Advice appreciated, ANOTHER house equity scenario

Forumite2019

After spending a few hours reading threads there seems to be conflicting information depending on the case so Ill try keep this brief and to the point

Buying the next property either by myself or with my partner(been together several years, however this will be first place we will live together)

Looking at house purchase price between £500-550k
I have £120k to put towards as deposit
I also have £30k to use as stamp duty,fees,moving cost etc

Other half has £0 to put forward towards deposit and or any other fees

My mortgage adviser has talk about buying the house in 'shares' however this has not gone down well.

We have talk about bills and agreed to put a % of our salary (regardless what we earn) into a joint account and all bills to come out of that mortgage,insurance,council tax,food shopping water,electric etc

Let give an example of i will contribute £1500 every month in joint account
They will contribute £1000

Both will still have own separate accounts with own money to do as please.
We dont have any children and we also don't have any finances/loans etc.

There is a difference between both our salary's and that why i am happy to put more in by doing it as a percentage so i believe is fair in the eyes of the law if it was to all turn messy.

What is the best way to purchase this new house together, that protects both me and my other half? I do not need my other half on the mortgage to borrow whats needed to buy the property however my other half would like to move forward together and be 'on the mortgage'

AdrianC

This is not really a question about the law or the rights and wrongs of housebuying.
This is a question about your relationship.

If you're putting £150k into a £500k purchase, they're putting £0, and they won't even engage with a conversation around how best to reflect that in the event of the relationship failing... then a cynic might wonder how committed they were to that relationship.

Red-Squirrel_2

If you haven't lived together before, have a trial run of that first.

Either in one of your current places or rent somewhere for 6 months.

Don't have the first place you have to share a bathroom and the chores be somewhere that you'd have to get solicitors involved and have lots of cash stake if it all goes tits up, trust me on this!

HampshireH

Why on earth won't she discuss a fair split of the asset?

You absolutely need a deed of trust which specifics who put in what and who gets what if you decide living together doesn't work.

You are investing heavily in both home and relationship. Your partner should do the same by offering you that protection on the deposit you put in.

As Red Squirrel says. Buying a 550k place shouldnt be the 1st time you have lived together. Learn to live together first and then buy what suits you once you know how much space etc you both need & how much things cost etc for 2 of you.

Small forum search will show its alarmingly common for people to buy together then split very shortly afterwards. Protect yourself unless you are willing to gift 50% of that deposit

[Deleted User]

I am sorry, I know this is the answer you are dreading. If you can't come to an agreement now when the relationship, presumably is good, how do you think you will do if the relationship fails.

That's the simple bald answer. There are lots of why's (why isn't she happy talking about it etc) that you know and we don't.

There's a saying, the person you divorce/seperate from is a different person from the one you marry/buy a house with. And its not going well already. I'd advise careful thought before buying a house together. Perhaps put the idea on hold for a year if you can.

You might also need to consider how children (if you have any in the future) could alter the equation.

I think the percentage idea is very reasonable.., only you know why it isn't to your partner.

Pixie5740

Moneysavingexpertforum wrote: »

After spending a few hours reading threads there seems to be conflicting information depending on the case so Ill try keep this brief and to the point

Buying the next property either by myself or with my partner(been together several years, however this will be first place we will live together)

Looking at house purchase price between £500-550k
I have £120k to put towards as deposit
I also have £30k to use as stamp duty,fees,moving cost etc

Other half has £0 to put forward towards deposit and or any other fees

My mortgage adviser has talk about buying the house in 'shares' however this has not gone down well.

We have talk about bills and agreed to put a % of our salary (regardless what we earn) into a joint account and all bills to come out of that mortgage,insurance,council tax,food shopping water,electric etc

Let give an example of i will contribute £1500 every month in joint account
They will contribute £1000

Both will still have own separate accounts with own money to do as please.
We dont have any children and we also don't have any finances/loans etc.

There is a difference between both our salary's and that why i am happy to put more in by doing it as a percentage so i believe is fair in the eyes of the law if it was to all turn messy.

What is the best way to purchase this new house together, that protects both me and my other half? I do not need my other half on the mortgage to borrow whats needed to buy the property however my other half would like to move forward together and be 'on the mortgage'

This is really a question for the Relationships board. In terms of how you can calculate the answers are exactly the same as on every other thread about how to split the equity with unequal financial contributions.

SusieT

Surely a simple split after your deposit would be easiest to do? If you buy a house for 500k and your deposit and fee payments add up to 200k then just have the solicitor draw up an agreement that you get the first 40% of any sale price, or 200k in the case of the house losing value. The rest can be split 50:50 or in the parcentage that you are putting into the bills account.
If you cannot discuss this now then you need to think about how the lack of communication between you will affect any other areas of your life, and as has been said, if you cannot agree now you are going to have big problems if you were to split which sadly happens in a lot of relationships

getmore4less

Separate the house buying costs from the costs of living in the place.

Forumite2019

Thanks for the feedback so far, I wanted to put my thoughts out there so had other people’s input who are not involved

System

I was in a similar situation. I bought our house before I was married to my husband. He had very little to contribute financially so everything is in my name. 16 years down the line and we are still married and we still call it "our" house and it's not a problem.

As far as running costs are concerned, we did what you proposed regarding a joint account where we both paid in our "share" based on earnings. We also have a personal account each and have an agreed amount of "pocket money" paid out of the joint account to each of us via monthly standing order (it's an equal amount, and really just for personal purchases (particularly gifts)).

As someone else has said, you need to have a chat with the solicitor doing your conveyancing regarding the pitfalls of buying a house with no financial input from your partner if you are unsure of the outcome of any future relationship breakdown. They should be able to protect your financial interests as they will know what advice to give, and what wording to use in the documentation.