Buying a house but partner moving in!

[Deleted User]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice please!

I have just bought a house for 140K, with a 15% deposit (21K) and moved in 2 weeks ago. All in all my legal fees cost 2K and to furnish the property and get it looking nice and filled with everything needed it's cost 2K so far, so I've paid 25K this month getting set up.

I've been with my partner for a year but we were a bit silly and didn't discuss moving in arrangements until after I'd bought (aka this week!). I guess me buying was at the funny time between it being a little too soon to talk about moving in a few months ago, but suddenly feeling ready. Either way we're both excited to live together and luckily my new place is just about big enough for 2.

My boyfriend still lives at home now and obviously hasn't contributed any money so far as I am the sole owner. It feels a little soon for him to go on the mortgage, so we've discussed him informally renting from me for 6 months to see how things go before discussing joining the mortgage.

My question is, what would now be fair? My mortgage payments are £600 a month and I expect bills etc. to total about £250 = £850. I was thinking of charging him £400 and me paying £450 (I'll keep my name on bills etc. for now so he just directly pays me), and then setting up a joint account we both pay a weekly amount into to cover food shopping and meals out etc.

I've pitched this and we both agreed it was fair - it's cheaper than him renting and saves me a bit of cash. The downside for me is sharing what is now going to become quite a cramped space (rather than a lovely sized property for 1, not that I really mind!) and the downside for him is basically renting for 6 months longer than he intended before paying into property equity.

My second question is, I have paid 4K this month in furnishing and legal fees. I don't mind this but my boyfriend will move into a fully furnished and kitted out flat with no upfront payment, and if he joins the mortgage as planned in 6 months (obviously my initial deposit will be protected) he will avoid all fees and I am now battling to re-save some cash! Would it be fair at that point to ask for a contribution to those very recent costs or not? If we are now living together we will want a bigger place in a few years so maybe he covers the 4K next time, or should I ask for something sooner whilst I'm at the bottom of my money pit?!

Any advice would be welcome :-) 

MFWannabe

I would say the same answers you received on your previous thread? 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6229079/partner-moving-into-my-recently-owned-house/p1

FTB_Help

Looking through the old post it looks like you've not got the answer you were hoping for, so posting again

Personally, no don't ask for for contributions for legal/ furnishing costs- these are sunk cost that you already paid for BEFORE you both decided to move him in.

Yes draw up legal agreement to protect your deposit.

I see you're complaining about being short on cash  so wanted to know if you can get him to reimburse you for sunk costs, but as bf is now moving in and paying half the mortgage you're saving cash right? As your original plan was to buy on YOUR OWN and PAY for everything on YOUR OWN, so surely before you signed up to buy, you would have known what position you'll be in financially (i.e at the bottom of your "money pit") if you had continued  living separately?

Whereas now you will be financially in a better place as you are only paying half the mortage

[Deleted User]

I think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself by asking him to contribute to legal fees for a property hes not even a registered owner of. 

Keep it simple and informal for now - he pays you rent and a contribution towards bills and you share the cost of food etc. Then in 6 months time if things go well and you're both still happy for him to be added on the mortgage, then that is the time to broach the subject of a reimbursement of any fees that were paid on purchase if you still feel that to be appropriate. 

Think about if things don't work out and in 6 months time he moves out. You will then owe him the money back he has paid you for any fees or furniture. 

You were originally planning on living in this property alone so would have had to pay these costs anyway plus bearing the costs of the mortgage and bills solely. 

alex_163163

I personally wouldn’t (and didn’t when I was in a similar situation) ask him for ‘rent’. I’d ask for 50% of all the joint monthly bills (food, utilities, council tax, etc) excluding mortgage payment. 

Then see how it goes living together and then in 6-12 months investigate him buying into the property.

I’d also say he shouldn’t foot the cost of any legal fees from you buying, but should help share the cost of furnishings if you have chosen them together. 

Hannimal

alex_163163 said:

I personally wouldn’t (and didn’t when I was in a similar situation) ask him for ‘rent’. I’d ask for 50% of all the joint monthly bills (food, utilities, council tax, etc) excluding mortgage payment. 

Then see how it goes living together and then in 6-12 months investigate him buying into the property.

