Used inheritance to pay towards mortgage, didn't put it in writing

[Sleepflower43]

Used £40k left to me by my parents to pay off half of a joint mortgage last year. The mortgage is in mine and DPs name. I didn't get this officially acknowledged at the time and things aren't too good at the moment.

Is there anyway I can get this amount "ringfenced" so if things do go tits up and house gets sold that sum of money would be mine and not included in division of proceeds of sale? I have all the paperwork, wills and bank statements.

I'm so mad that I didn't do anything at the time. My parents worked so hard all their lives and never got a chance to enjoy retirement, and made me promise that whatever they left me would eventually go to my daughter. The thought that this may not happen is really upsetting, I feel such an idiot.

i thought all money in a marriage was family money and there for the benefit of both people in the marriage? or are all bets off when you think your going to split?

I don't think that would be possible unless your parents will specified that the money was your daughter's. You need a solicitor.

I wasn't married but I had an agreement written up which me and my then partner signed, stating that I would get my percentage of the equity back if we split. He did attempt to fight it when it went tits up but not for long. I think if he wanted to he could have pushed harder for an equal split.

Being married doesn't automatically mean a 50/50 split if you have a pre-existing agreement set up but it may be too late for you, particularly if he's unwilling to sign one now?

Do you have a paper or electronic trail showing the £40k cam from your parents to you?

So currently the legal position is you own the shares you agreed at the start - was that 50/50?

Then the £40k came in. It looks like in a sense you made a gift of at least half of it to your dear partner to whom you are not married when paying off half the outstanding mortgage - lucky him.

If things are going badly and he is very very keen to keep you and will do almost anything to keep you it is possible for him to sign now a different agreement on percentages. However if he hates your guts and cannot wait until you move out then he is not likely to.

So you'd be left with trying to imply some kind of trust for your daughter or something.

It is going to be very hard. Unmarried couples all the time get big bonus or save up or whatever and use that to pay off debt and do not adjust their % shareholdings just because the source was from one side. Indeed often one party earner the huge bonus and the other is at home in that sense earning it or enabling it to be earned and they both feel it's fair the bonus is in that sense shared.

Thanks for all your advice. We have a long overdue solicitors appointment next week to make our wills so I will mention this while we are there. We have already agreed what we want iro of the wills.

He's actually a very decent person and has always known what my parents intended to happen to the money. We've been together a long time, so hopefully we're just having a bit of a blip and everything will sort itself out.

He might agree. Also he probably would prefer the £40k going to his children not subsequent children with another man and not any new partner or husband you have in future so there might be some sense in seeing what the solicitor can do about ear marking that £40k and any amount it increases in proportion to the house going to the children. When my mother died we put her half of my parents' house into the name of we children - my father was happy with and advised to do that (not sure if your estates will be big enough to have to pay 40% IHT on death but worth raising with the solicitor). The downside if say 40k is about 33.3% of the house value and you put 40% of the house for the children is that when you sell the house there might be capital gains tax on that although if they live at home probably not (in our case we were adult and left home so it was an issue).

So in other words if the £40k is say a third you transfer the house into the names - you, partner and the children. you can also nominate trustees in case you die before children a4re 18. A friend of mine's wife dying of cancer did not want her husband (!!) managing her half of the estate as she wanted it spent on school fees and she worried he'd change views on that after she died so her half went to their children with her mother and sister managing it - not to her husband.

Do you own the house as joint tenants or as tenants in common?

It is not too late to change from a joint tenancy ie. Equal shares to a tenancy in common where you state the share you each own in a legal document and this is noted at the Land Registry. If currently a joint tenancy the other share would pass to the other if you died under a tenancy in common the share passes according to your will. If you are on good terms with DP then this could all be dealt with in the context of the wills appointment with the solicitor.

Why did you pay the mortgage down of it was meant for your daughter? Did you agree to sell and downsize at some point and give it to her then? You could have invested it to keep it safe?

Yes very important to check if currently held as joint tenants or tenants in common and the percentage you hold each now. If it's 50/50 joint tenants now you might want to sever the joint tenancy which you can do without hi consent which means you can leave your existing percentage to whoever you want although that does not get over the issue of persuading him to change the % you each hold.

I can see why putting money into the house would benefit the Op'S DD 'eventually'. Presumably her Mum meant use it wisely and leave your own Dd an inheritance in turn.

I wouldn't be putting it in a trust in DD's name at this stage, as in Jilly's solution: you may well need it for a house in the future. And suppose you do have more children, with another man? Your mother can't have meant you to leave an inheritance to one of your own children and not others! It could cause awful upset!