Will a Declaration of Trust suffice?

[hatsoff234]

Hi there, I wonder if anyone can advise. For various reasons, my marital home is in my name but the mortgage is in the names of both me and my husband.

We're now looking at doing our wills (blended family) and I'd like to "give" my husband 30% of the house to reflect his payments over the years. Then we can each will our respective portion to our own children.

I can't seem to find the answer to this question from conversation with a lawyer, as they're keen to sell us the Declaration of Trust and will-writing but have said they're not tax accountants.

Will a Declaration of Trust suffice to change the ownership, or do we need to do a formal Change of Ownership with the mortgage company and get my husbands name on the Deeds as Tenants in Common with differing percentages? If the former, i guess we will also still have to pay SDLT to reflect the proportion of the property value that I'm giving to my husband? Or is that not the case?

Thank you

I think you are confusing the house ownership with the mortgage. Mortgage companies like the mortgage holders to match the deeds but as they are both of you on the mortgage they have 2 parties to chase for the debt.

if there is a descrepancy and on the deeds you own solely and your changing the deeds to reflect your husband then the house ownership can be changed to tennants in common with a deed of trust enacted on the same day with the change at land registry. Or merely added as joint tenant so if either of you die the surviour owns 100%.

He is already on the mortgage so unlikely the mortgage company would block iany change. And yes depending on the transfer of equity SDLT may be payable although if the house is both your sole residency (neither of you own others it is unlikely you will be charged). As you are married though if you seperate marital assets are usually classed as joint so you would need legal advice if you are thinking of protecting your share of the property in your will for your children it is more common to split the house into 50/50, giving your husband a life time interest in it if you pre decease him. If you are considering this because of will writing company please be careful they are not regulated in the same way as solicitors.

H there
Thanks very much for taking the time to reply.

Yes that is correct: the deeds are in my name only but we have a joint mortgage.

So are you saying that I'd need to add husband to the deeds as well as have a Declaration of Trust? Or will just a Declaration of Trust suffice but the house remain in my sole possession ownership as far as the Deeds are concerned?

Many thanks.

I'd rather not go through the hassle of actually adding him to the Deeds if just a DoT would be enough legally for us to write our wills leaving our proportion of the house to our respective children.

im not a qualified solicitor but the deed of trust should reflect the deeds (land registry) as otherwise it’s worthless if you are doing a deed of trust then this implies you are amending to tennants in common as such it is normal to add a restriction to the deeds at the time of the deed of trust is signed by all parties . if you are asking the solicitors to write a deed of trust won’t they be carrying out instructions to change the land registry as part of the change of equity. I am not sure why you think a deed of trust alone would be sufficient. I’m surprised if you asked a solicitor they haven’t explained the process

I'm not a solicitor so do check this but I'd have thought that for now, dividing up the house ownership so you are tenants in common as opposed to joint tenants, cements the position regarding the division between you. Please do talk to a solicitor though, will writers aren't trained in wider legal matters, I'm not disparaging them but as another poster has said, they're also not regulated.

That all makes perfect sense and I will speak to another lawyer. Very many thanks again for taking the time to reply.