Buying house with partner - need advice

Sadsacsal · 17 February 2020 at 10:55AM

I am currently mortgage free and the house (valued at 200k) is in my name only. My boyfriend has no property and no savings but currently lives with me. I would like to downsize to a bungalow. I have sold my house and have an offer accepted on a bungalow. The bungalow needs a lot of work and we have taken out a joint mortgage for £80k Over 18 years so that we can renovate. We are both 50. (Boyfriend earns approx £50k a year and I earn £20k). We are both divorced. I wanted to initially buy the bungalow as tenants in common 70/30 to me - however he said 50/50 or nothing. I changed the paperwork to 50/50 but it has suddenly dawned on me that if anything happens to him he can leave his half of the bungalow to his 2 sons and I’d be left with only owning half the bungalow and with an £80k mortgage. He keeps telling me everything will be fine and if we get married in the future everything will be fine - but we have no joint will and the estate agents are looking at us exchanging contracts in about 2 weeks. can someone point out and pitfalls they can see in this scenario? We’ve been together 8 years. He’s very convincing when he reassures me and I have no one else I can talk to about it.

Any input would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

wilfred30 · 17 February 2020 at 11:03AM

Personally, I would be taking the 'nothing' option

Wicked_Lady · 17 February 2020 at 11:08AM

I'd change it back to 70/30

Sadsacsal · 17 February 2020 at 11:16AM

Could you both elaborate on why you would either go for 70/30 or nothing please. I need to hear someone’s opinion /views. Sorry not trying to be difficult - just need someone else’s perspective. Please

timeism0ney · 17 February 2020 at 11:16AM

What's his justification?

Sadsacsal · 17 February 2020 at 11:23AM

He says he wants everything to be 50/50 so that we’ll be equal partners. Which I get if we were married. But we’re not. He has a private pension which he has left to his sons in the event of his death and says he will sign his death in service to me - but I can’t help but feel vulnerable. When I said 70/30 he said he needed somewhere he could call his own and is insisting one of the 2 bedrooms be a “guest” room for his sons. The living room would have to be turned into a bedroom for my daughter until she leaves home. (She’s 21 and just started uni). He even suggested that she should move in with her dad when not in uni (over the summer). Am I being hoodwinked? Or over reacting?

[Deleted User] · 17 February 2020 at 11:28AM

This is really one for the Marriages and Relationships board but based on what you've said so far he's at it.

I'm not sure either 70/30 or 50/50 works in this situation. Search the forum for threads with couples buying together with unequal deposits to see how it could work. As for your daughter getting the living room so his sons can have the bedroom, how old are his sons and how often do they stay?

wilfred30 · 17 February 2020 at 11:33AM

Good grief, it gets worse

I already thought from your OP that you would be putting in £200k and he would be putting in ...... nothing! Why hasn't he got any savings on a salary of £50k?
His justification sounds to me like he's very controlling. How dare he tell you to push your daughter out so that his sons can have her bedroom.
If he said that to me, he'd be the one leaving!

Tom99 · 17 February 2020 at 11:35AM

How did you arrive at 70/30?

If you sold next week would you be happy with 70% of the net proceeds after paying the sale cost and redeeming the mortgage even though it was you who is putting up 100% of the cash?

To be fair you need a 2 part formula. Lets assume the property is costing £160k incl fees (which you pay for) and the £80k mortgage is spare money to be spent improving the property making it worth £240k.

One fair way, particularly bearing in mind the disparity in your incomes, would be to have a deed of trust making the boyfriend liable to pay all of the mortgage payments then:

On the sale of the property and after paying the sale costs and redeeming the mortgage the net proceeds are split as follows:

1 - You - 66.7% of the gross sale proceeds less costs of sale but before redeeming the mortgage.

2 - Boyfriend - 100% of the remainder.

Once the mortgage is paid off you will own 2/3rds and boyfriend 1/3 but as you can see from the above formula if the property is sold before the mortgage is paid off the boyfriend will get less than 1/3 of the sale price.

The formula you use needs to be fair whether the sale takes place next week, in 5yrs time or in 25yrs time.

SameOldRoundabout · 17 February 2020 at 11:41AM

I would absolutely not be going 50/50. Nor would I be pushing a live-in child into a living room so weekend visitors got a room. Your partner sounds a delight. If he wants 50/50 tell him he can stump up his half of a standard deposit and you can pay your half. The rest of the house would be a standard mortgage and your house sale proceeds go into a bank account in solely your name. No way on earth would I be signing over my only nest egg to someone who in 50 years has saved nothing and wants an equal share of mine, despite essentially valuing your daughter as nothing.

sgun · 17 February 2020 at 11:46AM

Why are you downsizing when you clearly need more than 2 bedrooms?

Buying house with partner - need advice

Comments

I'd change it back to 70/30

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