Partner moving into my mortgaged home

Bibou22

Hello all,

Firstly, let me apologise in advance for this long winded and drawn out post.

I have been a home owner for six years and last year sold my previous property and solely bought a forever home, knowing that should I ever start a family the size and location of the new property would mean I would never need to move again. I have a relatively small mortgage left on this new home and a substantial amount of equity. 

Me and my boyfriend have been together for two years, he currently rents another property two hours from where I live and has no savings or assets, meaning financially we are at operate ends of the spectrum. Over the course of the last year he has spent a considerable amount of time at my property, staying here for the majority of lockdown and every weekend since, this has been done as a guest with no contribution to anything other than food shopping. I have solely paid all bills and utilities and made considerable improvements to the property since moving in. 

We are now discussing him moving in with me, but want to be clear on what he can and cannot pay for, to ensure that no financial claim can be made towards my property in the event of a break up. As mentioned previously, whilst I hope we would never split I have worked hard to save and make considerable over payments to bring my mortgage down and to be able to afford my forever home. 

I'm looking for advise/suggests for when he does move in with me which of the options would be best:

1) Both of us pay towards any bills/utilities, and I continue to pay the mortgage and for the upkeep/furnishings of the house by my myself. This would be a concern for me as if we were to split he would effectively have no rights to the house and would be effectively homeless but also is it fair that he lives rent free when I pay for the mortgage, upkeep and any improvements to the home?

2) We both split bills and utilities, whilst I continue to solely pay the mortgage and he makes a small contribution of rent to me, which whilst I don't need this to pay the mortgage could be saved for improvements etc in the future.

3) We both split bills and utilities and he saves an equivalent of the rent he would ordinarily pay for a house/room in the area into his own savings account, this would give him some security should the worse happen and we split and if all goes well we could use the savings from this account to jointly buy another house in the future with the intention of renting this out to increase our income, although would this be fair too, when the savings would be his and not mine meaning that I then have no claim towards this money, even if it was in leiu of rent. 

I'd gratefully accept any advise or suggestions on this issue and thank you for taking the time to read my long post. 🙂

andywilliams1187

I was in a similar situation to yourself when my partner moved in with me; we spent hours discussing the best way forwards so that I could protect my equity (lost two houses in the past due to breakups). 
In the end we spoke to a solicitor as I didnt want to run the risk of getting shafted through common law. We reached an agreement where my partner would split bills/mortgage/improvements etc and I would add her on to the title of the house, but at a split equity (instead of the standard 50/50). In the event of a breakup (which we both hope never happens), my partner would only be entitles to a specific % of the house (which I could pay off without having to sell). Other people might have different opinions on this but it worked for us. 

pphillips

You could tweak number 1 to also include half the upkeep and furnishings but as you pointed out, your boyfriend is unlikely to have any claim on the property if you split up.

The problem with number 2 is that, assuming he is not renting his own room in your property, 'rent' payments could implicate the property in a future financial claim.

While number 3 sounds sensible, there is no obligation on your boyfriend to save anything for the future.

Another option is having everything written down and agreed to in a solicitor drafted cohabitation agreement.

Michael_Bear

@Bibou22 what you've written sounds logical but its best to scrap it and start again. Get a solicitor to draw something up. Also accept that in time he will have some claim on property as will have been helping to maintain it some way (even if indirectly) the agreement though should reflect that and you'll get the lions share in the unfortunate event.