P1Fanatic

Am looking to buy a house with my girlfriend. The problem we have is that she has a massive deposit to put down and I dont, but I do have the disposable income to be able to pay a large mortgage per month. We want to go into the deal on equal terms. Has anyone ever been in the same situation, if so how did you go about it?

My mum has suggested the following (figures are just for example purposes). For a 200K house split down the middle we both owe £100k. If my girlfriend pays a £40k deposit she pays a mortgage of £60k. If I pay a deposit of £10k I pay a mortgage of £90k. This suits my girlfriend as she has less to pay per month. If we then split the house is split 50:50. This sounds easy but I have no idea about the legalities and documentation behind it.

Before I waste the time of a mortage advisor I would like to know if anyone else has done something similar.

Thanks,
Simon.

Scooby Snacks 23

Your mum's suggestion sounds sensible.
I found myself in the same position when I bought a house with my fiancee (now wife) as she had deposit money and I didn't at the time. We went ahead with the house, she paid approx £10K for the deposit and we went 50/50 with the mortgage repayments. I then spent £10K on the house when I sold the car (new kitchen and carpets) so it's worked out quite fair.

We've never done any pre-ups or anything, but have agreed a 50/50 split on the house proceeds if we ever split.

Andy McCord

Simon, i think you would have to have something drawn up with a solicitor, IIRC the building society will not recognise individual deposits or monthly payments, they will just look at u 2 & say if you decide to split you owe the balance outstanding in full irrespective of who paid what, the solicitor will then act to recover the money based on your original agreement IIRC

MattOz

Simon,

I did it this way. Hannah, my girlfriend had no deposit. I paid the 10% that was required. The mortgage is paid equally by both of us. We drew up a "declaration of trust" so that should it all go t1ts up, I get my initial 10% back. What equity is left, is then split 50-50.

We also took out life insurance together so that should either party kark it, the other has the property.

This was the best way for us.

Matt

kevin stanton

defo get it sorted with a solicitor prior to anything.
i came out of a joint mortgage last year due to splitting up with the girlfriend. what a load of grief.
even though paid the deposit and i had always paid the mortgage, i still had to buy her out!!!!!.

i'll explain better later, i'm still at work at the mo.

Kevin

matt.bowey

Your mums suggestion is a little flawed......

Say I have a £20K deposit on a £200k House & the GF has nowt, so I pay off £400 per month (the £80k) & she pays £500 per month (the £100k)?? But I earn twice as much!! I'd get a slap if I suggsted that!

I'm a fan of the pre-nup myself, but I'm not too sure if they are a legal document in the UK? (ref earlier post) & at u need a spare £250 to hand...just when u r moving & money is pretty tight!

OllieC

IIRC you can own a property on a "joint and several basis" (i.e. you both own all of it) or as tenants in common (you own a pre-defined proportion each). Joint and several is the norm, but your conveyancing solicitor should mention both types of ownership and offer to arrange either one.

Having said this, the loan is always secured against the whole property and the mortgage can't be split into two (the lender would want to be able to sell the whole house - it's tricky to sell just half!!). So I reckon you'll have problems aportioning the debt but not agreeing a pre-defined proportion of the property being owned. This would mean you get your share back if it's sold, after the lender have had theirs.

You should call a conveyancing solicitor and ask them. They'll be pretty helpful if they think they'll get the conveyancing out of you.

Hope this helps (I might have the names of the types of ownership wrong - it's a few years since I took my CeMAP's!!!)

Ollie

MrsP1Fanatic

So what does everyone recon? Even though there won't be a pre-nup (as we don't plan on getting married yet!) there are still other ways of doing this fairly?

Any comments or opinions will be greatly heard.

Bex.