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House ownership

2 replies

noitsnot · 17/11/2021 11:05

When I got together with DH we put a different percentage towards buying a house together (him owning more). Now we are married do I own half of it automatically or do we need to change the deeds to state this?

OP posts:
Sparkle123r · 17/11/2021 11:29

Did you sign anything at the time to say that your OH would get x amount back in the event of a split to prevent him losing his larger down payment? If not its likely you would split proceeds. You possibly need legal advice.

Cocomarine · 21/11/2021 10:20

@noitsnot what did you actually do when you bought the house? Just because one party put in more money than the other would be no reason for it not to already in owned as Joint Tenants. Which doesn’t mean you own half each, in means you both own all of it, as a couple.

More likely you own it as Tenants in Common, with unequal shares.

Absolutely nothing happens to those legal contracts just because you got married - you each still only own whatever share you already agreed.

Throughout your marriage and on death, that split persists. In fact, in later years it’s not unusual for couples to sever a Joint Tenancy in favour of Tenants in Common, for inheritance and care cost purposes.

Marriage doesn’t by default move part of the share that he paid for and owned to you.

What marriage does, is regardless of the share held by each as Tenants in Common, is allow both the shares to be considered in financial negotiations on divorce.

If you want to move to Joint Tenants or Tenants in Common on a 50/50 share basis, a solicitor can easily do that for you. You can do it yourself, but given the high value of properties and you’re asking questions on MN - pay the solicitor.

Incidentally - if I was the higher % owner of a Tenants in Common contract, I wouldn’t change it just because I was married.

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