Advice for common and joint tenency

james_uk

Hi, i am in the middle of buying a house, we have reached the part where we decide on the ownership.

we are not married and currently my girlfriend pays a little more in than what i do, also her mum supplied the 5% deposit although i do have half of the deposit as savings anyway so we said we could just put that we both paid 50% of it, but i am wondering if any issues were to happen in the future, could that be brought up and matter?

Basically we feel a bit awkward and kind of keep saying well shall we just do 50/50 i said i don’t mind saying 60/40 or something to show that you pay a little more in, but would happily do 50/50 too.

At first i said well let’s just pick the joint tenancy so its equal, but everywhere i read says its for married couples and unmarried couples generally prefer common tenancy.

not that i see it happening but if anything did happen and she had a will saying she wants her half or more to go to someone other than myself then where does that leave me?

Has anyone got any advice on all this? also if you do use common tenancy do you have to do a will soon after to show what you intend to do with your share?

Regards

James

rtho782

I wouldn't buy a house with someone I did not have integrated finances with.

I earn more than my fiancee, and have probably paid more of the deposit if I were to sit down and calculate it, but all our money goes into our joint account every month and all our finances are joint.

We've gone joint tenants. If I die, the house is hers, I see no reason I'd want to give it to someone else.

Joint tenants is just easier. If you break up, you can at that point negotiate a change to tenants in common.

james_uk

we are going to setup a joint account were all bills etc come from one account we both top up each month.

are you married or are you still doing joint even though your not so it stays 50/50?

BusyBargainz

Me and my boyfriend are not married and we have gone for joint even though I've put in £12k and he's put in 6k.

It seemed the easiest option and I can't see myself breaking up with him ever anyway. Plus he's a decent enough person I know if the worst happened he would let me have my share.

It can always be changed if the worst were to happen.

chelseablue

We bought our house this year and our tenants in common, the split is 70% me, 30% him.


We only did this as I put in a LOT more than him as I owned a property before I met him that I sold to buy the house.


If I were to die the house goes to him (and the mortgage would be paid off via my life insurance)

Zeebs90

We have done a deed of trust as my family supplied all of the deposit - it states that the deposit will be returned to me and then any equity remaining after the mortgage has been satisfied will be split equally . It is an awkward situation but you have to do what your head says is right! I currently put in slightly more into our joint account each month, but I know that may not always be the case so we decided that everything other than the deposit should be equal.

AnotherJoe

I'd say whilst you are young and would expect each to get the house should the other die, then joint is best, when you are older with grown up kids and want to make sure that some at least of the house goes to the kids or grandkids, then go for common. In your case the latter is a bridge you can cross in a few years time

You say you have savings and could equalize the deposit, I sugegst you do that for two reasons, keeps it simpler and will likely get you a better mortgage rate.