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.

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.

Or don't you?

Particularly in the house buying world, some people are now teaming up with friends.

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.

There's just one issue; buying a house is a major commitment, even for those in a romantic relationship.

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.

That means there are a couple of legal considerations you need to be aware of first.

For the latest Cooking the Books podcast I talked to Joanna Pidgeon from Pidgeon Law.

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.

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 https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/ Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook