For asking to be put on the mortgage?

Too early to combine assets, should do this in parallel with getting married, but certainly before kids.

Well this is not quite right though. It's actually quite difficult to prove beneficial interest in a property as a co-habitee, simply paying the owner a monthly sum as 'rent' isn't usually enough, as a minimum you'd usually have to show you've contributed to maintenance or improvement of the property with a capital sum, and even then you'd often only get back what to you put in rather than a % ownership of the house and therefore a right to profit from capital growth. And also if she was a lodger in someone else's house she'd have no legal rights or tenancy protections at all really. So from that point of view it wouldn't be totally unreasonable for the partner/boyfriend to say she ought to be paying him in 'rent' what it would cost her to rent a room as a lodger locally, which has the added benefit of being tax free for him up to £625 per month plus her share of bills. This is what my partner and I did when he initially moved into my house which still worked out as a good deal for him compared to renting a flat solo. Not saying they need to make a change of course if they're happy with their current financial arrangement and sounds like the friend is being very sensible saving the extra money towards their joint future anyway so it's all effectively in the same pot regardless, but for strict accuracy and for anyone considering this sort of arrangement it's not true that a live-in partner who is not a co-owner of the house can't contribute at all without being deemed to have some kind of 'rights' over the property in future...

Some weird misinformation/misunderstandings on this thread. What the 'friend' is proposing isn't grabby at all, she's not asking to be given half the house, her partner's equity in the property would be protected whilst she would be agreeing to invest money of her own into the property and share the debt/mortgage, sounds reasonable to me, if they were looking to buy a new property together that would be absolutely normal. Not that complicated legally either, they'd be tenants in common with a deed of trust setting out the equity split, perfectly normal and common arrangement.

As OP doubtless knows as a mortgage advisor it's not quite as simple as being 'added to the mortgage', particularly as it's a shared ownership property, they'd have to take out a new joint mortgage and do some conveyancing to buy the part of the house that currently belongs to the housing association, so the DP might well want to wait until his current fixed term mortgage expires before making any changes particularly if he secured a good interest rate before they spiralled but that doesn't mean it's not worth talking about now to enable sensible planning. Yes the DP would I suppose be risking not being able to secure another comparable property in the event of a break-up but equally he'd be benefitting from no longer having to deal with the housing association which will make the property much easier to sell on should they ever need to, plus the equity/capital growth on the 30% of the house he would now jointly own rather than having to pay rent on. So swings, roundabouts etc.

It's also a bit odd that people are saying 2 years is too soon to have this conversation when on other threads MNetters are frothing about a man's lack of commitment if he isn't proposing within 6 months and stories abound about how MNetters moved in with their now-DH after one date and have been married 60 million years or whatever. If the DP doesn't want to commit to that extent or even talk about doing it in the future then fine, the friend can look to her own financial security separately but as adults in a grown up relationship that have discussed kids and marriage surely the time is coming to discuss finances and the longer term plan in a sensible and cooperative way?

A fairer setup would be for her to pay half of what a similar property costs to rent in that area, not half of the rent on 30% of the property! Plus half of bills.

That's what she'd be paying if she'd moved in with someone who rents, rather than someone who owns. And that's what he'd charge a flat-sharer who wasn't his partner.

He's being very generous.

At the moment she would look grabby

She has a risk too, she could end up struggling getting her share of the money out of the property and have to go to court to force a sale, which can be expensive. It's too early in the relationship for this. Once they're engaged maybe, definitely if they get married. I wouldn't have a child or get married without going on it, but they're not got that extra commitment yet. Meanwhile she can save more and if they decide to get married she'll be able to pay a bigger chunk off and if they split up she'll have her savings to get a rental or maybe even a small mortgage herself.

Risky sharing a mortgage with someone you are not related to.

She’s really doing well out of this
low rent so she can save a lot, and if she uses that to buy a share of the house she’ll have an asset. She’s not proposing sharing her savings.

what’s a female cocklodger?

You're a mortgage advisor?!

Surely then you would know there's feck all in it for him. It's a complication he doesn't need.

She's already gaining a lot by all she is saving in rent.

They could do a deed of trust to protect him. But all she will have is 15% of a flat. She'd be better off getting her own property if possible. Is she buys with him she'll lose her first time buyer perks and won't be able to use them again.

Gosh didn't realise you had to be married and have kids to be able to buy a property. Silly me living in 2025 instead of 1925.

I did this with my partner except it wasn't a shared ownership property. I had the mortgage on the house, we turned it into a new 50/50 deal (selling a property to yourself is more annoying than buying from someone else but it was fine).

We're still together 10 years later, still unmarried, we don't want kids or to get married. Mortgage has 2 years left on it if we keep overpaying. The end.

That's a major CF move - major red flag. Did this friend contribute to partners deposit for the property? If not, hands off.