4 Things You Need to Know About Buying a Home as a Common-Law Couple
You have found your true love. You have gone away together, met family and friends, and you’re practically completing each other’s sentences. You’ve been renting for a while and you’re thinking about making it official and buying a condo or a home together.
Marriage isn’t really your style right now but you want to do it right and make sure that all your bases are covered before going in on a big purchase together. Here are 4 things you need to know when buying a home as a common-law couple:
1. Canadian “common law” rules don’t exist
Canada has no overarching common law legislation. It’s up to each province to govern how these relationships are regulated. Since these laws can differ a lot between provinces, it’s up to both of you to make sure that you followl the steps needed to protect yourselves when buying a home as a common-law couple.
Having the “what if something happens” talk isn’t the most romantic conversation, to but it’s important to know your rights. Educate yourself on how your province regulates common-law relationships.
You can check out more details at Common Law Relationships to learn more; the website has a section for each province and can tell you more about how property is handled under the law.
2. Put your name on it
Buying a home is an important step in your relationship and it shows a true commitment to sharing a life together. If you’re just starting out as a young couple, you might not have a lot of assets. It might seem weird to get really formal about buying property together. Regardless, if you are both putting money towards buying a condo or a house, you’ll want to make sure everything is in both your names.
3. Get a cohabitation agreement
Whenever decide to do something big like buy property, the government starts to get really. It’s important to talk through how you and your partner will buy the property together (who will put a down payment down and how the mortgage will be paid) and how you will deal with it if something happens.
Find a lawyer and hammer out a cohabitation agreement that will dictate how things are handled if one of you passes away or the relationship ends and you need to split property costs. This is one of the most important aspects of buying a home as a common-law couple.
4. Protect your assets
Stuff can happen pretty quickly so make sure you get good home insurance that will cover any damage to your property. Talk about it as a couple and figure out how to protect your assets together. You and your significant other will also want to think about buying life insurance policies and putting together a will so that the home is paid for if the worst happens.
Once you decide on buying a home as a common-law couple, you have a whole new set of financial issues to work through – and you need to be ready.