Buying a house when one of you has more money

[Tiba]

On managing house buying when one of you is better off than the other-

I had £50k and wanted to buy a house.
My boyfriend had no money, but we wanted to live together.
We live in the SE so my £50m together with my salary was not enough to get me into a shed let alone a flat or house.
However, my £50k plus my salary and DP's salary was enough to be lent a mortgage on a small house.
We therefore bought together and my £50k is in the house.
I don't expect DP to save up an additional £50k to make things even between us as there's not a lot left over at the end of the month and he earns slightly less than me.

Reading anther thread has made me question if this is normal.
But what would be the point in my keeping my money in a savings account for me only and continue renting with boyfriend because he can't contribute the same initially?

It's only joint money if you are married. You are not therefore you should own more of the property than your DP.

We had this predicament at the beginning of us buying our house. DH has saved almost double what I have to put towards the deposit/costs.

We sat down and I double checked whether he would want it to be put in writing that if we were to sell the house, he would get back his deposit amount, and I would get mine, and then we would split the rest of the house 50/50, seen as though we are splitting the mortgage repayments as such.

He said he didn't want to.

That being said, we only got the level of mortgage we have because of my salary, so it all evens out.

Why is it only joint money if you're married???

There all sorts of legal protections avaliable if people aren't married.

I'd make an appointment with a lawyer OP to protect your 50k. I'd do that married or not.

Tenants in common, agree the shares appropriately reflecting investment. This is what we did as not married, but in the end just hold 50/50. Also if not married sort a will if you have joint assets.

@EmmaJR1 My DH's parents gave us £50k and we have just bought a house. I put nothing in, pay nothing towards the mortgage ( I'm on mat leave and only work part time anyway) and it's 50:50. We are a partnership so it's ours. Not part his part mine...

So basically you are currently taking maternity leave to birth and then raise a child, so that is effectively your job/contribution to the family, right?

Quite different to two full time working adults with no children and associated responsibilities.

Do you have to get the trust deed written at the time of purchase or can you do it later? I mentioned it to my solicitor at the time as the whole deposit was mine, and he mentioned the tenants in common thing but we didn't do it, not sure why but I'd like to now as who knows what might happen in the future.

OP Did your solicitors ask about the contributions towards the purchase price? Did he/she offer to draw up a Declaration of Trust to state that you had contributed the 50K?

Agree with another person on here. You ought to hold property as Tenants in Common in unequal shares.

Also, make sure you BOTH make a Will.

Solicitor should have mentioned when purchasing property whether you wanted a declaration of trust drawn up and that you should be tenants in common.

And as somebody pointed out earlier on, it's maybe not the specific amount of money that the op will put in that needs to be ring fenced ( i.e.£50k) but what percentage of the purchase price of the property their large contribution works out at.
If they were to split in years to come and the property has increased in value then you want the same percentage back, not the original 50k which will not be worth as much then.
Hope that makes sense.

We did this and had a declaration drawn up. That was pre children though, if we were to move now i wouldn't want it to apply. It's not unreasonable to protect assets just in case, statistics prove that. Enjoy your new home!

Ugh, same situation (except £80k). We're getting divorced, he is being 'gracious' and accepting 'just' £35k. Despite putting nothing into the house.

Get a solicitor asap.

We've just bought a house where I've put 100% of the deposit down and DH has put nothing in as I earn substantially more than him. In the event of a (hopefully unlikely) divorce I'll just let the courts decide how the property is split.

That's the point of getting married in my opinion - I don't feel the need to 'protect my assets', it's all family property.

I would feel differently if I wasn't married though.

I married a man. Sold a house I had owned 7 years before marriage to buy our joint home. Owned as joint tenants. I put over 100k into that property. We divorced 3 years later and he took me for 40k.

Own that property as tenants in common ffs