Living in DP's home, what do you pay?

[Firsttimeposter456]

Hi,

I was looking for opinions please?! If you move in with your DP and it's his home, where he's the sole name on the mortgage, what do you think is a fair share to pay?

I currently do this and pay half of the total monthly outgoings (mortgage included - albeit not a huge mortgage). I'm aware that I have no legal rights to the property but given that we've only been living together for (almost) a year, I wasn't worrying too much about this just now.

I'm asking as when I've mentioned this arrangement to a few people, they've mentioned reservations they'd have. Given the fact I'm helping pay off a mortgage for a property that I don't own and building equity that I won't benefit from.

I wouldn't plan to do this for the next 25yrs obviously but in the short term, what do people think?

I think if your contribution is less than or equal to what you would be paying if he was renting, I'd just go along with what you are currently doing. It would just be a landlords mortgage that you were paying off anyway if rented, may as well be paying towards your partner's mortgage.

If marriage / children comes into play then obviously you would be better on the mortgage so that you would have a claim on it if things went wrong, but just for a cohabiting partner unless you are very out of pocket I don't think its worth it,

Thanks rock chick, that's what I was thinking too. It's roughly what I'd pay to rent a place between 2 of us so not too bad. I just wondered if I was missing something seeing as 2 separate people questioned it!

Maybe I'm mean but I have a different opinion. I lived with OH in his place not long after we met and didn't pay rent. I paid half all bills and bought most of the food so he certainly wasn't worse off having me there but I refused to pay the mortgage. It was a slightly different situation though in that I had wanted to buy together but he 'wasn't ready' (I couldn't afford to on my own). I reckoned if he wasn't ready to commit financially I wasn't too keen on paying off his mortgage for him! I'd say pay half the bills and half the interest portion of the mortgage, but not the repayment portion.

Being on the mortgage is no guarantee of 'rights' over the property. You need your name on the title deeds to have that. I understand about it being early days, but don't let a few months become a few years before getting this on a better footing.