Buying a house with a partner when you're not married means four decisions before completion

Should we buy as joint tenants or tenants in common?

It depends mostly on what you want to happen if one of you dies, because that is where the two forms differ. Joint tenants own the whole together and the survivor takes it all. Tenants in common each own a share, equal or not, that passes under their will. On a sale they work alike.

On a sale: both owners sign the listing, the contract and the transfer, and the proceeds are paid out after the mortgage. Joint tenants are generally treated as sharing the net proceeds equally; tenants in common share by the fractions on title, unless there is evidence of a different intention.

On a split: title is where the analysis starts, not where it ends. If you are not yet spouses, a court looks at title and at what each of you actually put in, and either of you can ask for the home to be sold under the Partition of Property Act. If you are spouses, the Family Law Act generally sets title aside and divides the home as family property. Either way, a written agreement carries more weight than the form of title.

On a death: here the choice decides the outcome. With a joint tenancy, the survivor registers the death and becomes sole owner; the home isn't part of the estate and the will doesn't reach it. With a tenancy in common, the share belongs to the estate and goes where the will says, which may be to the surviving partner, or to children or parents.

On the title itself: a BC title shows joint tenants expressly. If two owners are registered without that wording, the law treats them as tenants in common. Unequal shares are stated as fractions beside each name. The conveyancing lawyer needs these instructions before the transfer is drafted.

One of us is putting in more money. How do we protect that?

There are two ways, often used together. You can register unequal shares as tenants in common, so title shows who owns what. Or you can take title equally and sign a cohabitation agreement recording the extra contribution and how it comes back. Title alone may not hold once the family property rules apply, so the agreement usually matters more.

Unequal shares on title are simple and visible, but fixed. They don't change if one of you later pays more of the mortgage or funds a renovation, and once you are spouses the Family Law Act generally divides family property equally whatever the fractions say.

Money one partner had before the relationship can be excluded property, but once it has gone into a home you own together, whether it is still excluded can be disputed. An agreement that states the amount, says whether it is repaid first on a sale or split, and says whether it rises and falls with the home's value takes that argument away.

Parents' money needs its own paper. If a parent is giving money to one of you, a letter stating that it is a gift to that partner alone, not to both, helps it stay excluded property later. Lenders often ask for a gift letter anyway, but theirs usually only confirms the money isn't a loan. If the parents expect repayment, it is a loan and should be documented as one, with terms, sometimes secured by a registered mortgage. Your agreement then says which of you carries that debt.

When do BC's family property rules start to apply to us?

When you become spouses under the Family Law Act, which for an unmarried couple generally means two years of living together in a marriage-like relationship. Marrying makes you spouses at once. After that, a separation divides family property, including the home, under Part 5, so anything you meant to keep separate needs an agreement.

The two years run from when you began living in a marriage-like relationship, which may be before or after the purchase. Nothing is registered, and the start date is a question of fact: shared finances, how you present yourselves, whether you share a home. Couples who moved in gradually can disagree about it later, so a cohabitation agreement often records the date.

When you do qualify, the relationship's start date matters too. Property each of you owned before it began is generally excluded; property acquired during it, including a home bought together after moving in, is family property. So a home bought early in the relationship becomes family property to divide if you later qualify as spouses and then separate.

Other rules change on the same date. For inheritance, WESA uses a similar two-year test, so a surviving partner gains rights on intestacy and the right to ask a court to vary a will. Support duties under the Family Law Act can start sooner, for example if you have a child together. And the limitation period for a property claim runs from the date of separation.

What should a cohabitation agreement say about the house?

It should record what each of you put into the purchase, how any rise in value is shared, who pays the mortgage and other costs, and what happens on a split, including a buyout method. It should also say whether it survives a marriage, and it has to meet the Family Law Act's formal requirements to hold up.

