Moving Into A Partner's Home

What is there to consider?

If you're moving into your partner's home, there are both practical and legal implications that you have to consider. Practical implications, apart from all the personal questions of sharing somebody else's home, are to do with the day-to-day financial commitments. Are you going to divide those commitments? Is one of you going to be responsible for the mortgage, one of you responsible for other expenses such as Council Tax, and so on? The more legal implications are that eventually you may need to decide with your partner whether or not you're going to have some interest in that property. If you are putting your money into the property, you may feel that you may want a stake in the property. You need to agree those things with your partner, if possible, in advance of moving in.

Can I be put on the deeds?

If you would like to be put on the deeds of the property, which at the moment are in your partner's sole name, the first thing you need to do is to discuss it with your partner. It's obviously quite a big issue because your partner will be the sole owner and, realistically, it will depend on whether or not you are making financial contributions to the property. That can be quite difficult to anticipate at first and it may be that your partner does not want to consider putting your name on the deeds at first. This may be something that you agree with your partner that you'll keep under review and that eventually, you will become a joint owner. Ultimately, you are dependent on your partner's agreement before you can be put on the deeds.

Can I be put on the mortgage?

If you would like to be put on the mortgage of your partner's home, the first thing to consider is whether or not your partner will agree to you becoming a joint owner. Your name can't go on the mortgage unless you are a joint owner of the property. That's obviously a bigger question and you will need to discuss that with your partner. If he or she agrees, and that may depend on your financial contributions to the home, there's no reason a solicitor couldn't draw up a fresh deed and put you as a joint owner of the property together with your partner.

What happens if we split?

If you split up with your partner, unfortunately, you have virtually no security to stay in the house. Because your partner, as the sole owner, can require you to leave, you don't have any rights of occupation in this situation simply because of the fact that you have been living together.

Will I need to be put on insurance policies?

If there are any insurance policies affecting your partner's home, you don't need to be put on them in order to live there. However, you may want to be put on, for example, the contents insurance policy, so that if there's a theft or any damage to your own possessions, you can make a claim under that policy. That's the only insurance policy you need to be concerned with when moving into a partner's home.

Will I need to be put on bills?

If you're moving into your partner's home, there's no need for you to be put on the bills, and, in fact, it's probably not in your interest to actually go on the bills. If you want to, there's no reason why you shouldn't ask for the bills to be transferred into joint names, but there's no need to do so.