When a couple is undertaking a major step in their relationship, it’s rare for that step to go anywhere as smoothly as the front they put up to their friends might suggest.
After all, most of the major milestones for a couple tend to be expensive and even at the best of times, money often tops the list for the most common things partners fight about.
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But while the way that money works in a relationship gets a lot more complicated when a couple gets married, that’s just as true when they’re buying a house together.
And that’s why one woman’s story about a fight she recently had with her boyfriend might not have as easy an answer as some might have thought.
Out the four years that one young couple has been together, they’ve lived together for two of them.
And while the woman we’re hearing from explained in a Reddit post that this has been going well for them, there’s also a clear difference in how they approach work.
Although she just started a new job that pays $80,000 a year, he’s had eight different jobs in the last four years that all paid minimum wage. They split the rent and he pays his own bills while she covers the rest, and this is essentially how they intend things to work when they get a house together.
However, that still left the question of who’s actually going to pay the costs associated with buying that house, which is how we come to their dilemma.
In the woman’s words, “I have enough in my savings for a down payment and to cover all the closing cost but my boyfriend doesn’t have any saving and lives paycheck to paycheck.”
This meant that she would cover these costs herself, which means that his earnings become extra cash for the couple.
However, because she’s fronting the actual down payment, she doesn’t think her boyfriend’s name should be on the house’s title. That would change if they get married, but that’s where she’d prefer to keep things for now.
But as the woman put it, “He is now upset with me about it bc it’s supposed to be ‘our house.'”
And in turn, she argued that while this is functionally true, the house should be legally hers for the time being because she doesn’t want to put $400,000 on the line.
This led the boyfriend to wonder why he’s contributing half the mortgage if the house isn’t even half his, to which she replied that it would be like paying rent anywhere else unless there’s a reason for the agreement to change.
As she said, “He hasn’t talked to me for 3 days now and I really don’t think I’m in the wrong here.”
And for the most part, the Reddit community she reached out to didn’t think she was either.
Indeed, most commenters seemed pretty horrified at the idea of putting the boyfriend’s name on the house.
As one user put it , “Do you really want to legally bind yourself to someone financially who sounds irresponsible?”
But as some pointed out, the fact that the boyfriend is supposed to pay half the mortgage makes her legal situation murkier than she might think.
In the words of another person, “If he helps pay the mortgage he may be considered an owner of the home in some states if you were to break up. Please find out what the rules are where you live and sort something out in writing.”
Basically, she should talk to a lawyer instead of Reddit.
h/t: Reddit | [deleted]
