Woman Refuses To Add Boyfriend’s Name To House Contract — He Becomes Angry And Stops Talking To Her
A woman has taken to Reddit’s “Am I the A**hole” forum after getting in a fight with her boyfriend over a major life decision: buying a house together.
The post, shared on Thursday, has gone viral on the platform, racking up over 8,600 upvotes and 2,100 comments at the time of writing.
Buying a home as an unmarried couple can be slightly more complicated than for their married counterparts. Specifically, a couple has to decide how their homeownership will work: Will one person hold the title as the property’s sole owner? Or will both parties hold equal ownership?
The original poster (OP) asked the users of the popular social media platform if her decision to leave her boyfriend’s name out of the contract for a home she bought was the right thing to do.
Her post from December 2021 got a lot of attention, and most people were on her side as she described her situation.
“I (22F) and my bf (25M) have been together for about 4 years. We started living together 2 years ago in an apartment and it’s been great! I recently got a new job and make around $80k a year and have been wanting to get out of our apartment and into a house. My bf on the other hand doesn’t have a very good work ethic and has had about 8 different jobs in the 4 years we have been together, all making minimum wage. I brought up getting a house and he was totally on board with it so we started house hunting.
I have enough in my savings for a down payment and to cover all the closing cost but my boyfriend doesn’t have any saving and lives paycheck to paycheck. We currently split our rent 50/50 and he pays his bills (car payment, insurance, etc.) on his own and I pick up all the groceries, wifi, dog stuff. I’m totally fine with the fact I pick up more expenses since I make more than him and he’s never complained. When we were looking for a house we kept the price range small enough to where I could pay for it alone so we could use his earrings as extra cash. But we agreed to split the mortgage 50/50 (which would be cheaper than our current rent) and I would pay the water, electric, home insurance, etc.
We finally found our dream house and are going to be signing the papers in a couple weeks. I mentioned to him that I would like to be the only name on the home since we are buying it with my savings and we aren’t married and don’t plan to be married anytime soon. He is now upset with me about it bc it’s supposed to be “our house”. I’ve told him that it is OUR house but legally it will just me mine bc I don’t want to put $400k on the line. He said that if it’s just going to be my house that he shouldn’t have to pay to live there. I disagree, it would be like paying rent anywhere else and when/if we get married we will change the agreement. He hasn’t talked to me for 3 days now and I really don’t think I’m in the wrong here. So AITA? ”
One of the top comments supporting the OP stated,
“Any lawyer or fiduciary would say this would be a very dumb move with huge risk to you. OP, if/when you get married, then you can talk to attorneys and figure out how he can buy into the house in a way that takes his previous rent payments into account. I get that he’s upset he won’t have any equity, but that can come later.”
Another commenter added, “Your money, your house. What if you break up? He could force you to sell and give you half, I think. He doesn’t put any money in, so he doesn’t get ownership. Stand your ground on this and protect yourself.”
Most of the people reading her post told the OP that she definitely did the right thing and that her boyfriend was expecting too much without paying anything for their house. Some have even gone as far as to point out signs of his behavior and encourage the OP to reevaluate whether she wants to continue the relationship with the man.
Source: apost.com, reddit.com, newsweek.com
