Establishing housing payments after bk

[lostinmich]

I have been reading up on the requirements of obtaining a mortgage after bk. One of the things mentioned is to establish a paper trail of housing payments since the bk discharge. Here's my question....

I moved in with my girlfriend just after my bk discharge. We keep our money together and pay the bills together. She has a mortgage in her name. How will I generate the required payments since we're paying together?? We have a joint account that is used to make the payments. Can I use that as documentation?

If not, what should I do from now until next year to build up this documentation?

Thanks!

[chpxiii]

This is what I and my boyfriend do. We are not married, live together, share utilities and food.

My boyfriend runs his own business out of our home. Some of our apartment is portioned off for his office space. This is important because he can deduct a percentage of his rent from taxes. He can also deduct a portion of his utility bills from his taxes.

We live together in an apartment. We share 1/2 expenses on everything. I write a check for rent. He then writes *me* a check for his part of rent with his business checks. In the "memo" field at the bottom left of the check he puts "Rent 10/07." (Infact, he JUST gave me a check for this month's rent. :P ) Those checks he writes me are his paper trail of him paying rent. We are both on the lease.

As for utilities, he pays utilities. When we reconcile once a month, I write him a check for my portion of utilities & food. On the memo field of my check I put, "For utilities and food." The utilities are in his name. We have to do this for his business purposes.

Because we share expenses, and he deducts an area of the apartment for his office, we have to keep meticulous notes and a paper trail incase he ever gets audited. We are starting our second year of doing this.

I plan on buying a house in about a year or so. We have our checks as a paper trail not just for his taxes but for me as well.

My suggestion for you, if you want to establish a paper trail and if your girlfriend is amiable to this (I hope she is...this is helping *you* and your finances) is to officially write your girlfriend a check for your part of the rent. Your girlfriend may run into an issue with this in that she may have to pay taxes on receiving "rent" at the end of the year. I realize you're helping her with a mortgage, but what you're also really doing is paying rent and she is having extra income coming in.

Either that or you can write a check to directly deposit the money into the checking account. Your checks could be your paper trail. You will need *something* to show deposits into the checking account.

If I were you, and I realize I am not, is I would keep monies separate. I admit to a bias to this because my boyfriend and I keep our monies separate. It's just simpler, we have our own paper trail with checks we write to each other for accounting, and we can keep our own way of accounting. So far this has worked successfully for well over a year. I realize you guys trust each other and are committed, but one thing to keep in mind is when it comes to money it becomes financial, and, therefore, business. Consider your *self* - when it comes to your money - as a business. You have money coming in - "accounts receiveables", and money going out - "accounts payables." It may seem cold but once I started to take a look at my self and my relationship to my money as a business it really helped to make things clear for me. Same with my boyfriend. Maybe that's why our situation works well for us.

Standard disclaimers apply. Your mileage may vary. Contents may have settled during shipping. etc. etc. Good luck on what you decide to do!

[lostinmich]

That is an excellent idea and plan. Obviously, she may have some tax implications if we do it this way but it's also a great way to show the paper trail. Thanks!