I’d also say he shouldn’t foot the cost of any legal fees from you buying, but should help share the cost of furnishings if you have chosen them together. 

I personally think that asking for this little is you essentially letting him live for free in your property while you cover costs. What about 50% of bills and 50% of the monthly interest paid on the mortgage. 

saajan_12

Hannimal said:

alex_163163 said:

I personally wouldn’t (and didn’t when I was in a similar situation) ask him for ‘rent’. I’d ask for 50% of all the joint monthly bills (food, utilities, council tax, etc) excluding mortgage payment. 

Then see how it goes living together and then in 6-12 months investigate him buying into the property.

I’d also say he shouldn’t foot the cost of any legal fees from you buying, but should help share the cost of furnishings if you have chosen them together. 

I personally think that asking for this little is you essentially letting him live for free in your property while you cover costs. What about 50% of bills and 50% of the monthly interest paid on the mortgage. 

Its all upto what you mutually agree, so take opinions with a suitably small pinch of salt, but personally this is what I would do. If the deposit was larger, I would also split the equivalent of interest on the deposit portion (effectively as the lost yield on the deposit, vs being invested elsewhere, as otherwise the size of the owner's mortgage would overly benefit the non-owner). 

There are still imbalances, as the non owner is paying likely less than they would paying half the rent on a one bed elsewhere, but have none of the commitment to the property. However they also have fewer protections re notice etc, so overall would just leave it as that.

If / when you look to add to the deeds / mortgage, I would then look at the equity in the property at the time (based on current value and current mortgage balance), and the non owner can then transfer 50% of the equity and become a 50% owner, or just start paying mortgage with the original owner keeping a higher % of the overall property to account for the deposit they paid. 

Angela_D_3

What has he duggested he pays .... his answer will be very telling.  I was due to move in with a man and whilst he was more than happy gor us to rent a place,  split the rent to the landlord 50/50 to the tune of £500 each and split bills and food equally he wasn’t prepared to do the same if i purchased a property because he wasnt getting anything out of it 🤯
so happy to help a random landlord but not his partner.  It ended very shortly afterwards 

Falafels

It's not fair to ask him for your legal or any other costs which you incurred unilaterally before he even moved in. You'd have had those anyway, and he won't benefit from them. Likewise, you shouldn't be asking him to pay for furniture which you already own - whether you've bought it recently or have had it for years.

To put it another way, if you were to split up in the near future, he would have contributed 50% to something which he would have no claim on whatsoever, i.e. YOUR house and furniture, and that's really not fair. The fact that he will be moving into a nice, fully-furnished house is part of your total relationship and the contribution that you bring to it. If your relationship is good enough to be talking seriously about moving in together, then presumably he will be bringing his own contribution in his own way. This is not necessarily financial.

If you want things to be fair, you need to start in the here-and-now, not expecting him to finance your expenditure from the past.

The way that I've always found works well is if you set up a joint account for joint expenses, total up what these are likely to be and you each contribute 50% at the start of the month, plus a little extra to cover unexpected outgoings. This would mean that he'd effectively be contributing to your mortgage, but would also be benefiting from living there at the time. If you choose to buy goods or furnishings together, then you should obviously be paying half each.

Please don't begrudge the fact that he won't be paying your fees or any upfront costs for his new accommodation. If you'd decided beforehand that you were moving in together, then obviously things would have been handled very differently. But the way things are - although he won't be having the upfront costs, if you do break up then he won't have any benefits either. And relationships really benefit if you are both givers, rather than counting costs and effectively running a profit-and-loss account.

Good luck for the future! 

Slithery

Angela_D_3 said:

I was due to move in with a man and whilst he was more than happy gor us to rent a place,  split the rent to the landlord 50/50 to the tune of £500 each and split bills and food equally he wasn’t prepared to do the same if i purchased a property because he wasnt getting anything out of it 🤯

A perfectly sensible and fair approach.

Angela_D_3

Slithery said:

Angela_D_3 said:

I was due to move in with a man and whilst he was more than happy gor us to rent a place,  split the rent to the landlord 50/50 to the tune of £500 each and split bills and food equally he wasn’t prepared to do the same if i purchased a property because he wasnt getting anything out of it 🤯

A perfectly sensible and fair approach.

I hope you mean me ending it not him 🙄