Mortgage in my name - living with girlfriend

jay213

hmm, I'm reading this with intererst as a single person with an interest in buying in the future.  So, you shouldn't charge a partner any rent, for moving in with you, if you have a mortgage and don't want to face the prospect of them becoming entitled to a share of your house. 

Seems a good deal for the partner, they get to live rent free, I would have thought some sort of reduced rent contribution would be reasonable, as they would have to pay rent living elsewhere... but seems that is not the case.

So if you want to split things down the middle whislt living with a partner 50/50 you either do a joint mortgage or rent.

Emmia

jay213 said:

hmm, I'm reading this with intererst as a single person with an interest in buying in the future.  So, you shouldn't charge a partner any rent, for moving in with you, if you have a mortgage and don't want to face the prospect of them becoming entitled to a share of your house. 

Seems a good deal for the partner, they get to live rent free, I would have thought some sort of reduced rent contribution would be reasonable, as they would have to pay rent living elsewhere... but seems that is not the case.

So if you want to split things down the middle whislt living with a partner 50/50 you either do a joint mortgage or rent.

Or be prepared to give your (ex) partner lots of dosh if it goes south.

If the partner doesn't move in, you still have all the costs anyway, just because you're in a live together relationship doesn't mean your costs should reduce, especially if they're not on the deeds/mortgage... it's your property, you should pay for it.

What should happen is the partner should save the equivalent of the rent they pay - if you break up, they have a financial cushion to help them move out/on quickly. If you stay together the money can go towards paying off the mortgage (in return for a formal part of the property) or towards buying a different place together.

ThisIsWeird

FlyMeSomewhere79 said:

My partner and I never married and never wanted kids, we have been together 21 years this year and we share everything equally, we pay half each for our travelling which is our hobby and we are both on our mortgage and we share the cost of our home.

Initially I wasn't on the mortgage in our early years due to credit rating issues caused by my ex partner but my current partner had no desire to keep me cut out of things - you have to think about the future, if god forbid something happens to you, your girlfriend will automatically be homeless because she was never allowed to be legally part of the property.  

Hi Fly.

May I ask for how long were you initially not on this mortgage?

Arsenal has been with his new partner for less than a year, I understand.

ThisIsWeird

jay213 said:

hmm, I'm reading this with intererst as a single person with an interest in buying in the future.  So, you shouldn't charge a partner any rent, for moving in with you, if you have a mortgage and don't want to face the prospect of them becoming entitled to a share of your house. 
Seems a good deal for the partner, they get to live rent free, I would have thought some sort of reduced rent contribution would be reasonable, as they would have to pay rent living elsewhere... but seems that is not the case.
So if you want to split things down the middle whislt living with a partner 50/50 you either do a joint mortgage or rent.

We are talking about the relatively early stages of a relationship, and the advice given is designed to suit both parties, and also give protection to both the homeowner and partner. The homeowner keeps their home, the partner saves for their future.

Once they are certain the relationship is a goer, they can do what they want - marry, Civil Partnership, sort out everything using tedious legal documents, or throw caution to the wind...

Yes, it may seem like a good deal for the partner having somewhere to stay rent-free, but if they are sensible, they would be putting all these rent savings towards either a shared future - if the relationship works out - or towards their own security should it not. If the partner does not save this 'rent' money, but instead spends it frivolously, then they'll have nothing to help them if/when the relationship fails - which I'd suggest could be quite likely given the person would have little financial sense.

The homeowner has their living expenses - apart from the mortgage - pretty much halved. That's quite a biggie. They can also decide who pays for most social activities, holidays, whatevs, based on, say, who has the larger income, but that's for them to sort. Keep the house and the mortgage out of it...

You really really don't want any complex untangling to go through should a relationship fail, as there will be a very good chance it won't be a mutually-agreed split. If needs be, you need to be able to all cut ties and move on, not sort through paperwork.

Arsenal2019

Hi Fly.

May I ask for how long were you initially not on this mortgage?

Arsenal has been with his new partner for less than a year, I understand.

Correct, just under a year. I’m just so cautious as the previous house & relationship, everything was halved.…  and don’t want to go through it again and I want to have a bit more security. 

I think from what everyone’s said, the best thing to do is to have one account for the mortgage and council tax (which the mortgage owner pays for), and another account for the other generic household bills to come out of along with other miscellaneous thing.

ThisIsWeird

Arsenal2019 said:

Hi Fly.

May I ask for how long were you initially not on this mortgage?

Arsenal has been with his new partner for less than a year, I understand.

Correct, just under a year. I’m just so cautious as the previous house & relationship, everything was halved.…  and don’t want to go through it again and I want to have a bit more security. 

I think from what everyone’s said, the best thing to do is to have one account for the mortgage and council tax (which the mortgage owner pays for), and another account for the other generic household bills to come out of along with other miscellaneous thing.

You are right, and it's perfectly normal, to be cautious. 
Reverse the roles - if you were moving in with your home-owning partner after being together for just a year, would you expect any entitlement to their house, before you made the relationship 'officially' permanent? I don't think you would.
But do have the 'chat', so no-one is left wondering.
Your call about council tax, bearing in mind you'll have lost the single person's discount. The way I see it is, the moving in partner would have to pay their own CT if they rented a property, so should, I think, also contribute to this. But your call.
At current rental rates, they should be saving quite a considerable sum, so they're doing ok here!
All the best :-)

Arsenal2019

You are right, and it's perfectly normal, to be cautious. 
Reverse the roles - if you were moving in with your home-owning partner after being together for just a year, would you expect any entitlement to their house, before you made the relationship 'officially' permanent? I don't think you would.
But do have the 'chat', so no-one is left wondering.
Your call about council tax, bearing in mind you'll have lost the single person's discount. The way I see it is, the moving in partner would have to pay their own CT if they rented a property, so should, I think, also contribute to this. But your call.
At current rental rates, they should be saving quite a considerable sum, so they're doing ok here!
All the best :-)

If I was the one moving in I would expect to pay my way for certain things and I would also be saving up a pot of my own for either my own house, or to in a few years out that savings pot into the house with my partner (equal to what they invested) so I could be put on the mortgage.

but yeah, it is a chat I’m going to have to have and I’m not sure how it’s going to go down. Surely it  will be semi - expected