It's ours not mine - or is it?

[ohthiscouldgetmessy]

Help. This is more for advise than AIBU really. I have rented a house from a family member with my partner for many years, we have probably paid around 50% the current value of the house in rent. We have also spent money on a few bits that needed doing.

Now, here is the tricky bit. I am being gifted the house because we have paid so much in rent and what we have done to it. What we have done, we have done together and will have added value to the house. So essentially what we have paid in rent would have covered the initial purchase price of the property when we moved in. (Due to bad financial decisions by one party we were unable to get a joint mortgage so just continued renting).

Partner is under impression the house will be ours. It is only going to be put into my name as its my family member who owns it. Should I put the house into both our names as we have paid the same into it or would you be looking at the rental paid, expenses paid, take that away from current value and work out percentage? Or just keep it 50/50.

I think 50/50 but want other opinions.

Please keep it in your name, I wish I had with my house

The most honest post on the thread

Keep it in your name so your children inherit it after you and it stays in the family. There’s no impact to your partner in him not owning it. He still gets to live there. It also sounds like it would get transferred to you, so if you do nothing then it belongs to you and you alone.

This.

Don’t cave on this.

I think it would be fair to acknowledge your DP's contribution to the house.

Has the rent been paid 50/50 all these years?

How are bills split, who is the higher earner?

This is what I was going to suggest too. Although ensure you change that if you split up in future.

Why would the partner keep continuing to pay towards a house he has no rights to?

What happens if OP dies and the kids or OP's other family boot him out?

If my partner didn't add me to the mortgage after all these years of paying rent, I would leave them.

You have to pay capital gains tax if the owner has more than one property I think

It should be 50/50- he has paid into the house too

Roles reversed would expect it would be his or both your property? Do whichever you feel is true for you.

You have chosen to be cohabitees and to live free from the legal responsibilities of marriage. So “what would happen if you were married“ is irrelevant here.

Other posters have said “ what sex is the other party?” Again I don’t see how that’s relevant. What would be relevant is if one of you has given up work to care for the other or to care for your joint children or to do major renovation on the property. None of these seem to be relevant here.

With regards to the work you’ve done on the house , you would need to separate the capital costs of doing the work from the revenue benefit you’ve both had eg the comfort of living in a warmer house or lower electricity bills from new windows.

Plus the costs of doing the work won’t be reflected in the capital value of the house eg you spent 10k on new windows but it might have added 5 k to the value of the house.

Painting walls and fitting new carpets won’t have added much to the value, unless it was very high end and done in the last few months.

So the suggestion that you pay your parther half the cost of the renovations doesmt make sense. They have benefited from that money and will go on doing so if you continue to live there together .

So all things considered, I would put the house in my name only. Then pay for all landlord type costs myself from now on - major repairs , building insurance , boiler servicing, ground rent, redecoration, new flooring etc . Upgrades to kitchen, bathroom etc as require.

Your parther will benefit from lower outgoings from both of these . You will benefit from an appreciating asset, but you may need all of what you save on half the rent on the above costs, so don’t spend it - save it.

How many properties the giftor owns isn't relevant. What matters is whether it is the giftors principal residence (or potentially other specific exemptions), which as the OP & family have been living there it could well not be.
Of it is the giftors principal residence and they gift and continue to live there without paying rent then it becomes a gift with reservation and remains part of the giftors estate for IHT purposes anyway.

For me the question would be; would you have been gifted the house if it hadn’t been for the relative? I’m guessing the answer would be no and therefore under what terms is this relative gifting the house? If they assume that it is a family asset being gifted to family then the house has been gifted to you primarily.

I think since you couldn’t get a mortgage together due to your bad credit, you should put the house in both your names. If he’s been paying the equivalent that he would have been paying for a mortgage all this time and done work on it, it would be pretty mean of you to tell him it’s now only your house but he will be allowed to live their too.

After 15 years together I’d be very hurt in his position if I didn’t get 50% of the house, and I’d interpret it as you not being confident in the relationship.

You have paid rent together the whole time and both paid for work on the house so the only fair solution is to split it.

Keep the house in your name babe xx

This seems sensible. I would definitely reimburse him for money spent on renovations and encourage him to purchase an investment property for himself. Yes he shouldn’t have spent the money in the blind hope that the OP might think it’s both of their house. But not everyone is rational and self-serving in relationships.

let’s hope the OP doesn’t need to do major works at some point in the future, requiring a mortgage that she can’t get due to her poor credit.

That’s his choice for not marrying the OP years ago. He would contribute for the same reason he currently pays rent and previously did DIY: to live in a nice house.

No. They weren’t in a rent-to-buy scheme and he would have been paying rent elsewhere anyway.

Not really it depends how old they are, takes a long time to save up for a decent deposit to get a mortgage which is hard especially getting one on your own and considering property prices. They could of done that 15 years ago if it wasn’t for OPs bad credit and paid a lot less for a property

It will also be his choice to leave the OP. And who could blame him.

Agreed. Family member is gifting the house BECAUSE they've paid so much rent. And the partner paid half of that! I don't see any harm in doing it 50/50 as long as it's a stable, long-term relationship. It will be mortgage free, so no worries about having to deal with that if you split up. It will literally be a decent lump sum to each of you.

Both names, there’d be uproar on here if a man dared not add a woman!

That’s a fair idea tbh I think he should be compensated for what he paid for the renovations atleast!!

It is his choice anyway, even without such a vast gift when he can’t reciprocate with anything of equivalent value. That’s precisely why the OP would be wise to put her own financial security first.

Equally, he might not do what you would do. If he leaves he will have to pay market rate rent.