Boyfriend/Lodger/Non Borrowing Occupier?!

hanfrangipane

lincroft1710 wrote: »

If your boyfriend is cohabiting, then for Council Tax purposes you are treated as if you were married and you both become liable for any CT debt.

So if you do share the CT bill, and he fails to pay and then does a runner, the council can legally chase you for the whole amount owed.

Thanks - I have chosen a house whereby I could comfortably shoulder all of the associated costs of running it with or without a lodger, be that my boyfriend or anyone else.

If he does a runner, I could manage fine. I don't think it would come to that, we've discussed all eventualities and are in agreement. Obviously things can and do change, but at some point you have to put your faith in people don't you or we'd never move forwards

Confusedandneedhelp

I think the legalities of this are fairly straight forward in terms of agreements you can sign to prevent his gaining a beneficial interest.

I think it's actually the relationship side of things where this may get complicated. Which is why the saving account idea is perfect.

So u are liable for all the payments now regardless of if he lives there or not. He should pay his share of food and bills, and obviously other benefits of having your partner live with u.

Any rent he pays, could be paid into a savings account, which in 3 years, at £200 a month, is £7200, would them be his deposit. For your remortgage if u go down that route.

Ultimately he has contributed to the house, and in 3 years to turn around and say, 'so where's ur deposit for our home', may be harsh on him.

Especially since he will no doubt in that time contributed to furniture, improvements and spent on u ( as u in theory will have less disposable income, shouldering more of the household finances).

pmlindyloo

I think you are over thinking this as regards to his status.

You are classed as couple living together.

As such you will need to make legal agreements as regards the house as per posts above.

Your boyfriend is not a lodger. A lodger has their own room and shares the rest of the house with their landlord.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/sharing_and_subletting/lodgers

You do not need to declare the money he gives you as rent. You are merely dividing up the expenses of living together and, in your case, getting him to sign a legal document to say he will not claim any beneficial interest in the house if you ended your relationship.

The moral implications of what you are doing is a matter for your own and your boyfriend's personal thoughts and agreements.

StuC75

Why not do it whereby any 'rent' that he would be paying goes straight into a separate savings account to build up a pot of money - he feels better that hes paying more, you feel better that its not going towards the mortgage..

That way should you break up down the line that would represent the 'equity' that hes built up in that time, to take a 'share of'...

But if all goes ok then it provides at pot of money that he can then pay into the mortgage to acquire a share of the equity or pay off your parents that provided towards the deposit in the first instance..

That way you don't have it down the line where each have and interest including your family...

hanfrangipane wrote: »

Thanks Eejay. He wants to pay more than just to bills though, his logic being that if he was living elsewhere he would have to incur rent/lodging costs.

It's a tricky one - I don't want to be seen to be benefiting from him paying towards the mortgage and him not benefiting from ownership, but he says that he wouldn't feel right just paying bills and half food because if I were to get an actual lodger then they would pay this.

If I rented out a room to Joe Bloggs, they would pay £350-400 incl bills in our area. Even if he pays roughly market rate, I'd still be paying significantly more than him and also shouldering the risk of the debt etc.

Between us we have agreed that it's a fair split, I'm just trying to fathom whether the legalities agree with us!

hanfrangipane

Confusedandneedhelp wrote: »

I think the legalities of this are fairly straight forward in terms of agreements you can sign to prevent his gaining a beneficial interest.

I think it's actually the relationship side of things where this may get complicated. Which is why the saving account idea is perfect.

So u are liable for all the payments now regardless of if he lives there or not. He should pay his share of food and bills, and obviously other benefits of having your partner live with u.

Any rent he pays, could be paid into a savings account, which in 3 years, at £200 a month, is £7200, would them be his deposit. For your remortgage if u go down that route.

Ultimately he has contributed to the house, and in 3 years to turn around and say, 'so where's ur deposit for our home', may be harsh on him.

