House buying complication with partner

marie91L

I’m after some general advice. I have a DD aged 7, my partner of 2 years has a DD aged 14. We have lived separately as we are long distance, kids schools and other parents etc. we plan to move together next year. We both own our homes and I am really scared about selling mine. When I had my daughter we were homeless and I’ve worked really hard to buy a safe and secure home for us. I love my partner and trust him, but know too well that people and situations change and I never want my daughter and I to be without a home every again. Any advice, practically or otherwise?

jonnydeppiwish!

Sell both, buy a new place and have it written into a contract about who owns what/deposits etc.

Ms_Chocaholic

Buy it tenants in common (rather than joint tenants) and make sure you write a will - consult a solicitor before purchase.

_Penny_Dreadful

marie91L said:

I’m after some general advice. I have a DD aged 7, my partner of 2 years has a DD aged 14. We have lived separately as we are long distance, kids schools and other parents etc. we plan to move together next year. We both own our homes and I am really scared about selling mine. When I had my daughter we were homeless and I’ve worked really hard to buy a safe and secure home for us. I love my partner and trust him, but know too well that people and situations change and I never want my daughter and I to be without a home every again. Any advice, practically or otherwise?

What’s the plan? That you each sell your home and buy a new home together or are you going to rent somewhere together? If the former can you afford to jointly purchase somewhere together without selling your property and would you be willing to pay the higher rate of SDLT/LBTT/LTT for purchasing an extra residential property? 

Keeping hold of your property wouldn’t necessarily solve the issue of homelessness should the relationship ship go south. Presumably you’d need to let the property out and it takes time to legally evict tenants so it not like you could just leave one property and move straight back into the original property anyway. 

Bluebell1000

I think my advice would be to have an honest conversation about how you feel with your partner. Moving in together is a big step, and it sounds like it will be a big change for all of you. A trial period where you rent somewhere together could be an option, though it would increase the costs if you are also paying mortgage on an empty house. The overall answers might change depending on whether you are planning to move into one house that you already own, of if you are thinking of selling both, so as the poster above said, a bit more detail about plans might help with more specific advice...

Albermarle

When buying the new property would you both be contributing the same amount of money?
Would you move to their area or to a new area altogether, or more to your area?
At some point you have to follow your instincts if you trust someone or not, just as already said make sure there is something in writing/see a solicitor, to make sure you do not lose out in future if things do not go as planned.

saajan_12

marie91L said:

I’m after some general advice. I have a DD aged 7, my partner of 2 years has a DD aged 14. We have lived separately as we are long distance, kids schools and other parents etc. we plan to move together next year. We both own our homes and I am really scared about selling mine. When I had my daughter we were homeless and I’ve worked really hard to buy a safe and secure home for us. I love my partner and trust him, but know too well that people and situations change and I never want my daughter and I to be without a home every again. Any advice, practically or otherwise?

There's a few things to improve your rights eg buying with tenants in common, but really it depends on the numbers.. 
* How much is your current property + equity
* How much is partner's current property + equity
* How much would the new property + deposit be? 
* What would the % split of the new property be?