money given as a gift

King_Nothing

ailuro2 wrote: »

In the same vein the money for the deposit is your mother's and she has a right to have it back eventually, doesn't she?

If it's a gift, no.

hannah29_2

she agreed on paper she would stay in the house until she died and we agreed that would happen, we were out of work for a period last year and kept up the mortgage payments even though we lost out on things ourselves.
we cannot re-mortgage if we are going to let it as there has to be a certain amount of equity in the house to have a buy to let, so we could not give her any money this way.
we do appreciate that the money she gave to us was to put towards buying a house for her to live in but it was also an investment for the future. she said the money would come to us anyway so we may as well have it now.
we have totally kept our side of the bargain and are happy to continue to do so.
i do not trust this man, within 2 days of meeting her he bought her a gold bracelet and watch for her birthday and also after a week of meeting he took her on a cruise and has been lavishing money on her left right and centre, this in itself may be nice for her but seems odd to me, we have had many exchanges of e mails about the house and its very obvious to me they have not been written by her due to the wording. according to her they looked at a newbuild house on saturday, the paperwork came through on the tuesday and they are moving out at the end of october. this seems a little quick to me for any house move even without a chain so am not sure whether its true.
we said if she wants to move out thats fine we will rent the house out to cover the mortgage payments and also if anything happens to him she also has a place to go back to. she has told me she would be fine if he died and would be able to stay in the house he bought.
i have a very uneasy feeling about this and thats another reason we dont wish to sell, she has no other family or friends to rely on if he turns out to be dodgy. they have on numerous occasions mentioned he is well off and has money in bank accounts in south africa where he comes from. if this is the case why would they appear to be so desperate to get her money from the house?
i think we are going to sit tight and not sell and see what happens.
in the short term we may fall out but in the long term she may turn out to be thankful
thanks for all the advice
hannah

NAR

hannah29 wrote: »

they have on numerous occasions mentioned he is well off and has money in bank accounts in south africa where he comes from. if this is the case why would they appear to be so desperate to get her money from the house?
hannah

Because AFAIK it is illegal to take money (over a certain limit) out of South Africa. That is why so many smuggle money out of South Africa via family etc.

DS4215

The timescales for the house are possible. We looked at a house in August, paid the deposit the next week and had moved in by the first week of September (a few years ago and it was a part-exchange deal).

peachyprice

hannah29 wrote: »

they have on numerous occasions mentioned he is well off and has money in bank accounts in south africa where he comes from. if this is the case why would they appear to be so desperate to get her money from the house?

Because the rands he has in South Africa are worth nothing here.
He may be telling her he has plenty if money over there, which he may well have, but 50k in Rands is only about £4K. He could be taking advantage of the fact that she has no knowledge of exchange rates.

hannah29_2

i can honestly say she wouldnt have a clue on exchange rates or where to find about them, interesting comment though and worth thinking about. thanks

peachyprice

It's definitley worth looking into. He may well be showing her bank accounts with lots of zero's, making her think that he has the money to pay her back if she can use the money from your house to buy this house with him. Is it something you can ask her about?

vaio

peachyprice wrote: »

Because the rands he has in South Africa are worth nothing here.
He may be telling her he has plenty if money over there, which he may well have, but 50k in Rands is only about £4K. He could be taking advantage of the fact that she has no knowledge of exchange rates.

That depends on how many Rand he has, R50k might be only £4k but R50m is worth £4m and whilst the OP's mother might have no idea about exchange rates you can be sure the people who sold him the gold, cruise and now a house do

>

vaio

hannah29 wrote: »

she agreed on paper she would stay in the house until she died and we agreed that would happen, we were out of work for a period last year and kept up the mortgage payments even though we lost out on things ourselves.
we cannot re-mortgage if we are going to let it as there has to be a certain amount of equity in the house to have a buy to let, so we could not give her any money this way.
we do appreciate that the money she gave to us was to put towards buying a house for her to live in but it was also an investment for the future. she said the money would come to us anyway so we may as well have it now.
we have totally kept our side of the bargain and are happy to continue to do so.
i do not trust this man, within 2 days of meeting her he bought her a gold bracelet and watch for her birthday and also after a week of meeting he took her on a cruise and has been lavishing money on her left right and centre, this in itself may be nice for her but seems odd to me, we have had many exchanges of e mails about the house and its very obvious to me they have not been written by her due to the wording. according to her they looked at a newbuild house on saturday, the paperwork came through on the tuesday and they are moving out at the end of october. this seems a little quick to me for any house move even without a chain so am not sure whether its true.
we said if she wants to move out thats fine we will rent the house out to cover the mortgage payments and also if anything happens to him she also has a place to go back to. she has told me she would be fine if he died and would be able to stay in the house he bought.
i have a very uneasy feeling about this and thats another reason we dont wish to sell, she has no other family or friends to rely on if he turns out to be dodgy. they have on numerous occasions mentioned he is well off and has money in bank accounts in south africa where he comes from. if this is the case why would they appear to be so desperate to get her money from the house?
i think we are going to sit tight and not sell and see what happens.
in the short term we may fall out but in the long term she may turn out to be thankful
thanks for all the advice
hannah

I wouldn’t read too much into the emails etc, rich people get rich by making sure they have all their money under their control & working and if he sees his new woman has a under performing investment then it’s entirely reasonable that he wants the money out to put into something better.

I suppose it depends on how your mother sees the money, gift, loan or investment but in any event as you can pay the mortgage without any rent from your mother then surely if you rent it out on the open market then you can use that extra money to finance a bigger mortgage or loan and pay her back some or all of what she put in in the first place.

I’d say the important thing is not to fall out. The status of the money (loan, gift etc) is arguable and, if as you say he has money to burn, then he could well burn some of it fighting her side and this sort of case could well hinge on who has the best (aka most expensive) lawyers. Is that sort of battle something you could afford to lose or even take part in?

Finally, I’m just a non-empathetic bloke (so could well be wrong) but when I read your OP the first thought that came into my mind was “ahh, daughter not happy that mother has new man” so that’s maybe something else to think about.

peachyprice

vaio wrote: »

That depends on how many Rand he has, R50k might be only £4k but R50m is worth £4m and whilst the OP's mother might have no idea about exchange rates you can be sure the people who sold him the gold, cruise and now a house do

>

Which brings us right back to the question, if he is that wealthy why are they so desparate for the money from the house?

People with money generally don't want to be tied financially with those who don't, it leaves them wide open when things go wrong.