What kind of solicitor or legal document do DP and I need to draw up please?

[NaiveBean]

I know there are some legal bods on here and if any of you could point me and DP in the right direction we'd be very grateful. DP and I live together in his house, which through much hard work he has paid off in full, just before I moved in. We have no DCs, although are likely to get married one day and have children.

I have enough savings for a small house deposit. However, we don't want to move from the security of his home but do need an extension. He used all his savings paying off the last of his mortgage and I want to invest my money somewhere so we're planning for me to pay for the extension if there's a legal way of protecting my lump investment plus a relevant proportion of the value increase over time. Neither of us mind what that looks like as an exact percentage as long as it's fair and are happy to be advised but don't know what kind of solicitor would draw up such an agreement or be able to advise on a fair proportion. We are getting the house valued before and after the building work.

Do these agreements exist, are they legally binding and what kind of solicitor would we need please? Thanks for any help you can provide.

You need someone who can do property as a starting (tenants in common would probably be the easiest way of managing the different shares in the outset) but a property solicitor who can also do deeds of trust would be the best way forward to cover the increasing share over time.

The law society has a find solicitor service which you can search by area, and then google any suitable names which come up for reviews.

My partner and I did something similar when we bought. We worked out the percentage each owned and became tenants in common and had deeds of trust drawn up by our conveyancing solicitor. It was all pretty simple but have since been told that when we marry/have kids then they might not be so binding.

Thanks both very much for your replies. I'll look at the law society website. The conversion will add a third bedroom and therefore almost instantly add more to the value than I've paid in (but it will all be the result of my money, not general price increase). Do you know whether there is a convention here about value as well? DP seems uneasy that I could have my lump sum + house increase solely related to the third bedroom + share of increase in price from then on/over time related to proportion of our home I own (tiny!). His suggestion has been lump sum + share of increase in price from then on/over time related to proportion of our home, without taking increase in value due to third bedroom into account.

I'm not sure if there's a convention but we just discussed what we thought was fair. We ended up deciding that a 70/30 split of the overall value was a fair representation of our input. We had a fantastic solicitor who guided us through everything.

As you're not married, would you not consider keeping your money separate, with him raising a mortgage for the extension and you buying a buy to let?

When you get married the trust deed will be a mere footnote in history. I'd not bother if you're going to get married before the money gets spent.

Just get married . If your at that point in your relationship, where you are happy to throw your 'lot' in with his 'lot'. Mid-week marriage with ALL the paperwork in registry office is £115. - A lot creeper than 'lawyers' contracts. If he doesn't want to marry you yet, then you shouldn't be spending your savings on his property. If you don't want to marry him yet, then he shouldn't be allowing you to add to his paid for property. Simples !

Freudian slip...creeper=cheaper

If I were advising the husband I'd say don't oput you on the deeds at all or take the money for the extension or at least not until after the wedding. If I were advising you I'd say try to get as high a % as possible - perhaps even 50./50 if you're about to get married anyway and willb e together for life and just own in joint names. There are no right or wrong answers but you do need a property solicitor who does property trust agreements. Quite a few people also draw up a cohabitation agreement dealing with things like who pays the bills and whta happens if one of you wants to sell but the other does not - usually it allows one side to force a asle even if the other joint owner does not want it. You should think about what if one of you dies too and if you aren't married you might want to use this chance when seeing a solicitors to have wills drawn up as well.

Oh dear, this doesn't sound great. Would he really be so mean and petty minded if he was intending to commit to marriage, with all the melding of assets that that involves? I think I'd hold off from putting any money into his house until after marriage. Respect to you for not letting him take you for a ride.

Thanks for all your replies. We have only recently moved in with each other so whilst we are both thinking about getting married one day we're nowhere near the 'nip down the registry office' stage. Even before Friday's economic crash it still seemed like a more sure option to put my savings towards an existing house (properly protected) than to take a bet on the property market.