buying house with partner, unequal deposits

kimplus8

hi there guys,
I am asking this for a friend of mine.
she is thinking of buying a home with her boyfriend. They have been together for 2 years and he lives with parents, she lives with her son from her former marriage.
She has £30,000 and he has £7,000 for the deposit.
I have said she should look at getting something drawn up by a solicitor whereby they have a contract stating if they were to separate and sell the home she would get her full deposit value back and he his and then the property equity could be divided equally.
I think this is fair as she is putting up a far larger deposit than he but he is saying thats not fair and they should go into the property as equals.
am I'm being unreasonable in saying this? I thought when couples were unmarried this was a fair and quite normal thing to do or am I wrong?
Any helpful suggestions would be welcome as she is too scared to raise it with the solicitor for fear of upsetting him.
Is there even such a contract in existence or is it always a 50/50 split regardless of who put in more/less deposit?
thanks in advance for the replies.:D

Mojisola

kimplus8 wrote: »

she is thinking of buying a home with her boyfriend. They have been together for 2 years and he lives with parents, she lives with her son from her former marriage.

She has £30,000 and he has £7,000 for the deposit.

she is too scared to raise it with the solicitor for fear of upsetting him.

What you're suggesting is very sensible - and quite normal.

The fact that she's scared to raise the issue with him says to me that she shouldn't be going any further with this relationship.

getmore4less

fairly standard problem comes up on here/house buying very often.

Just pick some old threads to clarify your thinking to save people going over old ground yet again.


Get your money back is just one way to do it and not the best for most people.

Equity based splits can be better

8ofspades

I would be renting before buying with this person. There would be alarm bells ringing if they did not understand wanting to protect your share, especially with a child involved.
Renting may seem like a waste, but with the amount of money involved and the fact they don't currently live together, I would say it was a wise investment and a good stepping stone.

kimplus8

8ofspades wrote: »

I would be renting before buying with this person. There would be alarm bells ringing if they did not understand wanting to protect your share, especially with a child involved.
Renting may seem like a waste, but with the amount of money involved and the fact they don't currently live together, I would say it was a wise investment and a good stepping stone.

she wants to buy and doesn't want to rent any more. her mind is made up on that one.
I will find some of the threads on here discussing it to show her before she meets with solicitor etc. any links would be greatly received.
Thanks everyone :-)

Thrugelmir

A declaration of trust needs to be drawn up. This will provide a legally binding agreement. Speak to your solicitor regarding this.

Kim_kim

kimplus8 wrote: »

hi there guys,
I am asking this for a friend of mine.
she is thinking of buying a home with her boyfriend. They have been together for 2 years and he lives with parents, she lives with her son from her former marriage.
She has £30,000 and he has £7,000 for the deposit.
I have said she should look at getting something drawn up by a solicitor whereby they have a contract stating if they were to separate and sell the home she would get her full deposit value back and he his and then the property equity could be divided equally.
I think this is fair as she is putting up a far larger deposit than he but he is saying thats not fair and they should go into the property as equals.
am I'm being unreasonable in saying this? I thought when couples were unmarried this was a fair and quite normal thing to do or am I wrong?
Any helpful suggestions would be welcome as she is too scared to raise it with the solicitor for fear of upsetting him.
Is there even such a contract in existence or is it always a 50/50 split regardless of who put in more/less deposit?
thanks in advance for the replies.:D

I would go one step further than this.
If for example (to make the maths easy), I would say that the lady owns the first 30%, the man 7% and the remaining 63% split 50:50.
So the woman would own 61.5% and the man 38.5%

Tom99

Kim_kim wrote: »

I would go one step further than this.
If for example (to make the maths easy), I would say that the lady owns the first 30%, the man 7% and the remaining 63% split 50:50.
So the woman would own 61.5% and the man 38.5%

You are assuming they buy a house for exactly £100,000.

Kim_kim

Tom99 wrote: »

You are assuming they buy a house for exactly £100,000.

Lol 😂

No, I was making the maths easy to explain the formula

[Deleted User]

If she doesn't want to rent anymore, and he doesn't want to get an agreement drawn up - Is there any way at all she would pass mortgage affordability on just her own income?

If he wants to move in, he can pay the bills (she pays the mortgage).

He's getting a cheap independent-life (away from home) and she's protected as mortgage is in sole names. I've seen a few people do that.

If in 3 years time he doesn't like the fact he's paying towards this house but still doesn't own anything, they can have a more sensible discussion but again making sure her position is protected (the first £x of the sale goes to her).

Her main priority is to that kid and I think it's 100% right to insist on it. If she can't afford it on her own, I'd insist on a binding legal agreement.

If there was no kid involved, I could understand his view point a bit more (even though her deposit is much larger), but with the kid involved I think he's being unreasonable.

enthusiasticsaver

That seems fair to me. Will they be splitting the mortgage cost 50/50? A declaration of trust is what is needed.