Gift or a loan

[mowbraygirl]

My DD has separated from her husband and is planning to buy out her husbands share of the house which she can afford. The building society have verbally agreed to it just needs to look at and do all the paperwork.

The mortgage is an endowment one and since she left the house DD has been paying the mortgage plus the endowment. She only moved out as a last resort as her ExDH was self employed and his business was registered at their home address and according to him couldn't be changed without a lot of expense. About 6 weeks after she moved out he sold the business to another company and now works for them.

Throughout their marriage DD has always worked except for maternity leave and has always earned much more than him so has always contributed a lot more to the family pot. They have two DD's who spend 50% of time with both parents.

About 6 years ago her ExDH's father gave them quite a large sum of money to pay off some of their mortgage he gave the same to his daughter it was suppose to be a gift I saw the letter he wrote and it said as much as he was fed up of the HMRC getting his money. Over the years we have also given them money i.e. when my father died and I inherited money gave the same to our DS and other sums and also DH's cousin died and DD inherited from her as far as we were concerned these were gifts and in total were more than half of what he gave . Now DD and his DS have separated FIL is saying he wants all the money back from DD. He is then planning to give it back to his son to enable him to buy another property. If she doesn't agree to that her ExDH has told her he won't agree to the sale, he can't afford to keep the house on his salary so don't know what he is going to do. FIL has apparently said he wouldn't agree to half the money back i.e. DD's share it must be all of it

We have said he can't do that as it was a gift to them both and if it was a loan should have signed paperwork to the effect. She is due to see a solicitor appointed by the building society in a couple of weeks and she will ask her if they can do this but in the meantime we were wondering if anyone else has been in the same position and had a good outcome or could give advice. I said to DH maybe we should ask ExSIL for have the money that has come from our family.

[ivykaty44]

I would seek advice from a solicitor

My friend divorced and her father wanted his money back from house, it wasn't possible as they were told s gift was a gift and the divorce finances were between the couple not anyone else.

Therefore my friends ex got to keep his share of the money as it was a gift

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

Keep out of it. And no, unless there is a loan agreement clearly showing it was a loan not a gift and he's declared it as a gift to hmec that's tough titties fil.

And if you've posted multiple threads get all but one deleted and if you've posted without your dd's permission I suggest you delete the lot.

[Viviennemary]

If it's a loan they would need a signed agreement. I heard this on Judge Rinder so it must be right. It does seem unfair when assets are split in half after the breakdown of a marraige if one person has contributed significantly more financially than the other. But it's not fairness that matters it's the laws governing this. Which is why you won't get anything solved without legal advice.

I think he would have to agree to a sale. The only time I've heard of the proceeds from the sale of a home couldn't be sold and split was in the case of a working farm and farmhouse.

[Namechanger2015]

I have similar issues in my divorce - FIL gifted us £100k towards our house, stbx is now claiming this was a loan from FIL and not a gift.

My sols have asked to see loan agreement document plus bank account statements showing regular repayment of the loan back to his dad. Sol has advised that if he can't show this to provide its a loan, then courts will consider it a gift. Very common occurrence in divorce financial proceedings apparently.

[Namechanger2015]

One that that puzzles/worries me - wouldn't the person just falsify a loan agreement with their parent and then back-date it to cover their tracks? Eg by saying its a loan but you don't have to start paying me back until the year 2020 or something?

[MidniteScribbler]

I imagine that courts are probably pretty used to seeing forged documents such as that, and since the exDIL never signed it, then it would be pretty suspicious.

[Namechanger2015]

Good point re DILs signature.

I'm hoping the same stands for my ex. He has already falsified one document which my sol laughed at, as it was so badly done.

Courts must see his happening all the time and just think 'oh no, not another one'.

[mowbraygirl]

You have all confirmed what we thought. Thanks everyone.

Will be careful in future of letting DGS aged 3 on the computer when he has jelly baby in his hand he somehow gummed up one of the keys hence all the threads.