Help! How to split ownership of house?

[Brown76]

I'm buying a house with DP. We have two children. Not married. I'm putting in 300k deposit from sale of my flat and then we were going to split the expenses 50/50.

Our solicitor has suggested writing up a deed of trust and that if we split I take back my deposit and we split any other equity 50/50. Alternatively we could split the equity based on our contributions, meaning I'd get around 80% of the equity.

We are in London and property prices have shot up (30% in the last 12 months), if this happened again and we separated I'd not be able to afford to buy another property or buy out DP share because my deposit would not have increased in line with the price of the property.

Has anyone had any experience of this?

On the one hand I don't want to be grabby and want us to share our finances/life together, but on the other I'm wary having seen some horrible break ups and given we aren't married I don't have much 'protection'.

Our deed of trust is for a % of the property, not the ££ value, so as the value of the property increases, the % of the deed of trust remains constant. If your £300k is say 50% equity, then you have the deed of trust state you get the initial 50% then all other proceeds would be split 50/50. :)

I would also go for % equity split. You're investing a hell of a lot of money, you should protect that as an investment.

Thanks for your thoughts! The deposit is 60% plus I'm paying half the mortgaged bit so 'buying' 80%. But then I guess I should pay for 80% of the upkeep of the house too, to be fair.

No, a % seems a perfectly fair way to proceed.

So if you split, youd get the first 60% of the current value at that time. Then any remaining equity would be split between you both, once the mortgage balance is deducted. Just make sure you pay half mortgage and bills, to ensure you protect your share of future equity.