Buying a property alone and including my partner later on

aquatic

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Hi everyone,

Me and my partner want to buy a house in Dublin. He is moving back here in next 3-6 months, and since he is not a resident, I would take the mortgage by myself, and what's the cheapest and most efficient way to include him later on?
Is it to sell him half of the apartment when he comes, to refinance the property with both of us included in the mortgage and he buys out the downpayment from me or something else?


Many thanks!
 
OK, that's definitely on the table, can you just please elaborate in more details how would that help here with him owning half of the property while also paying for it :D.
 
him owning half of the property
If you marry basically the home cannot be sold by you from under him so he’s effectively the co-owner.

He would not appear on the mortgage but that’s not really relevant. The debt is still the debt.

while also paying for it
That’s up to the two of you to arrange your financial lives.

Remember gifts between spouses are tax free. Gifts between strangers in law (which you are now) may accrue CAT.
 
since he is not a resident, I would take the mortgage by myself, and what's the cheapest and most efficient way to include him later on?

Are you sure that you cannot buy a property together now with a joint mortgage?

Do banks just refuse to lend to non-residents even if one partner is resident?

Or is it because you wouldn't qualify for some of the schemes?

Say you buy now on your own for €400k with a €300k mortgage.

To get it into his name after a year, you would need to sell him half the house. If the value has risen to €500k and you sell it to him half for €200k, you are giving him a gift of €50k and he would have a CAT liability.

If you wait until you get married and sell him half the house, this liability disappears.
 
If you marry basically the home cannot be sold by you from under him so he’s effectively the co-owner.
Theer'e a great gap between having the protection of the Family Home Protection Act and being a co-owner. The two things are not the same at all.

Nevertheless marrying may wll have advantages in this situation, since it will enable the OP to sell or gift a half-share in the property to her husband without any liablity to stamp duty, CAT, etc arising.

Important information missing from the OP is whether the partner will (before he acquires any share in the house) be contributing either to the deposit or to the mortgage repayments.
 
All the FHPA does for a spouse is prevent the family home being sold or mortgaged without the spouse's consent.

It has no effect at all in relation to a property that isn't the family home.

With regard to the family home, it doesn't give the spouse any ownership rights. The spouse has no right to join in decisions affecting the property — should it be extended, should it be rewired, should it be demolished and rebuilt, should it be demolished and not rebuilt? None of these things involves a sale of the house and the FHPA has nothing to say about them.

If the house is sold, the spouse is not entitled to any of the sale proceeds; if it's burnt down, the spouse is not entitled to any of the insurance proceeds. Should the couple die simultaneously leaving no children, the house will go to the owner's family and not the spouse's family (unless the owner makes a will making other arrangements, which is entirely their choice). Should the owner of the house become insolvent, the owner's creditors can pursue the entire value of the house, and not merely half the value as would be the case if the house were jointly owned.

If, as would be the case here, the house were already mortgaged when the couple marry, the mortgage is valid and remains in force despite the fact that the spouse never consented to it. In the event of a default the bank doesn't need the spouse's consent to enforce the mortgage and, if the bank does enforce, and sells, and there's a surplus on the sale, the spouse has no right to any of it.

Tl;dr: All the FHPA Act does is to give the non-owing spouse the power to block the voluntary disposal of the house, or the grant of a mortgage over the house. It doesn't give them any of the other rights of control in relation to the house that an owner would have. It doesn't enhance their inheritance rights in any way. It doesn't grant anything like shared ownership. It doesn't give any right to a share in sale proceeds, insurance proceeds, compensation proceeds, etc relating to the house.
 
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