Tenants in common

michsmit

My girlfriend and I are buying a house as tenants in common, I will own 75% and she will own 25%. Is it worth getting the solicitors to draw up a contract that will state what will happen if we split up? The alternative is we draw up a document together and both sign it, just saying that either we will sell and split profits/losses or one owner will buy the other out.

lilybugs

You can have your solicitor draw up a Declaration of Trust.

My situation was slightly different as I owned a property 50/50 with my partner at the time. It came in very handy when we split up and had to sell the property. The reason we did it was that we put in very different amounts for the deposit (£5k from me and £30k from him). The Declaration of Trust stated that three things would happen if we were to sell the house.

In this order:
1st - He would get his £30k back
2nd - I would get my £5k back
3rd - Anything left was split 50/50

This actually worked in my favour as he got the document drawn up but then changes his mind when we split and wanted six times a much as me from the profit, as he'd put in six times as much as a deposit. He didn't get it.

goldbyron

I would definitely advise you to get a legal document drawn up by a solicitor.

Unfortunately I split up with my ex 2 years ago and had to involve solicitors and large sums of money to get an agreement to sell the house. It was very nasty and nearly went to court. I did put more deposit in initially however I didn't try to recoup this just merely wanted the house sold so we could move on. We are only approaching exchange of contracts now (with any luck).

Of course before 2 years ago I wouldn't have dreamt this would happen, but hey life is full of surprises.

In the future I will always get a contract drawn up by a solicitor that states what will happen in the event of a relationship breaking down. That way there can be no disagreements and bitter feuds.