Advice on moving in with someone

[epalmer]

Hello!

I've just recently had my second review for my IVA (phew!) but I've been thinking about long term plans.

I'm in a long term relationship, and we're talking about living with each other. He has bought a house outright (no mortgage), and it would be the case that I move in with him. He's aware of my IVA and I currently rent so I don't have any Equity.

If I move in with him (taking into consideration it is his house) would this affect my IVA and would it affect him? Bills would be reduced so would be happy to contribute more to my IVA if it helps towards the F&F. But I don't want this to affect him as its my debt at the end of the day, and I had this prior to meeting him.

We've not set a date as we want to cross t's and dot the i's, especially looking at worst case scenarios E.g separation (fingers crossed that's not the case!) and for us to know everything before getting the ball rolling.

Any advice would be appreciated

[lifenoteasy]

It is possible but the general advice in the past is have a formal tenant agreement between the 2 of you.

[Breezy]

As Lifenoteasy says, it can be done, but is far 'cleaner' if you move in as a lodger or tenant with a tenancy agreement and a set rent. Further down the line of your IVA an avaricious IP could argue that you had acquired an interest in the property if you were occupying as a partner of the owner ( this is probably beyond the power of an IP to enforce but not impossible if they decided to take the matter to court --- similar to what might happen with matrimonial lawyers in a split). Anyway, this legal brick wall would keep him well out of the IVA's reach and keep you financially separated (remember - no joint accounts or the like).

[epalmer]

Thanks Breezy and Lifenoteasy - we had talked about doing a formal tenancy contract anyway as part of the "what if..." scenarios and we agreed that a joint account wouldn't be needed if we agreed on a set amount per month for rent and bills, so this is handy to know!