joint mortgage with a friend - anyone done it?

One piece of advice - don't judge the viability of this primarily on your friendship, but on the ethics of each of you. Friendships can wax and wane but I know people who even if they loathed me, would still settle it via discussion and honour any financial commitments they had made. Someone who you don't have a lot in common with but who will always keep their word or play fair, can sometimes be worth more than a mate who you have a good laugh with. The question I would ask yourself, is how would this person behave towards someone they didn't like? Do they base their behaviour on what's right or on who their friends are? That's the thing you need to be sure of if you want to be safe.
 
One piece of advice - don't judge the viability of this primarily on your friendship, but on the ethics of each of you. Friendships can wax and wane but I know people who even if they loathed me, would still settle it via discussion and honour any financial commitments they had made. Someone who you don't have a lot in common with but who will always keep their word or play fair, can sometimes be worth more than a mate who you have a good laugh with. The question I would ask yourself, is how would this person behave towards someone they didn't like? Do they base their behaviour on what's right or on who their friends are? That's the thing you need to be sure of if you want to be safe.

This is good advice.
 
Easy to say now, but when it comes down to it and one of you are funny about the whole deal then it will easily destroy your relationship.

20 year friendship, maybe, 2 years, definitely absolutely not.

funny you say that as everyone I've had friendships for 10+ years i'd not share a mortgage with, however this friend i would. I'd put that down to anyone i've had friends for 10+ years plus were friends through chance, parents were friends for instance. now i can pick new friends with some thought and have the freedom to find better matches.
 
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funny you say that as everyone i've had friendships for 10+ years i'd not share a mortgage with, however this friend i would. I'd put that down to anyone i've had friends for 10+ years plus were friends through chance, parents were friends for instance. now i can pick new friends with some thought and have the freedom to find better matches.

Or you've just not had long enough to discover why you wouldn't :p
 
Speaking of parents, can your's not be guarantors? This isn't uncommon for first time buyers iirc. You'd be in a better position with them as your security and renting a room/s as extra cash
 
I wouldn't

Are you both single then? I would put money on one of your finding a gf and wanting to move her in. That is awful, had that happen to me when renting and I want to kill the stupid cow. Turned him into a giant wetty too.
That was renting, I can only imagine the hell that would insue from 100's of k.
 
Speaking of parents, can your's not be guarantors? This isn't uncommon for first time buyers iirc. You'd be in a better position with them as your security and renting a room/s as extra cash

That's a Hell of an ask for a lot of people's parents. You're basically saying to your parents that you want them to risk you saddling them with huge losses. I know it's common, but I just imagine how it would feel after a lifetime of saving and trying to pay off your own mortgage for your kid to say "Hey, I want to borrow £250,000 from the bank but they think there's a danger I might not be able to pay them back... Would you promise to cover for me?"

Of course if the parents are rich...
 
Personally I would never do it. I did, however, have a couple of good friends who did it for about 5 years.

When one of them wanted to move on, the other remortgaged and bought the one one out.

Seemed easy at the time, but then again the one who was staying could afford the additional repayments. What would have happened if he couldnt?
 
That's a Hell of an ask for a lot of people's parents. You're basically saying to your parents that you want them to risk you saddling them with huge losses. I know it's common, but I just imagine how it would feel after a lifetime of saving and trying to pay off your own mortgage for your kid to say "Hey, I want to borrow £250,000 from the bank but they think there's a danger I might not be able to pay them back... Would you promise to cover for me?"

Of course if the parents are rich...

Do you have kids? We bought a house to get ours into a good primary... and she's only 4. I can't imagine anything we wouldn't do and I expect that'll be the way for the rest of our lives!
 
I assume you are already living together so that you know you won't hate each other if you live under the same roof?

You'll want to decide:

Share of payments. All payments. Thats the mortgage, utilities, other bills, maintenance funds, and if and how this balance of payments might change if your incomes change.

What happens if one of you falls ill or loses their job.

How to sell.
When to decide to sell
You much you own of the property.

Rules around tenants, and future relationships
Establishment of personal spaces - particularly as future relationships become involved.


Its a lot to work out. Get agreement on all of that, and then consider if its the best thing for the two of you to do.
 
Easy to say now, but when it comes down to it and one of you are funny about the whole deal then it will easily destroy your relationship.

20 year friendship, maybe, 2 years, definitely absolutely not.

well that is why you don't do business deals with muppets... :p you should know them well enough before doing something like this and I don't just mean in the sense of are they a nice person but as in are they objective, what do they do for a living do they really appreciate this for what it is.

if the other party can't look at this as an investment/way to save on rent and build equity and develops an emotional attachment then they're not the sort of person you should be dealing with in the first place

I've got friends I'll chat with re: investments etc.. and most of them I'd have been happy to invest in a property with if I didn't have my own already, other friends I probably wouldn't risk it with as I don't know that they could be objective as they don't actively put their money at risk in other things
 
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I'm surprised we don't see more threads like this as house prices are shooting up disproportionately to wages. Also more and more people are getting married later in life so a lot of people are looking to get on the housing ladder with only their own income which just isn't realistic in some parts of the country.

I would say if you really trust your friend and they are the decent short then the idea is worth serious consideration. 2 years isn't a huge amount of time to know someone so it would be better if you had lived with them before, if you haven't done that maybe consider renting with them for a time. Its either that or you will still be renting in 5 years time continuing to line someone elses pockets and you will probably be further off saving for a deposit due to the increased house deposits.

I will probably face the same challenge when it comes to getting a mortgage, so I may have to do something similar. You can either pay a landlord an arm and a leg for rent or you can pay just as much and have something more to show for it.
 
Do you have kids? We bought a house to get ours into a good primary... and she's only 4. I can't imagine anything we wouldn't do and I expect that'll be the way for the rest of our lives!

Sure, but what if you couldn't afford to. I'm just pointing out that it's a very big ask of most people's parents for a kid to ask them to shoulder the risk of something going wrong.
 
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