Legal Options for girlfriend moving in with me

Teresa_Green

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Giving her a "free ride" is the other side of the coin to you protecting your investment.

How is it a "free ride" if she is paying towards the household?

You (OP) would be protecting yourself at her expense, which does not bode well for a caring, sharing true relationship either now or in the future.

GSXRCarlos

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Giving her a "free ride" is the other side of the coin to you protecting your investment.

What would I do? I'd set up a separate bank account in my own name and have all of her contributions paid into it, transfer funds from my normal current account for my share and pay the bills from it. That way, there can be no confusion about what she has and has not contributed towards. I would expect her to pay the difference between the 25% single-person discount of the Council Tax and the full amount as that would be an additional expense which you wouldn't have to cover if she wasn't there..

Council tax uplift - check

Teresa_Green

GSXRCarlos wrote: »

Ignoring the emotional relationship stuff,

Precisely my point.

GSXRCarlos

Teresa_Green wrote: »

How is it a "free ride" if she is paying towards the household?

You (OP) would be protecting yourself at her expense, which does not bode well for a caring, sharing true relationship either now or in the future.

Again, how is it at her expense?

She's already renting, and if she rented for another 12 months she'd actually be worse off than living with me - even if she had absolutely no claim on the house, she'd have more cash in her pocket (as would i) if in a years time we get more serious, engaged, baby etc i'd happily add her to the deeds, mortgage or whatever. We're talking about now, and the short term solution.

Surely paying for 2 lots of mortgage/rent, gas, water, elec, council tax, food, maintenence is just as detrimental to us both?

Do i have a claim on a portion of the rent fo her rented property if i cut the grass, and fix the curtains, and change the lightbulbs???

GSXRCarlos

Teresa_Green wrote: »

Precisely my point.

Hi Teresa, please can you explain your point?

Teresa_Green

GSXRCarlos wrote: »

if in a years time

What if you don't?

My point is that you said yourself (as quoted in my earlier post) that you are ignoring the emotional side and making this purely a financial transaction to "protect yourself" which would be at her expense.

It's not hard to understand, is it?

sonastin

Teresa_Green wrote: »

Please would someone like to explain why it is ok for you to profit from her by taking rent money off her towards your mortgage whilst openly admitting that you are not happy for her to have any claim over you for this arrangement?

...


I understand you wanting to protect yourself but please don't put her at a disadvantage in the process.

It is not necessarily to her disadvantage. She should be paying to live somewhere - its not down to the man in her life to support her living costs. If what she is paying to the OP is more than she has to pay currently then more fool her for agreeing to it. But, from what the OP is saying a) it would cost her less to pay him a contribution than she currently has to pay out and b) it keeps some of the money in the relationship so if they do end up together for the long haul, they haven't lost out as much.

I agree that the "no claim whatsoever" approach is not necessarily the simplest or most appropriate way to structure the arrangement though. If she makes a defined contribution to the property which entitles her to a defined outcome in the event that things did go wrong, it is less open to abuse and misinterpretation down the line. For example, she pays you half of mortgage, bills, groceries, etc now. If things go sour, she is entitled to half of the capital reduction of the mortgage between now and then (i.e. she gets back however much of your mortgage she has paid off). You get the benefit of the reduced interest due to her contributions and she gets a roof over her head for a much lower cost than she currently has to pay out.

Teresa_Green

sonastin wrote: »

its not down to the man in her life to support her living costs

It is at least as far as the benefits system is concerned, if they are a household whether married or not.

Sonastin, I agree with your later comments about how things could be set up, what I am uncomfortable with is the way in which the OP is attempting to maintain the upper hand financially whilst he decides if the "relationship" will work out.

In the event things did turn sour, and there are apparently absolutely no guarantees that they wouldn't given the advice asked for by the OP, she could be left homeless at very short notice and therefore would have lost out. Relationships are about more than purely money although I appreciate it is important to sort out finances as part of any couple contemplating moving to the next stages.

GSXRCarlos

Teresa_Green wrote: »

What if you don't?

My point is that you said yourself (as quoted in my earlier post) that you are ignoring the emotional side and making this purely a financial transaction to "protect yourself" which would be at her expense.

It's not hard to understand, is it?

if i don't, we split up and she moves out, with no additional cost to herself.

Purely hypothetically, but what if the house has dropped in value - does she then owe me a percentage of the loss in value while she's lived there?

GSXRCarlos

Thanks for all of your input, i don't want this to turn into a slanging match, but Teresa, what would you do if you'd invested £15,000 of your savings in a house, then spent a further 5-10k doing it up and met someone who had nothing. would you just let them move in and hope everything goes well?