Guide to sharing home ownership
First things first
Have a contract drawn up between yourself and the respectable party that you are buying the property with. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your spouse, relative or even a friend.
The problem usually comes in when one of the parties can’t afford their contribution towards the mortgage payment and leaves you liable with the full amount to cover.
You need to establish how you will handle a non-payment and under which circumstances the partnership can be terminated.
Questions to ask:
- Who will have the right to occupy the property
- Who will be responsible for the maintenance
- Who has the right to occupy the property
- Can funds be withdrawn from the bond
- Will the property be shared 50/50, and if not, how the resale value will be affected.
Combining resources
The average monthly salary is R12 715 according to BankserAfrica.
It is generally recommended that you have 10% saved up for a deposit, for the average earner of +- R12 000, it is near impossible to afford the property by him/herself as there are a lot of other expenses to take into account. I.e. buyers living expenses, monthly mortgage repayments, property taxes, transfer duty, future repairs and municipal rates.
Combining two salaries will make the payments much easier and it will improve the applicants’ chances of getting a home loan.
Living together
Living together should be fun.
Discuss the buying of furniture and appliances and how the cleaning and grocery shopping will be handled.
In most cases, it is easier if each partner buys certain items outright, purchasing these items separately will avoid disputes over the value of the articles if one does decide to move out.
It’s better to get all the nitty gritty stuff out of the way and come to an agreement before living together.