What Does Domestic Partnership Mean?

By Albert Colier


In case you want to purchase a home with a partner, you have to consider some essential details. A probable break-up represents a very important aspect that you should pay attention to.

You can hope that this will never happen, but it is better to have an agreement in place. Attorneys should be consulted because they can offer you legal advice. In any case, here are some things you should keep in mind. When you want to design your agreement with your domestic partner, remember that the best solution is to sell the home in case you two will break-up. No one will have to deal with financial troubles when it comes to the home or mortgage in this case. The only thing that has to be solved here is the division of the sale's proceeds. The amount each partner receives is usually equal to his contribution, just as in a business partnership.

If one partner decides to keep living in the house, you will go through a complex process if you don't have an established agreement. Begin by checking the value of your home. Then, the partner who decides to stay has to pay the part of the other one. But in most of the cases, there are no means to do this. Usually, for having the possibility to pay the departing partner, the staying one opts for a home equity loan. But there aren't too many banks that will allow the approach. Another idea could be to remove the departing partner from the loan. If you take into consideration this shaky mortgage market, you will see that this isn't likely to happen. No lender will be willing to take more repayment risk by agreeing one partner to be removed from the mortgage.

In this situation, the remaining partner should refinance the loan and this way, he might be also able to pay-off the equity of the other partner. If you are only thinking of it, but you haven't purchased a property with your domestic partner, you should know that it is a good away to make the remaining partner responsible for selling the house or refinancing the loan. There can also be some harsh situations if you split in a declining market and your home will be worth less than what you paid. This involves the fact that any sale will cause partners facing deficiencies when they have to pay off the mortgage and refinance won't be a solution.

So, you will face two possibilities, and you need to examine them both. A short sale with the bank can be negotiated or the home will go into foreclosure. The partners' credit will be affected anyway since these aren't the perfect solutions. Buying a house can be a wonderful thing; nonetheless, every detail matters so you should consider it. Buying your house together with a partner is a nice thing too, but it is important to be sure that there won't be problems if you don't get along with each other. It is advisable to be prepared for different situations if you want to avoid big conflicts.




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