with.

Money_maker

Edited - apologies, misread OP

Seanymph

I know a couple of people who did it very successfully - it was in an expensive city, they worked together (generally opposite shifts) and both included (in time) female partners in the equation - indeed, one got married whilst they shared the house.

When it was necessary for one to move on for work reasons they sold the house and pocketed the money they made (those were the days!)...

It can be done. But both were sensible, pragmatic guys who had shared a house before, both ex university so were used to sharing space, and they had an agreement and talked everything through first.

Personally I think it's less risky than buying with a sexual partner.