Cohabiting couple.

It’s surely the unsexiest way of referring to living with your other half. Second possibly only to ‘living in sin’ – but even that has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it?

And sure, you might be perfectly happy in your unwedded bliss – but you do need to consider certain ramifications when it comes to tax.

So, you've lived in your parents' box room for 18 months, scrimped and saved, and finally have the deposit in your bank.

You've found a gaff you want to buy, been mortgage approved, and just went sale agreed.

Exciting times ahead!

But before you start planning trips to IKEA, there's an important reality check we need to discuss:

What happens if you get sick and can't work?

Yeah, I know; sorry to put a downer on things, but the next few sentences are the most important ones you will read today.

When you're buying a house, there's an awful lot of high-falutin bullshit to wade through.

Plenty of terms that the average Joe just don't know.

So to help you survive the onslaught, we've created a Mortgage Bullshit Buster, or MBB if you will.

Without further ado.

Have you had the talk?

No, not the one about the birds and the bees.

The talk....with yer man/wan from the bank.

The talk...where they corner you in a dimly lit room and put the squeeze on until you say no more and sign up for the policy they're hustling.

If you haven't had the talk yet, count yourself lucky you found this page.

If you have survived the talk without signing up, then you, my friend, are a legend. ?

But, don't worry if you did crumble - you have a cooling-off period of 30 days where you can cancel and get your money back. And even after the 30 days, you can cancel at any time and switch to a better policy.

Once upon a time, Ireland’s entire housing market descended into a massive ball of fire.

I’m sure you’re familiar with it.

One of the things that fell away, alongside property prices (now rising meteorically again) was the habit of switching mortgages.

But they're back, baby.

You're almost there.

The bank has eventually given you mortgage approval.

You've found your dream home.

The vendor has accepted your offer.

Now all you need to do is meet with your bank and buy their mortgage protection, right?

Need mortgage protection quickly?

You've come to the right place.

We discuss how quickly you can get mortgage protection and what will delay the process.

Finding a reliable solicitor in Ireland isn't an easy job.

It's like searching for a needle in a haystack, blindfolded, wearing boxing gloves.

Don't get me wrong, there's a rake of solicitors out there who have your best interests at heart and treat you like an actual person instead of billable hours, but it's not easy and can be pretty overwhelming.

So we've done the heavy lifting for you and made a list!

You should apply for mortgage protection as soon as you go sale agreed.

You should issue your mortgage protection policy before you sign binding contracts.

This is the only way to avoid the heartache of not being able to buy your home due to an unexpected health issue.

You finally did it - you bought life insurance.

You head out for lunch, feeling like an official grown up, having done the right thing and applied for life insurance online

And you did it on company time!

Double win.

You take your phone out of your pocket to call your partner with the good news (they've been at you for ages to get your  life insurance sorted)

No reply.

You look down at your phone to redial, stumble onto the road and...