Hi all,

I wanted to split this out from my other thread on inheritance.

I've been with my OH for almost 10 years, we're happily unmarried and have no kids. We've always rented. Financial situation to date has been mixed, OH earns ~21k p/a whilst I'm on £59k p/a. She had no savings whilst I have around £37k in the bank (in part due to a recent redundancy).

Her mum passed away at the start of August, no father or siblings so estate passes to OH which includes the house.

The house is with ~£380k with approx £35k to pay off the mortgage. We plan to move in to the house because a) it's nice and in an area which is seeing good house price increase b) OH wants to and c) we can pay off mortgage and live mortgage free. She is 28, I'm 36.

I'd always thought we'd buy together. No we'll live in what is her house which I have no ownership rights too.

We've discussed this a bit but aren't sure what our options are.

Would I benefit from paying off a large slice of the outstanding mortgage? This would give me a small % of ownership plus would maybe be better than the current 1.5% savings I've got the money in.

Would we be better off using her cash inheritance (£250-300k) to pay off the mortgage and I use my savings plus extra income to work together on furnishing the house?

We plan to empty it and redecorate before moving in. We want to make it our home and see it as somewhere we'll live for a few years whilst we make it nicer and see the value grow. After that? Who knows, it depends how much we enjoy the house and how the location works for us.

I don't really want to feel like a lodger but realise that I cannot do much that would make it feel as much my house as my OH.

Advice welcome.