My property, building together

Ask yourselves the question, what would it look like if you separated?
- Who has the children
- Who would stay here or even move away

These two points have nothing to do with the house.

My suggestion: First get married, then sign contracts. Because
- Better exemption limits for gifts
- Assets that you brought into the marriage are not added to the accrued gains community. You get them back after the divorce (credited). Note: Increases in the value of the property after the marriage are considered accrued gains and are split equally.
- Prenuptial agreement that regulates the sale of the house and the handling of the loan in the event of divorce. What happens with the children cannot be regulated. It is contrary to public policy. The contract does not have to include separation of property.

A romantic wedding can be celebrated later. Divorce is always unpleasant, but in case of emergency, it would be financially more advantageous from your point of view than giving away €125,000 or something similar now.

Is your creditworthiness sufficient for you to finance alone?

Debts 100% yours
Land registry 100% yours
Ongoing costs shared by both

Possibly a loan between you two with a proper contract

Our house was our baby. That’s why we quickly got married. If I were you, I would consult a lawyer. Even in case of death, many things need to be arranged. Because what if you die? Then your parents inherit 2/3 and half of the debts, and they are stuck with the loan and a house on someone else’s land. All this only causes disputes.

We are facing exactly the same problem, have an appointment on Thursday to get advice on this topic. My idea (I don’t know if it is legal and feasible) To avoid taxes, for example, one could grant a private loan. For the other problems, one would need a contract about what happens with the house and who gets paid out how. I will gladly get back to you after our consultation appointment, it would be nice if you also keep us updated on what you are doing.

Best regards, me

The bank would not have granted us a loan if my husband (then partner) had not appeared as a borrower and had not been listed in the land register. We only received the loan once the land registry entry was completed – and by then we were already married. So I would generally clarify that first.

Then we were like Yvonne: the house is our joint baby, even though I brought the land with me. I couldn’t have built the house alone. Therefore, I think it’s only fair that my husband is also listed in the land register.

In the end, we really only got married because of the house – because it simply offers better legal protection for both parties, for example in the event of death. But we had already basically decided to stay together by deciding to build a house together. Otherwise, that decision would have been a bad one.

For us, the whole thing was a bit more complicated because part of the land still belonged to my brother. We handled everything through a gift, but now the land belongs to us and roughly in the same shares as we finance the house including the land (so I have a significantly larger share). Beyond that, we will also protect ourselves with mutual life insurance policies and, in case of separation, a marriage contract.

What would never have worked for me: my husband pays along but is not listed in the land register (if the bank had been generally okay with that), that’s simply not fair. Then the loan contract would have had to be in my name alone and he would have had to pay at most half of a fictitious rent. We would have received significantly worse conditions from the bank, if I had even been able to finance alone at all, as I’m already over 50 and our contract runs for 20 years.

Married
I brought the property with me
Loan 100% my husband
Land register 100% my husband
All decisions about the house were made together - it is ours. It is the best decision if we are happy and satisfied together until the end of all days.

If it does not come to that, then [Ehevertrag], [Testament], [Risiko-LV]
Whether [Ehevertrag] or contract between partners, there must be an arrangement in case of separation or death. The increase in value can also become a problem.