What to know before buying a house with friends

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's the good and bad of buying a house with a friend. Hosted by Frances Cook.<br /><br />Money can be particularly difficult when you're flying solo. You don't have the luxury of pooling resources with someone else, buying the same thing for a fraction of the price. <br /><br />Or don't you? <br /><br />Particularly in the house buying world, some people are now teaming up with friends. <br /><br />It's a smart way to get around steep prices - particularly when most houses have more than one bedroom anyway, and you were probably already thinking about a flatmate in order to keep the bills down. <br /><br />There's just one issue; buying a house is a major commitment, even for those in a romantic relationship. <br /><br />For a friendship you want to make sure you do this right, as there's no standard divorce law to help you out if things go sour. <br /><br />That means there are a couple of legal considerations you need to be aware of first. <br /><br />For the latest Cooking the Books podcast I talked to Joanna Pidgeon from Pidgeon Law. <br /><br />We discussed what legal problems can come up, what to put into a contract, and how to vet the person you're thinking about buying with. <br /><br />If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/" rel="noopener">https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/</a> Instagram here <a href="https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/" rel="noopener">https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/</a> and Twitter here <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancesCook" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/FrancesCook</a>