Partner moving in, need to draw up a tenancy agreement

sammylou100

Hi all. In a few weeks my boyfriend of a year & a half will be moving in with me. I own part of the flat in a shared ownership scheme (I have checked that he is allowed to move in!). He will not be contributing towards my mortgage at all, but he will be paying something towards the rent & half of the bills. I would like to draw up a short tenancy agreement, just to keep things simple & to protect myself, should the worse happen.

I have found the one in the below link, but seeing as I live there already a lot of it is irrelevant, does anyone have any ideas of where I can find a more suitable one please? Thank you.

http://www.credit-check-services.co.uk/resources-property.asp

McKneff

But he is not going to be a tennant, he is not even going to be a lodger.

I can understand that you want to protect yourself and your property.

I would have thought a simple statement signed and dated by yourself and your partner would be sufficient.

BitterAndTwisted

If he's your partner he won't be a tenant. By a stretch he could be a lodger and these have little to no security of tenure. The easiest way to ensure that he has absolutely no claim on your ownership or equity would be to not accept a single penny from him which could be construed later as rent or contributions towards your mortgage.

Share of Council Tax: OK
Share of utility bills: OK
Share of grocery shopping:OK

Nothing towards repairs, maintenance or improvements.

No paid-for holidays in lieu of rent.

And most certainly not any joint bank accounts or joint loans or anything like that.

sammylou100

Thank you, no there will be no joint accounts or anything else, I have had a bad credit rating in the past & wouldn't risk that for either of us!
I see what you mean about him not being a tenant or lodger, perhaps just a simple statement signed by both would be best. Thank you for the advice.

neas

He's moving in but you dont trust him? oO

When i moved in with my wife We just set up joint bank accounts...

I always question these agreements because by their very nature you dont trust explicity a partner when you take relationship to next stage... which to partner may be misconstrued as relationship not going to final conclusion..

sammylou100

I am from a family where my Mum has been divorced twice & left penniless both times. Regardless of trust I wouldn't risk putting myself in that situation. And the key word in your post is 'wife'! We aren't yet married.

grimsalve

Just write up a list of house "rules" and get him to sign it (and maybe get someone to witness it too?)... doesn't bode well for the future though

McKneff

sammylou100 wrote: »

I am from a family where my Mum has been divorced twice & left penniless both times. Regardless of trust I wouldn't risk putting myself in that situation. And the key word in your post is 'wife'! We aren't yet married.

I can understand other posters saying its a trust issue but presumably you mam trusted her two spouses to the hilt and look what happened. It's bound to colour your judgement and I hope your oh understands that. I hope yu have a very long and happy relationship.

Annie

Johnhowell

Go to a Family Law solicitor and get a Co-habitation Agreement - NOW... A few hundred quid now compared to thousands later...

Good luck,
John

bristol_pilot

A tenancy agreement will not protect you - he could be deemed to have contributed to the house just by living there.

You need to get a living together agreement drawn up by a solicitor. He also needs to get advice from his own independent solicitor (so that he can't claim later that he was railroaded into signing).

Even that is not totally watertight, as courts have very wide discretion and can order just about anything.

The only watertight solution IMO is not living together - you each maintain your own separate houses and keep everything separate, then sort of commute at night time. I believe this is called 'living apart together' and is increasingly popular amongst people who have been stung at least once.

Soundgirlrocks

I am curious about all this, my understanding was that there was no such thing as common law wife/ husband. The advice I've been told over and over is that is you get nothing if you are not married, you hear these horror stories of women who spend 20 years raising a family with a man for him go off with someone else and the long term partner is left with nothing (not right IMO) how can a partner of a few years lay claim on a property, when they are not on any of the paper work, mortgage etc. Does anyone know of a court giving equity to the said partner when there are no kids involved?