Buying a house with my partner- deposit question

[roomfulloflove]

I hope I'm posting this in the right place.

I have a very large deposit (£150k) from a previous house sale. My partner and I intend to buy a house together. Mainly so we can get a bigger place, but also so it will be our house. I had previously looked at buying somewhere on my own.

He doesn't have any deposit. Should I do something to safeguard my deposit going into the house sale? Like a legal agreement? I'm sure I've read of this kind of thing before, that it's worth doing but it wouldn't fully guarantee your deposit at the end.

I'm sure that someone will be along in a moment to give good advice but if I were you I'd be wanting to make sure I got the percentage back. Say you put in 50% of the house cost as a deposit you get 50% of the sale price back.

Yes, you'd be mad not to draw something up legally, via a solicitor, to protect your asset.

As a pp said, it's usually done as a % (well it was when I did this), if you bought a house for 300k, and put a deposit down of 150k then if you split you'd get 50% of any equity back from your deposit, then a further 50% of any remaining equity. Of course if house prices reduce, then your 150k deposit would reduce too (as it would do if you bought the house in your own.

Definitely take advice and have a legally binding arrangement agreeing what would happen if you break up. Ypu will probably never need it but much better to have it sorted now, along with a proper upfront agreement about who pays what for mortgage and bills along the way.

Yes you absolutely must, there is a name for this kind of buying arrangement (for unmarried couples or friends) - can't remember but you can probably find it on a google. You'll need an agreement join up by a solicitor so that you get the same % out that you put in. It should take into account mortgage contribs as well as deposit, so it's easier to make sure what you pay reflects your contribution to the household - avoid arrangements where one of you pays the mortgage and the other the bills, as it makes contributions to the house harder to unpick. Similarly, if you get major work done, record that.

Yes, and it's really easy to do alongside the purchase. Your solicitor will ask you how you and your partner want to own the property and you will specify your % share.

There's different ways, you could ring fence the deposit so you get that back plus 50% equity if you split or you could own a larger % of the house eg if you put in a deposit worth half you own 75% buy as tenants in common.

Yes! I think it’s called ‘tenants in unequal share’ and it’s something we had on the first house we bought, before we married. DH put the deposit down, and it was ring fenced in the event of a sale. Further equity was split equally. It also gave either party the ability to serve notice re: buyout or force a sale after a stated period of time.

Yes you need to buy as Tenants in Common and you can ring fence your share of the deposit, your conveyancing solicitor can draw this up
for you, it's absolutely the right thing to do and very simple.

That's all really helpful thank you. And you're right, it'll be good to have the conversation about who pays how much on mortgage and bills upfront too.