Buying a house with a new partner

cppuggy · 25 October 2023 at 2:12PM

I'm looking at buying a house with my partner of 3 years. Currently my partner rents and says he has no savings for a deposit. I own my house with a mortgage with 85% equity. My question is do we need a joint mortgage or can we get separate ones? Also if I am putting in 75% off the costs do I have this ring fenced as a defined amount of money or as a percentage if we resell and need to divide funds in the future? Thanks for any help.

kingstreet · 25 October 2023 at 2:19PM

Yes to a joint mortgage.

You would purchase the property as tenants in common and have a deed of trust drawn up to protect your unequal shares and a will to ensure shares are correctly passed on in the event of death.

MeteredOut · 25 October 2023 at 2:21PM

Not an answer to your question, but if you're username is your email address, you might want to look to change that as it is personally identifying yourself.

But interesting that you say "he says he has no savings for a deposit" rather than "he has no savings for a deposit". I'd say financial transparency is important when you're making a big decision to buy together.

lincroft1710 · 25 October 2023 at 2:22PM

You would need to see a solicitor to draft an appropriate contract to protect your considerable financial interest. As far as I am aware it would be extremely difficult to get 2 mortgages on one property

PRAISETHESUN · 25 October 2023 at 2:25PM

You'll need a joint mortgage and I'd also suggest getting an agreement drafted up with regards to equity split due to the unequal deposit.

twopenny · 25 October 2023 at 2:46PM

Yes, there needs to be some agreement.

Deposit and what you are putting in.

Solicitor is expensive. You can get some good ideas and information by using a legal executive, someone who has taken legal training but not to the qualification of solicitor. They are very good and often have more time to discuss as well as knowledge. But take advice and make your own mind up what suits you both.

We don't know the future. Should your partner be made redundant and not able to pay their share, or not willing to this money needs to be secured for you.

Don't want to scare monger but I've seen people in a awful pickle including needing parents to sell their house to support a daugher where the partner up and left leaving debts. It's a reality and you should do everything to protect yourself.

Ditto of course so should he if the matter was reversed so it's to protect both of you.

If your partner objects that's not a good sign. If they understand then they are in the real world

Bigphil1474 · 25 October 2023 at 3:03PM

Yes, definitely get an agreement drawn up on ownership. We did that on our house as my OH bought it before we met, and we re-mortgaged after I moved in. Worked out really useful as I got into some severe financial issues about 15 years ago and it protected her investment. Thankfully all sorted now.

You can either do it as a % (so your investment grows as the house increases in value) or as a fixed amount - i would say the % is fairer to you, a fixed amount is generous to the other person. Obviously speak to your OH and see what he says. If he expects you to equally share the property, then he might be in for a shock. Have a discussion about bills as well, as he might suggest you also pay 75% of the mortgage as it's 75% your house. From my experience, better to get all these things agreed beforehand.

EssexHebridean · 25 October 2023 at 3:18PM

Claire - echoing the suggestion above that you might want to contact the forum team about changing your username as one which can be said to personally identify you breaches the forum rules I think, and there have been cases of folk getting their account access revoked. I suspect an email to the forum team with your chosen alternative asking for a change might be the way forward on this. generally speaking, if this is left as it is, you can expect to get an awful lot of spam email!