Found out I’m not on a house deeds..

[KindOpalBear]

When we bought the house, our twins were just 4 weeks old and I wasn’t well enough to look into paperwork. I’ve put in £70k my life savings, my partner same £70k and his mother helped us and borrowed us £500k (she basically remortgaged her house to help us). We are paying her loan and our mortgage every month and have been for the last 5 years we’ve been here. Today during an argument my husband shouted that I’m not on the deeds of the house. That shocked me. I’ve paid for title registry on gov.uk and it says the registered owner is him alone, no mention of me. He says that I’m definitely on the deeds but he would need to ask the lawyer to send him documents proving that which will cost £200. Am I being fooled? My heart sunk and I’m just In shock. I feel like him and his mum did this together. Is anyone here who knows legal stuff and can confirm it title registry shows just one person that means I’m not on the deeds?

@Clarabell77

The OP says

“We are paying her loan and our mortgage every month and have been for the last 5 years we’ve been here.”

Im confused why there is a mortgage to be honest when they borrowed so much.

Paying back a 500k loan and a mortgage monthly won’t be an insignificant amount of money.

But there’s a difference between going on the deeds and being on the mortgage, you could still have been on the deeds as an owner.

The law is black and white in the event of death or divorce but right now OP is at risk as he could sell the property or transfer the deeds to his mother without OP having a say or receiving anything. She needs to get her name on the deeds asap.

Well it does if he decides to transfer deeds to his mother or sell the house.

If they did divorce and sold the house would the remainder of the 500k loan have to go back to the mum?

Yes, I know.

An offence 😱
Nobody cares and has no inclination to enforce or punish behaviour.
As for a solicitor requiring signatures - yes if they are told about OP

I'm surprised your solicitor allowed this if you put 70k in? When we bought our house we went through all the paperwork and our solicitor made sure we were crystal clear on ownership, a highly doubt a solicitor would allow this without being suss. If you sign the documents without your solicitor there there needs to be a witness who also signs (we just changed our deeds). Unless he forged your signature I'm not sure why the solicitor dealing with it wouldn't question why you would contribute 50% of the deposit and not be on the deeds? I'd want to get my hands on the documentation to see who witnessed you signing.

Thinking about it, if your mil put 500k in and it is a loan not a gift, you wouldn't be able to borrow very much on a mortgage as the loan repayment commitment would reduce what you can borrow. I don't think mortgage companies allow this anyway as she would have a legal charge on the property. Which leads me to the conclusion she's signed it over as a gift but still expects to be repaid based on trust so they have put the house in your husband's (I'm assuming you are married) name thinking if he is the owner you can't take half (still owing the loan to his mother). If you are married though you could take half on divorce. It sounds dodgy, the mother is actually the person who is most at risk here handing over 500k for no legal charge on the property, I can see why they have done this, but they probably don't realise how risky it was for the mother to do, you could run away with 250k and never have to repay it.

I was surprised too
Yes married for 13 years
Oh that was precisely what I was told to do was to go and rent rather than have the 300 grand house that wasn’t in my name and I had no demonstratable proof that I had handed over £65 grand in my case to the matrimonial pot.
He didn’t remember me doing that
And if I didn’t like that, I could give the child to the ex

@CasuallyConfused I agree & potentially the MIL has really exposed herself particularly as she remortgaged!

You need to register ‘marital home rights’ today. Everything else can wait but get it on there so he can’t take out any extra money against the house

We had a parental cash gift for our home & they had to prove where the money came from (money laundering) & sign a document that it was a gift.

What an arse of a man. Your marriage will never be the same, he will never get the trust back.

Not entirely true. DS was in this position and when her husband died the house was included in the general estate of which she was only bequeathed a percentage. She had no right to the house. This is why people should take professional advice on legal situations.

Yes. There's a lot doesn't add up. The solicitor needs proof of source of funds. How and when was the £70k transferred?

Is there a loan from a bank or building society as well as mother in law's loan? If there is, that lender would insist on OP waiving her rights to stay in the house if the loan were called up and that she had separate legal advice.

Does mother in law have a charge over the house?

Just to make sure, that he is the only person listed on the deeds?

It doesn’t have his mum on too?

My friend is in a similar predicament to you and found out her MIL owns half the house and her husband the other. Her husband and mother planned it this way so in the event of a divorce she only gets 25%

He sold it to her as it strengthening their ability to get a good mortgage deal at the time.

You’re married so you’re still entitled to a claim despite it being in his name.

Make sure you have some evidence that you put £70k in and have been contributing towards the mortgage and loan repayments.

Just in case…

Get legal advice for both the house and a divorce!

Not going to get involved with the legalities of this: just here to say one thing- never, ever completely trust your in-laws.

I thought I got on OK with my (now ex) SIL. Till my twunt of a (now ex) dh called her up during an argument and boy did she relish telling me what she really thought of me.
I was very guarded with her after that. Civil only.
No matter how unreasonable they are being, they'll take their son's, brother's side not your's.
That's usually the case.

Please do the HR1 asap, OP, that will give you protection almost immediately. If he tries to remortgage or anything, you'll be notified before it's approved.

The form's a doddle to do, but a solicitor would charge you a good chunk for doing it.

That will give you time to have a discussion with your husband and ask him what the fuck he was playing at when the sale was going through, and see a solicitor should that be necessary.

This happened to me. I was on the mortgage but not on the deeds (without my knowledge). Unlike you we weren’t married but because I paid into the mortgage I was due half the house when we spilt after 30 years. It cost a lot in litigation fees but was worth it. I managed to get a copy of the mortgage application where my ex had written that I currently wasn’t on the deeds but that he intended to add me. He actually never intended to because he felt that as he put more money in that he should have the whole house and saw my contributions as ‘rent’ for my upkeep…his words. We had 3 kids under 5 but all the unpaid work I did as a Mum and home maker obviously had no value. Nice

His is right @KindOpalBear sompease don’t miss it in the noice of “you’re married so you own half”. If you are not on the register at the land registry you are not legal owner. As the spouse, you are likely to have a right to share in it as a matrimonial asset, but that isn’t automatic and again as you contributed to it you are likely to have a right to claim an interest, but again without proof of contribution and intention ( which if you were poorly I bet you don’t have) that can only be enforced through a court claim.

ASAP register your matrimonial rights in the house. You can do that yourself looking at the land registry website. That stops him mortgaging or selling the house without your consent. DO THAT IMMEDIATELY (sorry to shout) then get some legal advice bout becoming a beneficial owner- if he refuses to do that the relationship would be over for me as he used a vulnerable time to take advantage of you. Good luck.

You are not the legal owner so without legal representation the house could potentially be sold without your knowledge and it could get awfully messy quickly. As pp says register your interest asap. Then tell your husband you want putting on the deeds as shared owner. And get yourself organised first! What a terrible thing to do.
you should have known OP you can’t buy a house without signing any documents.

You must have a record of the movement of 70k from your bank account.

You don’t need to “ask” him to add you to the deeds. just do it yourself.

You seem curiously passive.

As you are married you are entitled to half but you should definitely register your interest. Ido think it’s odd that he didn’t do it originally - it shows that he may be a bit untrustworthy.