How would you have split the house ownership?

autumnalrain · 07/04/2021 16:18

Depends on the length of the marriage and if kids are involved

workshy44 · 07/04/2021 16:23

So you are buying a house while married ? If that is the case it doesn't matter, starting point upon divorce is 50:50

GOODCAT · 07/04/2021 16:28

Are you buying now or have you already bought?

If the former, don't buy while you are having issues. If you do buy and later split up, it may not matter much what the ownership shares are on a divorce, unless your agreement amounts to a post-nuptial agreement or you are particularly wealthy.

If the latter, you will already have determined how you own it.

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 07/04/2021 16:32

I would consider the house 50:50 in marriage.

category12 · 07/04/2021 17:04

To me, fair would be that you'd both get your deposits back first, and then divide anything profits from the sale of the house equally. Assuming no children. If you have children, I'd say that you both need to come out of it able to house and support your dc, and his income is greater so he'd need to give you a greater share to enable that.

To the courts, I don't know. Depends on the length of marriage, children and what you agreed when buying (tenant in common or whatever).

Dacquoise · 07/04/2021 17:11

It's kind of irrelevant depending on the length of the marriage and if you have children. I am assuming you didn't specify this when you bought and it's a joint tenancy. If you were to split he would be arguing for a larger share because of the deposit but a court would look at it based on needs ie can you rehouse yourself and any children from the assets?

BluebellsGreenbells · 07/04/2021 17:14

Normally as a joint asset you’d inherit upon death if not he can leave his share in a will to someone else

I suggest you see a solicitor independently

pog100 · 07/04/2021 17:18

You are married, you are a partnership, what you do, and acquire, during a marriage is joint, historically, morally and legally. As far as I understand it any split of the joint assets after divorce is decided on needs. If you weren't married and no children then morally I think it would be unfair to profit from living with him. So remove your deposits from the equity and divide the rest according to what you have contributed to the mortgage?

Original poster

D3lphine · 07/04/2021 17:27

Sorry my OP wasn't very clear. We put down as joint tenants but he isn't happy with that because of the discrepancies in deposit contribution and the income. We bought before we got married. Not been married that long. I honestly don't know if we will be able to work things out. If we do work things out instead of divorcing I think he wants to change it to tenants in common with different shares. No joint DC, he has 1 from a previous relationship.

OP posts:

Sakurami · 07/04/2021 17:31

If you don't have joint DC and you haven't sacrificed your career for your relationship then the fair thing is to split it according to contribution.

category12 · 07/04/2021 17:33

If you do work things out, would you potentially go on to have children together? I wouldn't change status to your detriment if that's a possibility.

Original poster

D3lphine · 07/04/2021 17:35

@category12

If you do work things out, would you potentially go on to have children together? I wouldn't change status to your detriment if that's a possibility.

Yes definitely.

OP posts:

mindutopia · 07/04/2021 17:45

I would expect 50/50 ish (obviously dependent on whatever assets you have to split otherwise and who the children will live with). I put in significantly more of the deposit than Dh. He earns a bit more than me as he’s self employed so his income varies based on how hard he works. But we’re a team and I see our shared assets as just that. The money for the deposit was acquired while we were married and the house was a joint investment, and I’d expect to share it 50/50 if we were to split. We’re happy and our marriage is a good one, but if we were to split, I’d want us both to come out the other side in equally secure financial positions and both able to provide a suitable home for our dc (which wouldn’t be possible if I took back my 80% of the deposit).

mindutopia · 07/04/2021 17:47

Obviously if you don’t have children and it’s a short marriage, that’s different, but I assume that’s something he really should have considered when he decided to buy and you weren’t married.

Dacquoise · 07/04/2021 17:49

I am not convinced that changing the deeds to tenants in common would ring fence his part of the deposit. Marriage kind of negates all that unless it's a very short childless marriage or there are huge amounts of assets that would cover both parties needs post divorce. Arguing about who owns what at this stage seems a bit after the horse has bolted. Uneven salaries and contributions is common in relationships but why get married at all if that is an issue?

Dacquoise · 07/04/2021 17:52

And living together before marriage can be taken into consideration on divorce ie living together for years before marriage can be counted as whole length of marriage.

autumnalrain · 07/04/2021 17:55

If you split up before having kids then I think it’s only fair you get what you put in. If you go on to have kids then the negotiations will most likely start at 50:50

BusyLizzie61 · 07/04/2021 18:11

@D3lphine

Wasn't sure where to put this but as we are having relationship issues I thought maybe here would be okay.

DH put in around 80% of the deposit, obviously I then put in 20% of the deposit. In terms of paying the mortgage, there has always been a large discrepancy between my income and his. He was earning more than twice what I was. Then we made the decision for me to retrain and during the retraining process I took a huge pay cut and he is now bringing in more than 75% of the household earnings although my student finance has been reduced based on what his is income is. Once I've finished retraining, there will still be a huge discrepancy and because of the pay rises he has had over the years, he will still be earning close to 3x (if not more) more than me.

I'm guessing tenants in common is pretty reasonable rather than joint tenants but how would you split the shares in this scenario?

Well, if you hadn't married, 80% of the deposit for him and 75% of any accrued equity.

However, that sort of goes out of the window, as you're married and you cannot in the UK ring fence capital in this manner.

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 07/04/2021 19:29

@D3lphine

Sorry my OP wasn't very clear. We put down as joint tenants but he isn't happy with that because of the discrepancies in deposit contribution and the income. We bought before we got married. Not been married that long. I honestly don't know if we will be able to work things out. If we do work things out instead of divorcing I think he wants to change it to tenants in common with different shares. No joint DC, he has 1 from a previous relationship.

This would set off so many red flags for me. DH and I didn’t put in equally for our deposit but I genuinely can’t remember which one of us put in more. We just pooled our money and saw how much we had. We now have a joint account and pay our salaries into that. It’s used to pay all bills and then any left over is put into joint savings or disposable income. Both salaries are considered joint money even though I earn more.