Should I sell my house to buy with my husband?

[Golden25]

I bought a house years before my husband and I met. Still have a mortgage on it. When my husband and I got married, we initially rented a place together and I rented out my house. We then had a child and decided to move into my house as it made more financial sense and would mean we had more space. We're now thinking of moving to be in a better area for schools. I'm trying to decide whether to sell my house and then we buy together as tenants in common (deposit towards new place would be from sale of my house), or to keep my house and we rent a place again together in the better area for schools, as we would not be able to afford to buy without sale of my house. Husband has minimal savings but works hard and spends all his salary on our family, including paying towards the mortgage on my house. Would it be unwise to sell my house, given that I had it before we even met? We are happily married and in it for the long haul, but I have nerves about selling my house.

Sell the house . Why would you waste money on renting when you have the equity to buy your own place . Doesn’t make sense

If your husband has been paying some of your mortgage, how much rights would he have on the house if you were to divorce?
If you are in Scotland, it would count as your asset as you had it before you were married, but in England, I don’t think this is the case. I also don’t know how him paying towards the mortgage places you legally, but he has effectively been paying some of the mortgage on what you are calling ‘your’ house.
i would probably find out the legal position and then decide what to do.

Unless you live in Scotland or elsewhere with slightly different rules, the house is a marital asset which you both own as a married couple. Its the basic point of marriage.

As I had a property before our marriage we signed a pre-nup because although not technically legally binding the court will look to this if we split within not that many years. We were then advised when we buy our house together that we hold it as tenants in common so I would get my deposit back plus my 50% share of the house going forward if we were to split. Not a nice way of looking at things and I 100% don't think we would ever split but my husband suggested it as I came with assets and he didn't. I do get what you mean, as much as I love and trust my husband I worked hard for my house and savings and it is uneasy to give up that fall back and independence. I would suggest you meet with a solicitor to discuss as they are very helpful with making sure you make the decisions that are right for you, most likely holding the property as tenants in common so you can see a clear split in assets.

@Sophie3003 did you sell your house to buy the property with your husband? Are you based in England? Some of my research suggests that being married basically nullifies the tenants in common thing if you were to divorce

Tenants in common is standard, it doesn't protect a deposit unless you have made it a separate provision to ring-fence it. As you are married, you probably have no extra claims to assets really. Once you married him 'your' house became 'our' house, so you are actually trying to clutch onto assets that you longer outright own. Change your mindset and get used to saying you are selling 'our' house. It's surprising you didn't know this prior to marriage. That is the point of marriage, to share all you have equally and the law recognises this in the UK whether male or female.

Your married now, there's no "yours" anymore I'm afraid, it's his house as well as soon as you got married, he's entitled to half of the equity you have built up and as he's been paying some of the mortgage as well half of it is definitely his now. Sell up and buy a bigger place together.

Maybe seek legal advice but I think the time to seek legal advice was before you got married. I assume if you’re in England the house is now 50/50 anyway. I would sell it.

@Golden25 we are in the process of selling my house to buy our house and yes we are in England. Our situation might be different because of the pre-nup but we were advised to hold the property as tenants in common so I still had my bigger share recognised should I need to.

Is your house good enough for the family to live in? If so why selling if technically he already owns the half as you are married? Can he start to make bigger monthly contributions towards the mortgage to make equal his contribution to the money you had paid before you were married? Less money in fees I suppose.

You can save that money for the kid.

In Scotland it could still classed as a marital asset. Source - my divorce, I had a house that I had bought before marriage that never had my husbands name on the deeds or mortgage and he never paid a penny towards it. When we split up it was classed as the 'Marital home' because we lived in it together at the time we split up.

Also, if you’re trying to get children into popular schools, it’s a well known ruse to rent locally whilst owning a house elsewhere. Schools and LAs know this and will work on the assumption that your owned house is your main residence.

If it was/is the marital home, then its not just 'yours' anymore.

You've decided to marry him and have a child with him, but don't want to link yourself financially when he has funnelled all of his money into the family?

If you want to ring fence the deposit (in case of divorce) by all means see a solicitor. But I think you are being quite cruel actually.

You should sell the house to buy your family home with your husband and your child. Why wouldn't you?!