Protect my money house purchase

[Susanna85]

Hello. Looking for advice.

DH& I are moving to a larger house. We wouldn't have been able to afford it without a lot of financial help from my parents, who are putting money towards the new property. They are gifting part of it to myself and DH, but want to protect some of it for me, incase of divorce... basically they are giving it to us to use, but want me to have that money if we divorce in future. They don't 100% trust DH as there has previously been infidelity.
Would a post nuptial contract help at all? Is there anything we can do.

House cost: £700k

Mine and DH mortgage:£300k
Gift to us from parents to be split in case of separation: £50k
My parents' money in to help us get the property: £350k

How can we work this out so as the £350k non-gift isn't divided between us if a divorce happens in future.
Thanks for any help.

You need to talk to a conveyancing solicitor. I expect it would have to be drawn up so that your parents retain a £350k share in the property. The other £350k share is between you and DH.

I wouldn't be buying a new house with him though if he's cheated.

i wouldnt either, of course you need to speak to a solicitor and get it done properly

I would ask your parents to seek advice about putting the money in a discretionary trust, the trust then loans to the money to you. They can decide at any time to fully gift it you, but on divorce the money goes back to the trust and would be available to you again in the future.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/howmoneyworks/article-4861064/How-away-money-control-trust.html

Can you set up a tenants in common type contract - which states who owns what? So you own x percent and your DH owns x (much lower) percent. I’d email a solicitor and ask for a half hour telephone consultation to find out your options

We set up a declaration of trust when we bought our house. I had money from previous sale plus money my parents gave us to get the house we wanted. I own 75% he owns 25%. If the worst happens and we break up the trust says all the money I put in comes back to me and the remaining amount when sold is split into those percentages. Cost about £300 through the conveyancing solicitors at the same time as the house purchase.

Tenants in common wouldn't work- ex and I had that but all counted as marital assets to be split in divorce. From above posts sounds like keeping your parents contribution in trust would be the best bet.

Thanks all.

@crazyexornot that's really helpful I will be looking into this. I'm not quite sure yet how a trust is set up.
& Would that work better than a post nuptial agreement?

www.co-oplegalservices.co.uk/media-centre/articles-may-aug-2017/what-does-a-declaration-of-trust-do/

This explains a lot about it.

@Susanna85 - I would also add to the above to make sure that any agreement (Trust, Tenants in Common etc) that you set up is set up in terms of % value of the property NOT ££. Your parents are wanting to protect £350k for you, which is 50% of the property. If you live in the house for several years and at that point it has increased in value to e.g. £800k, then if you've set up the agreement as %, it is now worth £400k (50% of £800k). Of course, the risk is that the property market may slow down and decrease a little (and many people are currently expecting this to happen in the short term), in which case the 50% share could become worth slightly less than £350k.

Unfortunately because you have married him a declaration of trust would be void, the house would be a marital asset and split 50/50 regardless of who contributed what.