Contributions and growth: the down payment each of you made, and whether each is repaid first or simply sets each person's share. Say whether a contribution is a fixed sum or a share that moves with the home's value. Then the running costs: whether mortgage payments are assumed to be equal, how unequal payments are credited, and how a renovation one of you pays for counts.

A split: whether either of you can require a sale, whether one has the first right to buy the other out, how the price is set (one appraisal, or the average of two), and how long the buyer has to arrange financing. A death: how the agreement fits the title, for example a tenancy in common share left to the partner for life. A marriage: whether the agreement carries on as a marriage agreement or ends.

Form: an agreement dividing property should be in writing, signed by both of you, with each signature witnessed. A court can set aside or replace one that is significantly unfair, looking at things like whether either of you hid property or debts, took advantage of the other, or didn't understand what you signed. Full financial disclosure and separate legal advice for each partner make those arguments much harder to run.

What happens to the house if one of us dies?

With a joint tenancy, the survivor becomes sole owner outside the will. With a tenancy in common, the deceased's share passes under their will, or under the intestacy rules if there is none, and a partner who isn't yet a spouse gets nothing that way. A partner who is a spouse can also ask a court to vary the will.

Joint tenancy keeps the house out of the estate, but it can override other wishes. If one partner meant their contribution to go to children from an earlier relationship, or back to the parents who funded it, a joint tenancy sends it to the survivor regardless. That is the case for a tenancy in common paired with wills.

Under a tenancy in common with no will, the share goes to the deceased's relatives under Part 3 of WESA. For a couple who aren't yet spouses, that can leave the survivor co-owning the home with the deceased's parents or siblings, who may want it sold.

Once you are spouses, a surviving partner who is left out, or left too little, can apply under section 60 of WESA to vary the will, within 180 days of the grant of probate. A will that leaves your share elsewhere should explain why. The mortgage doesn't disappear on a death either: the surviving borrower remains responsible for all of it, which is what life or mortgage insurance is there to cover.

Do we both have to be on the mortgage?

Usually, if you are both on title. Lenders generally require every registered owner to sign the mortgage, because it charges the whole home, and each borrower is then responsible for the full debt, not half of it. Depending on the lender, a partner whose income isn't needed to qualify may sign as a guarantor instead.

Full liability means the lender can pursue either of you for the whole balance. If you split up and one of you stops paying, the other has to keep the loan current to protect their credit and the home. A cohabitation agreement can say who pays what between the two of you, but it doesn't bind the lender.

Property transfer tax: if only one of you qualifies for the first-time home buyer exemption, it is generally applied only to the share that buyer acquires, and the other share is taxed. The exemption's conditions change from time to time, so check the current rules before you settle on shares.

Buying a presale adds a timing point. The contract is signed long before completion, and the names on it affect who can take title, so settle the title question when you sign the contract, not when the building is finished.

What should we sign, and when, before completion?

Sign the cohabitation agreement before completion, with each of you advised by your own lawyer. Give the conveyancing lawyer your title instructions, joint tenancy or tenancy in common and the shares, before the transfer is prepared. Then sign wills that fit the title and the agreement, with enduring powers of attorney, soon after you get the keys.

An agreement signed before completion, while the money is going in, is the clearest record of who contributed what. Signing one years later is possible, but memories differ and the evidence is harder to gather. Leave enough time before completion for two lawyers to review a draft; an agreement rushed through the day before is easier to attack.

The Family Law Act doesn't strictly require each partner to have a separate lawyer, but a court reviewing fairness will ask whether each of you understood what you were signing, and separate advice is the usual answer. The lawyer handling the purchase is acting on the conveyance, which is a different piece of work from advising either of you on the agreement.

Then the wills. Each should fit the title: a joint tenant's will doesn't control the home, so it deals with everything else and with both of you dying together. A tenant in common's will says where their share goes. Add enduring powers of attorney, so that if one of you loses capacity, someone can sign for that partner's share if the home has to be sold or refinanced.