Cohabitation Agreement

KJT5616

Hi everyone,  

My partner and myself are buying a home together.  My partner is porting his mortgage and bringing with.  We have been advised that if both our names go on the title deeds then I will have to be added by name to his mortgage as well although I won't be paying anything towards it.  I'm obviously not too happy about that in case, god forbid things didn't work out or he was to die.  Can anyone advise if putting a cohabitation agreement in place would safeguard me against the potential risk?

Mark_d

You want to own the home jointly but you don't want any liability when it comes to paying the mortgage?  If your partner died, what should happen?  The bank would want to repossess the whole house even though half the house would be long to you [and you won't be on the mortgage].

silvercar

What is the risk? If he dies, where do you intend to live? You can't expect to live in the property if it is mortgaged and you don't want to pay anything towards it, even if you are living in the property alone.

You either accept the property being in his name alone and the mortgage being in his name or you share the responsibility of the mortgage and then go on the deeds and have more rights. 

One answer to going on the mortgage and deeds would be to take out life insurance to cover the mortgage if the worst should happen. 

KJT5616

To clarify I will buying my half from the cash sale of my own home. My partner will do the same from selling his but he will have to bring with him his mortgage as he can’t pay any off from the sale of his property. I therefore won’t be contributing to paying any of his mortgage however we’ve been told I would still have to go on his mortgage by name which I want to make sure I protect myself from having to one have the home taken off me if something was to happen and also from having to take on his debt 

silvercar

KJT5616 said:

To clarify I will buying my half from the cash sale of my own home. My partner will do the same from selling his but he will have to bring with him his mortgage as he can’t pay any off from the sale of his property. I therefore won’t be contributing to paying any of his mortgage however we’ve been told I would still have to go on his mortgage by name which I want to make sure I protect myself from having to one have the home taken off me if something was to happen and also from having to take on his debt 

That now makes more sense!

The answer is for your partner to take out life insurance with the proceeds to you. So that if he does die, you claim on the life insurance policy and use the money to clear the mortgage.

ACG

If anything happened to your partner, you would only own half the house. A bank cant repossess half a house, so they would take the whole thing if the mortgage was not paid. That leaves you either needing a mortgage to keep the house or having to sell up. 

I dont see the problem, but you might want something agreed to say if he does not pay the mortgage your share increases. 

Mark_d

One simple solution would have been to do what we do.
I could have paid for my half of the property in cash (as you're talking of doing). But we want to do thing simply, fairly and equally.  So we've taken out a joint mortgage - which we both contribute to equally.  If/when my partner is in a position to repay half the outstanding balance, then we can repay the mortgage in its entirity.

WYSPECIAL

KJT5616 said:

Hi everyone,  

My partner and myself are buying a home together.  My partner is porting his mortgage and bringing with.  We have been advised that if both our names go on the title deeds then I will have to be added by name to his mortgage as well although I won't be paying anything towards it.  I'm obviously not too happy about that in case, god forbid things didn't work out or he was to die.  Can anyone advise if putting a cohabitation agreement in place would safeguard me against the potential risk?

If you are tenants in common what is he doing with his half of the house if he dies?