How much should partner contribute?

chelseablue

I know this has been asked before but I need advice about my specific situation:

I live in a 2 bedroom flat that I own (with a mortgage), my boyfriend stays round 3 - 4 nights a week

Going to have a chat tomorrow night about him moving in offically and want to forearmed!
I've never lived with anyone before so not sure what he should contribute?

If it helps below are my monthly bills:

Mortgage £480
Council tax £93
Electric £50
Water £40
Ground rent £20
Service charge (for flat) £80
TV licence £12.12
Car insurance £25
Car tax £12
Petrol £90
Groceries £175 (guessing £40 a week for 2)

Half of everything above is roughly £540

But if I take out the mortgage and car expenses his half of the bills will only be £185 ! Seems like a bargain to live in a 2 bed property for only £185 a month

The car is mine, but I do take him to work and pick him up and when ever we go anywhere I drive so he gets plenty out of it

I know a partner moving in is not meant to be all about money but I wanted advice about what he should contribute?

Doesnt seem right that Im paying £1,100 in bills and he's paying 185 quid

Would appreciate peoples thoughts, good and bad!

Treevo

Half of bills and council tax only. Any more and you're letting him buy equity from you.

What you could do is require that he then puts aside another £350 in a savings account so neither of you are losing out. Then if it works out and you buy a bigger place together, you'll have money to do that, but if it doesn't, he'll have money to move out with. Either way - you need to protect your equity by only sharing the bills and council tax.

thorsoak

The council tax will increase - at the moment you will be receiving the 25% single occupancy discount - so 50% of the council tax and all utilities would seem fair. If you drive everywhere, then you could reasonably ask him to pay for the petrol.

At the moment, he will be paying rent - so it would not be unreasonable, imo, if he were to pay a token amount for rent.

CharlieRabbit01

chelseablue wrote: »

I know this has been asked before but I need advice about my specific situation:

I live in a 2 bedroom flat that I own (with a mortgage), my boyfriend stays round 3 - 4 nights a week

Going to have a chat tomorrow night about him moving in offically and want to forearmed!
I've never lived with anyone before so not sure what he should contribute?

If it helps below are my monthly bills:

Mortgage £480
Council tax £93
Electric £50
Water £40
Ground rent £20
Service charge (for flat) £80
TV licence £12.12
Car insurance £25
Car tax £12
Petrol £90
Groceries £175 (guessing £40 a week for 2)

Half of everything above is roughly £540

But if I take out the mortgage and car expenses his half of the bills will only be £185 ! Seems like a bargain to live in a 2 bed property for only £185 a month

The car is mine, but I do take him to work and pick him up and when ever we go anywhere I drive so he gets plenty out of it

I know a partner moving in is not meant to be all about money but I wanted advice about what he should contribute?

Doesnt seem right that Im paying £1,100 in bills and he's paying 185 quid

Would appreciate peoples thoughts, good and bad!

It's generally down to what you and your OH decide everyone does it differently.

For us we earn a very similar amount so we split all bills in half, we don't have a car but when we hire one again we split to cost in half.

The only thing we don't split are things for ourselves personally, ie I wanted a wii U so I paid for it myself and buy our own clothes.

basically anything bill wise gets split after that our our money is our own to spend as we wish.

Treevo

thorsoak wrote: »

The council tax will increase - at the moment you will be receiving the 25% single occupancy discount - so 50% of the council tax and all utilities would seem fair. If you drive everywhere, then you could reasonably ask him to pay for the petrol.

At the moment, he will be paying rent - so it would not be unreasonable, imo, if he were to pay a token amount for rent.

Which will give him a perfectly legal way to claim part-ownership of the OP's flat.

And actually, the council tax that the OP pays will decrease because she'll be paying 50% rather than 75% of the full amount.

RAS

Is that CT bill for a single person?

Guest101

As others have said do not ask for anything outside of bills, otherwise if you split up you'll be giving him some of your flat.

tea_lover

It very much depends on whether you want him to gain any equity in the property, or if you want to keep it as your house (which he happens to live in).

JimmyTheWig

chelseablue wrote: »

below are my monthly bills:

Mortgage £480
Council tax £93
Electric £50
Water £40
Ground rent £20
Service charge (for flat) £80
TV licence £12.12
Car insurance £25
Car tax £12
Petrol £90
Groceries £175 (guessing £40 a week for 2)

Half of everything above is roughly £540

But if I take out the mortgage and car expenses his half of the bills will only be £185 ! Seems like a bargain to live in a 2 bed property for only £185 a month

The car is mine, but I do take him to work and pick him up and when ever we go anywhere I drive so he gets plenty out of it
...
Doesnt seem right that Im paying £1,100 in bills and he's paying 185 quid

Firstly, if he pays £185 you will be paying £892, not £1,100. [Still unbalanced, I agree, but not _quite_ as bad as you stated.]

In terms of the car, I would say that insurance and tax are your responsibility as, presumably, it is your choice to have a car.
But petrol sounds like a joint expense to me.

I would also argue that you get no benefit (other than being able to live where you do) from the ground rent and service charge.

Splitting these and the petrol leaves you paying £797 and him paying £280. Starting to sound a but more reasonable.


Now, what I think would be fair would be to look at your mortgage repayments. Part of the repayment will be paying interest, part will be reducing your mortgage balance.
I would argue that mortgage interest is just as much "dead money" as rent is. All it does is allows you to live there. So I would argue that he should be paying half the interest.
If, for example, your interest was half of your monthly repayment that would then leave you paying £677 and him paying £400.

The £240 (in my example) of your mortgage repayment that is reducing your mortgage balance is purely of benefit to you, so I don't think that he should pay towards that.
But, as Treevo implies, if you stay together long term this money will benefit both of you. So he could put £240 a month into a savings account in his name (ISA regular saver, maybe?) which if you stay together could be used for the benefit of both of you (e.g. increased deposit for next house, holiday) or if you split up would be his as you'll keep the benefit from your mortgage repayments.
That would leave you paying £677 and him paying £640. The difference in these two figures is due to you choosing to run a car.

chelseablue

RAS wrote: »

Is that CT bill for a single person?

Yes that is with 25% discount

want_to_save

the other option is if you pay the mortgage ask him to pay the groceries and utilities