New House with Family - Covering Myself

andyward82

Hello. I was wondering if anyone could help me on this.
I'm in the process of buying a new house. I've sold my house and will be putting the equity into the new, larger house.
I have a girlfriend who I have a daughter with. She has a daughter from a previous relationship. We shall all be living in the house together. We live in separate houses at the moment - she lives in a house owned by her mother at the moment.
I will be paying for the house completely by myself. The mortgage is in my name. The bills will be in my name also.

This is rather cynical - and I'm sure a lot of people are going to call me all sorts of names and criticise me here - but I'd like to make sure that if something happens (we split up) I cannot have my house and everything I've worked for all my life taken away from me. We are 100% happy and I'm happy to provide a home for my family and intend to look after them for life, however, I'd like to ensure I'm covering myself.

The reason being a person I know was in exactly the same situation as me, he split with his girlfriend and came very, very close to having to hand over his large house to his ex-girlfriend so she could live in the house with the child and he would be responsible for paying the mortgage until the child was 18.

If anyone has advice on this I'd appreciate it. Like i said before I'm absolutely thrilled to be doing this and am more than happy to provide for my family but would like to be sensible about this.

TIA.

mundibananas

Not cynical at all, very pragmatic really. This is a tricky one as it depends on 'if' things go wrong, your partner can claim a beneficial interest. One way around this is to perhaps not take any rent from your partner. Instead, she can put what she would pay as rent into a savings account so that 'if' things don't work out she will have her own pot of funds. Then 'if' she tries to claim, you could also make a counter-claim on her pot?? not sure if that would work ... others on here may have experience they can share.
Good luck with your house purchase and hope you have a happy family life together!

Mojisola

andyward82 wrote: »

I'm in the process of buying a new house. I've sold my house and will be putting the equity into the new, larger house.

I have a girlfriend who I have a daughter with. She has a daughter from a previous relationship. We shall all be living in the house together.

I will be paying for the house completely by myself. The mortgage is in my name. The bills will be in my name also.

It's not cynical; it's very sensible.

To protect the house, you should be paying the mortgage on your own but there's no reason she shouldn't be sharing all the other household bills.

If your incomes are very different, maybe the bills should be covered on a percentage basis rather than 50/50.

andyward82

Mojisola wrote: »

It's not cynical; it's very sensible.

To protect the house, you should be paying the mortgage on your own but there's no reason she shouldn't be sharing all the other household bills.

If your incomes are very different, maybe the bills should be covered on a percentage basis rather than 50/50.

I had heard that if the woman has even paid any of the utility bills percentage then she'd take the house too. Two people have told me this!
I'll put all of it in my name I guess - then I should be good all round.

Mojisola

andyward82 wrote: »

We are 100% happy and I'm happy to provide a home for my family and intend to look after them for life, however, I'd like to ensure I'm covering myself.

Your GF also needs to put some thought into covering herself.

As your live-in GF, she has no rights to stay in your house - you could tell her to leave with no notice at all.

That's why the idea of her building up some savings instead of contributing to the mortgage is sensible for her as well as you - if things go wrong, she will have the capital to find somewhere else to live.

You also need to think about what would happen if you died. What would happen to her and the children?

If you die without a will, your daughter would inherit from you.

andyward82

Mojisola wrote: »

Your GF also needs to put some thought into covering herself.

As your live-in GF, she has no rights to stay in your house - you could tell her to leave with no notice at all.

That's why the idea of her building up some savings instead of contributing to the mortgage is sensible for her as well as you - if things go wrong, she will have the capital to find somewhere else to live.

You also need to think about what would happen if you died. What would happen to her and the children?

If you die without a will, your daughter would inherit from you.

In this instance she would be absolutely fine. Her family isn't short of money, she already lives for free in one of her mum's houses.

I have a will and have life insurance where the house will be paid off, etc so that side of it is fine. I'm just trying to protect myself from other things really. Thanks all.

Gavin83

andyward82 wrote: »

The reason being a person I know was in exactly the same situation as me, he split with his girlfriend and came very, very close to having to hand over his large house to his ex-girlfriend so she could live in the house with the child and he would be responsible for paying the mortgage until the child was 18.

This really would never happen.

andyward82 wrote: »

I had heard that if the woman has even paid any of the utility bills percentage then she'd take the house too. Two people have told me this!

And neither would this.

Essentially if you want to protect yourself she shouldn't be paying towards the mortgage. Even then she wouldn't get to keep the house, she'd just be entitled to a portion of it's value. However if she contributes towards the bills only then she won't have any sort of beneficial interest.

gettingtheresometime

By your partner not paying towards the mortgage she wouldn't gain a beneficial interest in the home but are you concerned about the implications of the daughter coming to live with you?


Whilst I agree with the sentiment that the daughter and mum come as a package, are you concerned that you could face additional problems in the event of a split?

kazwookie

Get her to pay towards the bills and food only, at what ever rate you think is fair to cover her and her daughter £500 per month for example.

andyward82

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

By your partner not paying towards the mortgage she wouldn't gain a beneficial interest in the home but are you concerned about the implications of the daughter coming to live with you?


Whilst I agree with the sentiment that the daughter and mum come as a package, are you concerned that you could face additional problems in the event of a split?

Well yes, it's about what would happen in a split. I'd just heard that someone I know came within a whisker of having to move out of his own house to let the ex-girlfriend live there with him paying the full mortgage until the child was grown up. I heard the only thing that prevented this from happen was that she couldn't prove she was contributing. I'd heard that even if she was contributing to the utility bills then this would have happened but fortunately there was no proof and he managed to keep his house.

My other friend advised me to make sure everything was in my name and if she was contrubuting to the household bills then it should be called 'rent' in all agreements. Then again, he was married so obviously more things come into play legally then.

I hope it's all gossip and scaremongering but thought I'd check!

Mojisola

andyward82 wrote: »

I'd heard that even if she was contributing to the utility bills then this would have happened but fortunately there was no proof and he managed to keep his house.

My other friend advised me to make sure everything was in my name and if she was contrubuting to the household bills then it should be called 'rent' in all agreements.

Both these things sound like scaremongering.

Re the second one - only tenants or lodgers pay rent, not life partners. And calling a contribution to the household bills 'rent' is more likely to give a partner beneficial rights to the house because 'rent' would be going towards paying the mortgage.