Especially since he will no doubt in that time contributed to furniture, improvements and spent on u ( as u in theory will have less disposable income, shouldering more of the household finances).

Thanks - I will suggest this to him. I had actually planned on keeping any of his contributions separately anyway, so that I am not reliant on the additional income should the worst happen, so I suppose it's no difference.

Re. the deposit, it has always been his insistence that he would want to match my deposit amount. He sees payments to me as he would rental payments, he'd be paying it anyway elsewhere therefore he isn't classing it as capital contribution. I'm happy to assess all our contributions as a whole when the time comes to remortgage but we will sit down and work out what we include in that at the weekend when I can explain the implications to him a bit better.

His family very much operate with a 'what's mine is yours' attitude. Him, his mum and his sister just give each other money all the time and don't think anything of it at all. I want to make sure he gets a fair deal, but at the same time he's insisting he just wants to pay his way in his eyes.

He's a good egg, I want to make sure he gets a fair deal

Mojisola

hanfrangipane wrote: »

Thanks Eejay. He wants to pay more than just to bills though, his logic being that if he was living elsewhere he would have to incur rent/lodging costs.

He should be sharing all the bills like utilities, tv, phone, etc as well as food.

Some couples have the non-home-owner pay a regular amount into a savings account in lieu of rent/contribution towards mortgage. If the relationship continues and the house is going to be jointly owned, this money can be used to reduce the mortgage or used as joint money.

If the relationship fails, the non-home-owner has a lump sum available to move out.

hanfrangipane

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I think you are over thinking this as regards to his status.

You are classed as couple living together.

As such you will need to make legal agreements as regards the house as per posts above.

Your boyfriend is not a lodger. A lodger has their own room and shares the rest of the house with their landlord.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/sharing_and_subletting/lodgers

You do not need to declare the money he gives you as rent. You are merely dividing up the expenses of living together and, in your case, getting him to sign a legal document to say he will not claim any beneficial interest in the house if you ended your relationship.

The moral implications of what you are doing is a matter for your own and your boyfriend's personal thoughts and agreements.

Thanks - that's the distinction that I wasn't sure on. That's what I thought the case was and then I read something which made me think I had misunderstood so wanted to check.

hanfrangipane

Concencus seems to be that contributing more than bills etc is acceptible, but keeping it as 'savings' is the easiest way to separate our contributions, which is pretty much what I had planned to do anyway.

It'll keep both of us happy in the long run I think. Plus, he gets a live in chef in the deal!

harrys_dad

This current thread may also be relevant https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5022146

Confusedandneedhelp

hanfrangipane wrote: »

Thanks - I will suggest this to him. I had actually planned on keeping any of his contributions separately anyway, so that I am not reliant on the additional income should the worst happen, so I suppose it's no difference.

Re. the deposit, it has always been his insistence that he would want to match my deposit amount. He sees payments to me as he would rental payments, he'd be paying it anyway elsewhere therefore he isn't classing it as capital contribution. I'm happy to assess all our contributions as a whole when the time comes to remortgage but we will sit down and work out what we include in that at the weekend when I can explain the implications to him a bit better.

His family very much operate with a 'what's mine is yours' attitude. Him, his mum and his sister just give each other money all the time and don't think anything of it at all. I want to make sure he gets a fair deal, but at the same time he's insisting he just wants to pay his way in his eyes.

He's a good egg, I want to make sure he gets a fair deal

Presumebly if things go well, you two will live together long enough for everything to be 50/50 anyway, and if you marry its 50/50 anyway.

Basically im saying it's very sensible to discuss this now, but if you blieve you have long term future potential, dont get too hung up on this.

If he wants to pay, let him. You dont even have to tell him its going in seperate account. You know hes contributed and he knows hes paying his way. Win / Win.

But if you split up, you have the seperate account to show his 'equity' and it's alot less hassle to sort out.

Good luck though, sounds like two sensible people making sensible decisions.