trust deed issue

rthornton01

Hi all,

Two years ago me and my now ex partner bought a house for £105500 we have recently split and thats where the story begins

First of all i moved back in with my parents and we talked about selling the house,a couple of points first though

the house is in my name only
she put 15k down as a deposit

so i have a 90k mortgage outstanding,basically the house is worth 95k which she wasnt happy with so we agreed she would live in the house with a lodger for a year or so untill it recovered enough (hopefully) to get her money back then sell.

I was going to rent a house in the mean time.

Now weeks later as im close to signing for a house she decides shes moving out and said shes accepted shes lost the money she put down and has signed for a rental house.

So i will be moving back in and keeping the property untill i decide to sell,the issue comes because we had a trust deed drawn up that she would get 15k back when i sold the house.

I wanted to sell it weeks ago,or at least put it on the market but she wasnt happy with that.we made an agreement and now she has broken that too.I want to know where i stand on the giving her 15k back when i sell if she is choosing to leave now while there is only 5k or less equity in the house?

Do i ask for the trust deed to be cancelled? has she every right to the money back when she wont be paying the mortgage for 2 to 3 years possibly? Or can it be agreed that the 5k thats there now i will give her when i sell and the rest is mine?

I dont want to sound greedy or selfish but why should i be paying for her to get her money back when i was happy to rent elsewhere to start with?

many thanks!:)

rthornton01

I now realise i must move back in either way as its my sole name on the mortgage and i am technically renting it out to me ex partner and her lodger which surely invalidates the insurance and the mortgage?

poppy_f1

speak to a lawyer
if she agrees i dont see why the trust deed couldnt be ripped up

G_M

Who paid the bills while you were both there? Shared?

Legalities aside, it seems to me she put something in (£15K) so should get something out. If the property value has dropped, you both should take a hit so she shouldn't expect the full £15K, but you could agree a suitable %.

Reason I started by asking about bills is that if one of you took responsibility for all the bills that would be another complicating factor.

As for legalities, if the deed states she will get £15K when the property is sold, then, sorry, she's legally entitled to £15K when it's sold! Whenever that is.

Sounds like you were poorly advised in drawing up the deed. Hopefully however, you are still amicable, and can agree a compromise.

Richard_Webster

This is one problem with trust deeds. I get clients wanting something nice and simple and not wanting to pay much for it. They don't think through possible future scenarios and how a trust deed would then apply.

It is ever so important to think this all through properly and to agree about household expenses and mortgage payments and how they will affect entitlement to a share. We can get the line taken by one of the parties: "Yes I know we agreed it would be a 60/40 split but you owe me £ZZZZ in respect of mortgage payments I made that you should have made...." It can just lead to another argument - and "I didn't realise it meant THAT...."