Buying future house together help

[shopgirl91]

First time posting so please be kind.

I'm in my early 30's and have never been good with money. In and out of credit card debt my whole life and never able to save much. As I entered my 30's I pulled my shit together, paid off all my debt and stuck to it. Moved out of my parents house into a flat share with friends, always have rent and bills paid, never a problem.

I came into an inheritance and now have about £35k to put down as a deposit on a house. My boyfriend is back in uni and will be making a decent amount when he gets a job after he graduates. He'll be making more than me by a long shot. So we'd be looking to buy together in about two years. Thing is I have no idea how it would work if the deposit was mine but we'd be putting our joint incomes on a mortgage application? Like how would you work it financially if you moved in together with that set up? If that makes sense?

You'd visit a solicitor and have an agreement drawn up that protects your deposit in the event of the property being sold.

You'd pay the mortgage proportionally according to your income.

You'd register the property as 'tenants in common'.

I think it depends. If I was providing the whole deposit and we were paying the household costs 50/50 I would want my deposit ring fenced . If my partner was going to be putting a much higher percentage in to the monthly costs, I’d just have the property as 50/50. Someone contributing a lot more monthly will soon have paid the equivalent of a 35k deposit.

You'd sort all this out with your mortgage advisor and solicitor when you buy.

Your individual contributions to the deposit should be noted and ring fenced so that you get that money back if you split and sell. And then you need to work out between you how you divide the rest. You would buy as tenants in common.

That said, me personally, I wouldn't buy a house with someone without being sure that we wanted to yoke ourselves to each other financially for the long-term. Dh and I were married when we bought our house, but I put in a larger proportion of the deposit and he technically contributes more to the monthly repayment as earns more. If we split, it's 50/50 as we are joint tenants. Because we're in it for the long haul and I feel no need to squabble over a % contribution here and a % contribution there. But we were together for 10+ years and had 2 dc when we bought our first house.