I want to buy a house but...

[Muncher]

Trexthedinosaur said:

Apply for and get the mortgage in your name, wait 'x' months and add your partner to the mortgage if you can, if not just add her to the Land Register / Deeds, job done, then once her bad credit is resolved add her to the mortgage.

This isn't possible.

[markiii]

your predicament is that if you have the morgage purely in your name, the debt is only yours

however the deeds list you as owning 50/50 so she has half the equity

that would male me feel somewhat exposed

I have a similar issue but as she put the deposit in I feel more comfortable

[TroubledSoul]

I was in the exact same situation almost, and Sarnie sorted me out. Can't speak highly enough of him.

My Mrs put our deposit in but the mortgage is all in my name. We're now married and should anything happen I'd make sure I did the right thing. She had her credit rating ruined by a company she settled a debt with failing to notify the credit agencies and leaving her file looking as if she'd simply stopped paying anything to them.

All sorted now though

[Al U]

markiii said:

your predicament is that if you have the morgage purely in your name, the debt is only yours

however the deeds list you as owning 50/50 so she has half the equity

that would male me feel somewhat exposed

I have a similar issue but as she put the deposit in I feel more comfortable

Yes I had thought about that. Although if she ever decided to jump ship couldn't I just decide to sell the property and we would both take our halves and go our separate ways?

[Mikeyjae]

Not entirely related but I brought my house alone several years ago while I was single. Now my misses of seven years (not married) and our 5 year old son live with me but the house is still solely in my name. My misses is happy with this because as she pays towards the house then she now has a stake in the house. Im not 100% on the law but in my mind 50% of equity is hers even if the deeds are not in her name.

I can understand your partner not being keen on buying a house without her name in the deeds but im sure, god forbid anything went wrong she would be entitled to half.

[mikees]

If you post in the finance forum or pm him a member called sarnie can always help. Very clever broker chap

Mike

[ging84]

unless your fiancée is putting in a significant amount of money towards the deposit then i don't see what the problem is, unless you are planning a very long engagement, you'll be married long before you're at the break even point of buying a house, so the risk is not to your fiancée losing her share of the house, the risk is to you be stuck with a house which owes you money.

And if your fiancée is putting up part of the deposit, I think you are going to struggle to come up with any sort of scheme that satisfies the mortgage company but still gives her an interest in the property, it would rather defeat the purpose of a deposit.

[Pheo]

Also be aware that your "marriage length" once married from the courts prospective is backdated to when you started co-habiting. So for example, you've been living together for three years, you get married, divorce after 1 year, the courts will consider the length of the marriage to be four years.

On good account from my friend the family solicitor!

So yes, essentially you are right, she will have a claim on the property. And if you are not, a co-habitation agreement could provide the same level of certainty to her without causing alarm bells with the mortgage company. Infact my friend the solicitor highly recommends people moving in together get a co-habitation agreement - mainly to stop this kind of problem from occurring later (she sees a lot of people come in with problems after the fact which are very difficult to sort!)