House and deed of trust

[dietstartsmonday]

Hi after some advice as my solicitor doesn't appear be interested.

Just bought a house with my partner and we are joint tenants.
We are planning to marry next year.

We have discussed a deed of trust as he put more in that me, but we only want it to stand for 10 years after that we are happy for 50/50 if anything goes wrong

so is this possible?

Depends on marriage. If you never marry then yes it can work. if you do marry and then divorce the court can tear up any such agreement and will award assets based on needs and other factors whoever's name things are in.

ok thanks.

It seems a bit pointless to me to pay for it. Would it hold any weight if written by us.

All we want it to say out of the £75K deposit £10k is mine £65K is his. equity the will be split 50/50.

Like you say if we marry next year as we intend to may be worthless anyway!

our solicitor rolled this into the cost of conveyancing (along with wills)

it may still be worth getting it drawn up because you don't know what might happen between now and your wedding

my solicitor refused when we bought and I really don't want to go back to her as she messed up my purchase, nearly lost it due to her sitting on paperwork.

I will speak to a couple of local solicitors and get some quotes

thanks

I am not a lawyer so please check this but when I had my Deed of Trust drawn up many many years ago we were informed that we could either hold the house as joint tenants, which mean we own it in equal shares regardless of who pays for what, or we could hold it as tenants in common and split the asset into different amounts, and I hold say 70%, partner hold 30%. The way we got to the % split was based on who put in what into initial capital plus the contributions we intended to make to mortgage - but that it was not a case where would could say i'll have the first £x then you get what's left. So your case if you put in 13% of deposit but pay 50% ongoing towards the mortgage then that might equate overall to say a 25% share in the house then you would hold as tenants in common with a 25% share.

If you marry and have children then this will be ignored as courts will look at needs of each partner and divide based on childrens needs, whether one party has sacrificed earning potential and pension etc to raise children of the marriage. If you didn't have children it is likely that courts would look to the trust as a guiding principle but could dismiss it depending on your circumstances.

As it gives him a lot more than you and will be irrelevant when you marry next year it is not really in your interests to get this done.

After you're married a prenuptial agreement will be much more of use to you both. Must be entered in to well before the wedding though, and will be more expensive (both need own lawyer) than a deed of trust.

Thanks all.

So my solicitor was fully aware we wanted a deed of trust ad never advised me we should be tenants in common for that.
We went for joint tenants as unmarried and wanted house to stay with us if the other one dies, rather than next of kin, as currently no wills.

jane no its not really in my interest, but I want to ensure he is protected, although I would never fight for what was his anyway. I walked away from a house many years ago just to get out of the relationship.

So to me I need to changed to tenants in common, do deed of trust and then really write wills as well. And look at pre-nup before marriage.

The costs have gone right up, because my solicitor failed to advise me correctly.

Thank you all for your input, good to hear what we can and can't do.

And bear in mind pre nups are not necessarily binding in English law even if you both have your own solicitors and enter into it well before the marriage with full disclosure. So if you chose later to be mean when he abandons you with 3 children under 4 you might well be able to tear up any prenup and get the whole of the equity in the house whatever you both agree now.

I think the law on that changed a few months ago Jane

Pre nips may be looked at now, but a judge can I believe ignore them.

Nups not nips!

jane that won't happen my lot are teenagers and we won't be having any more!

I wouldn't ever want his part of the deposit. just what I put I and 50% of the equity. We both agree that fair.

We have decided to just do a pre-nup and get married, as its already being planned.

How far in advance can a pre-nup be done?

Pre nup must be signed at least 3 weeks before the wedding. You should think about wills which can be written in contemplation of marriage, but still remain valid if you never tie the knot.

that's a good point.

I am annoyed my solicitor didn't advise me correctly as we are now just doing what we can to protect him.

How important are wills if we are joint tenants and the house is the main asset?
I also have separate life insurance written into trust for my children.

thanks

If you are joint tenants and one person dies, their share automatically passes to the survivor. They can do what they like with it, and are under no obligation to pass it on to your children.

If you're tenants in common, I normally advise my clients in your type of situation to make life interest trusts which ensure that although the survivor of you can carry on living in the house/downsize/move with the trust being portable, when they die or marry someone else, the first person's share will go to their children.

It's very easy to convert from joint tenants to tenants in common.

I have an article on my website about it if you're interested. PM me if you'd like the link.