If you are married
People who take out a mortgage loan together with a view to buying a home must take into account:
- Joint and several liability
- Joint ownership
Without going into legal details, this means that each co-borrower is required to repay the entire amount borrowed together. These principles can lead to extreme situations, especially if one of the co-borrowers does not have the money or if he suddenly disappears into thin air. The other spouse will then be required to pay the monthly payments alone.
Married couples are protected by the family home protection principle. This principle has the consequence in particular that one of the spouses cannot, for example, decide alone to sell or rent out the family home without the consent of the other.
You are legal cohabitants
Joint and several liability and indivisibility also apply to the purchase of a home by legal cohabitants. Moreover, just as for married couples, the principle of protection of family housing applies to legal cohabitants.
You are de facto cohabitants
De facto cohabitants can buy real estate together. They will then be bound by the joint liability and indivisibility clauses seen above.
But there is no family home protection . In other words, if one of the partners dies, the other cannot insist on continuing to live in this accommodation.
If you bought this accommodation with your partner, then you own your share but your partner's share goes to his legal heirs (children, parents, etc.). They can ask for the house to be sold to receive their share of the inheritance. De facto cohabitants are therefore not protected and (without notarial action) inherit nothing.
If you want to avoid being faced with such a situation, consult a notary. This will show you how to fix this problem.
Good to know
De facto cohabitants do not benefit from the protection of the family home.
What is the growth clause
An accretion clause is an agreement between two or more people who together buy or own real estate such as an apartment or a house.
By this clause, the parties agree that the share of the first deceased will go to the survivor(s).
Example
A de facto cohabiting couple can stipulate that if one spouse dies, the other inherits full ownership of the home they purchased together.
Since it is not known in advance who will die first, it is a random contract . The survivor could also have died first. It is for this reason that it is not necessary to pay inheritance tax but registration for the acquisition on the part of the deceased.
If the chances of survival are considered unequal between the partners, such an increase clause can be considered as a gift. This may be the case in particular for couples with a strong age difference.
The increase clause can only be broken with the agreement of all the parties concerned. It can never be broken unilaterally. This means that a person who bought their home with an accretion clause can never again decide unilaterally to bequeath their share of the home as an inheritance to a person other than the one with whom they bought the home.